New Online Journal Focuses on Health Education


California State University, Chico’s Department of Health and Community Services is launching an online quarterly journal next month geared to assisting health practitioners.

The new scholarly journal is called the “Californian Journal of Health Promotion.” The first issue will posted on the journal’s Web site– http://www.cjhp.org–on March 1.

Articles are currently being solicited for the journal’s second issue, which has the theme “Mexican American Health and Mexican American Health Education in California.”

The journal will focus on health education and health promotion practice, teaching, research and issues of interest to practitioners in California and the surrounding Western states.

The journal has distinctive features other than being located online. Editor Mark Tomita, CSU, Chico professor in health and community services, said it will differ from other health education and promotion journals by being local, rather than national or international, in scope. The journal will also be unusual by publishing multimedia presentations, along with traditional manuscripts, to take advantage of Internet technologies.

In addition, the journal will be free to users. Most journals charge subscription fees or require membership in a professional association, Tomita said.

Many of the articles in the new journal would be coming from health practitioners “in the field,” Tomita said, as opposed to coming exclusively from professors and researchers. Like other scholarly journals, though, submissions will be peer-reviewed by the editorial board, Tomita said.

Assisting with the journal will be 19 associate editors and 16 assistant editors, including CSU, Chico faculty members Becky Damazo, Lyndall Ellingson, Diana Flannery, Pamela Johansen, Paul Lopez and Steve Shive.

Tomita said the journal is needed to promote continual education among health practitioners. “They can benefit from getting most current information, and see what models are working in other counties, and then they can try them,” he said.

For more information on the Californian Journal of Health Promotion, contact Tomita at 530-898-4417.

Media CONTACT: Joe Wills, 530-898-4143