Journal of Public Health Student Capstones is Now Accepting Submissions

The Journal of Public Health Student Capstones – a faculty/practitioner-reviewed journal that is dedicated to publishing scholarly work by students as part of their fieldwork and capstone experiences in public health – is now accepting submissions from graduate and undergraduate students. The journal’s inaugural issue will first be published in the summer of 2020 and will be published quarterly thereafter.

The goal of the Journal of Public Health Student Capstones, led by the Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences, is to encourage current public health students with their future capstone projects, help advance the careers of those with accepted manuscripts, as well as help inform current public health professionals of the type of work students and up-and-coming public health professionals are working on.

Miller School of Medicine’s Alberto Caban-Martinez, D.O., M.P.H., Ph.D., assistant professor, and Viviana Horigian, M.D., M.H.A, associate professor, both at the Department of Public Health Sciences, will serve as co-editors of the journal, and Hannah Kling, M.P.H., a Ph.D. in Prevention Science and Community Health candidate in the department, will serve as managing editor.

The journal began as a project, led by Dr. Caban-Martinez and Dr. Horigian, which was funded with support from the Leslie and Loretta Copeland Foundation.

“Everyone who does a master’s degree in public health, and even at the bachelor’s level, have to complete a field experience and capstone project. It’s good to now have a virtual space to document this great work that students do,” Dr. Caban-Martinez said.

“We are very excited about launching the journal. This is the first journal to publish student capstones and we have a lot of students who are interested in submitting. We have lined associate editors from other universities through the connections with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health.” Dr. Horigian added.

Along with Dr. Caban-Martinez and Dr. Horigian, Susan Altfeld, Ph.D., associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, and Angela Beck, Ph.D., M.P.H., a clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, will serve as associate editors.   

The journal will offer a virtual home to critically review and publish an electronic peer review tracking system, also known as Open Journal Systems, that will be accessible to authors, reviewers, editors, and staff.

Currently, Dr. Caban-Martinez, Dr. Horigian, and the team are recruiting editors and are increasing their pool of manuscript reviewers. They will also send out promotional packages to departments of public health, encouraging faculty or capstone advisors about the opportunities for publication for their students.

For more information, visit www.JPHSC.org.