Human science research in public health: the contribution and assessment of a qualitative approach.

At the Board of Directors (BOD) meeting in Ottawa in October 1999, the Editorial Board of the Canadian Journal of Public Health discussed the increasing acceptance of qualitative research as a valid methodology that contributes valuable information to the health field. The BOD recommended that the Editorial Board look into a process for considering qualitative research articles for peer review. After discussion with experts in the field and gathering of samples of peer-review guidelines used by other publishers, the Editorial Board prepared and approved guidelines for the review of qualitative research articles by the Canadian Journal of Public Health, and these are included here in both English and French for the benefit of would-be contributors. Following the guidelines is an article written by Dr. Marcia Hills that describes the contribution that human science research and qualitative methods make to public health, sets the stage for the inclusion of more qualitative studies in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, and establishes the context for the criteria suggested for assessing the quality of articles submitted that use qualitative approaches.