Qualitative Health Research (Journal)

The journal Qualitative Health Research (QHR) was established to provide a forum for exploring the experience of patients, caregivers, and families in illness and health; for caregiving; and for the administration of health care. Introduced as a quarterly journal by Sage Publications in 1991, Qualitative Health Research was the first journal specializing in qualitative inquiry for health professionals. As of 2008, it has been published 10 times a year as a full-sized, two-column journal of 1,500 pages per volume.

The journal's mission is both to contribute to the enhancement of health care and to further the development and understanding of qualitative research methods as they contribute to clinical practice and to the education of health professionals. To achieve this goal, in addition to publishing unsolicited research articles, QHR is organized into several special, but peer reviewed, sections: Pearls, Piths, and Provocation; Computer Monitor; Teaching Matters; and Knowledge Utilization. The journal also contains solicited keynote addresses from the Qualitative Health Research and Advances in Qualitative Methods annual conferences and book reviews. “End Notes” is space for short, solicited and unsolicited commentaries, and each issue has an editorial.

In every second issue, a special topic is addressed. Recent topics include relationships in health care (Vol. 15, No. 6), narratives and discourse (Vol. 15, No. 7), perspectives on qualitative evidence (Vol. 16, No. 3), family care (Vol. 16, No. 5), and identity issues (Vol. 17, No. 2).

One interesting issue was Qualitative Proposals (Vol. 13, No 6), which included examples of proposals by Tony Kuzel and information on submitting a small grant by Janice Penrod, resubmitting and responding to reviewers by Margarete Sandelowski and Julie Barroso, and criteria for committee evaluations of proposals by Janice Morse.

QHR ranks as one of Sage Publications' 10 top journals (of approximately 350). Its 2005 ranking on the Thomson Scientific (formerly ISI) journal list was 23 of 39 Health Policy and Services journal listings, with an impact factor of 0.938. QHR is indexed in the major social science and heath indexes, including Academic Search–EBSCO, Applied Social [Page 703]Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA), CINAHL database (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Current Contents: Social & Behavioral Sciences, MEDLINE, Psychological Abstracts, PsycLIT, and Sociological Abstracts.