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About This Journal

The Appalachian Student Healthcare Research Review (ASHRR) is a peer-reviewed academic research journal based at Marshall University. ASHRR has a threefold aim: 

  • To highlight student healthcare research with a patient population comprised primarily or exclusively of residents of the Appalachian region. 
  • To provide a publication avenue for undergraduate, graduate, and professional student research that contributes to the scientific literature about Appalachian healthcare and the practice of allied health professions within Appalachia. 
  • To highlight healthcare research completed by students at Appalachian universities.

Appalachia is defined by the Appalachian Regional Commission as follows: “Appalachia is made up of 423 counties across 13 states and spans 206,000 square miles, from southern New York to northern Mississippi. The Region’s 26.3 million residents live in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, and all of West Virginia.

The Region also comprises three federally recognized and five state recognized Native American Tribal Communities, with Tribal entities in Appalachian Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, New York, and North Carolina.”[1]

As a West Virginia-based institution near the center of the Appalachian region, Marshall University is uniquely suited and privileged to house ASHRR. We welcome submissions from students whose institution lies within any Appalachian state, and we are particularly interested in studies with Appalachian patient populations. Additionally, we welcome epidemiological and public health studies investigating the prevalence, prevention, and/or rehabilitation of a medical condition within the Appalachian region. 

Relevant Submissions

ASHRR publishes scholarly work completed by undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. This work must meet at least ONE of the following criteria: 

  • The original work was completed as part of an undergraduate, graduate or professional course of study in a healthcare field at a university within the Appalachian region. 
  • The original work studies the Appalachian patient population. This criterion may be met in multiple ways, including (but not limited to):
    • Research participant recruitment from within the Appalachian region;
    • Subject recruitment from the student body of Appalachian universities;
    • Epidemiological research of trends within the Appalachian healthcare system; or 
    • Meta-analysis and systematic review of research conducted within Appalachia. 
  • The original work contributes to the scientific literature about the practice of healthcare within Appalachia. This criterion may be met in multiple ways, including (but not limited to):
    • Research investigating inequities in medical care within the Appalachian region; 
    • Research investigating the practice or provision of healthcare in Appalachia;
    • Research investigating the prevalence of a healthcare issue within the Appalachian region; or
    • Research whose path of scientific inquiry was chosen because of its uniquely high prevalence within the Appalachian region. 

Additionally, work submitted to ASHRR must meet ALL of the following criteria: 

  • The work is original and does not contain plagiarism or written analysis created by generative AI. 
  • The work conforms to APA citation style. 
  • The work follows the scientific method and contributes to the scientific literature; a journalism/reportage approach is not appropriate for full articles. 
  • The work must be completed under a faculty advisor and must have already undergone substantial editing to prepare the manuscript for publication. The ASHRR review process is designed to review submitted research for academic rigor and for relevance to the Appalachian region. Line editing will not be provided during the review process, aside from minor typographical errors discovered prior to publishing. ASHRR reserves the right to reject or return submitted work that does not meet high grammatical standards. Students must work with a faculty advisor to ensure that work submitted meets a high standard of scholarly rigor. Authors are responsible for providing manuscripts that are clearly written and contain correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

For quantitative works, the submitted manuscript must provide:

  • A clearly written introduction section (including the tested hypothesis);
  • A methods section (providing a description of participant demographics, participant inclusion and exclusion criteria, and all research protocols and procedures);
  • A statement that the project was approved by an Institutional Review Board and that all participants provided written informed consent to participate in the research (when applicable);
  • A results section providing numerical point estimate means and estimates of variation, and statistical probability;
  • A discussion section that provides a discussion of the limitations of the research; and 
  • A clearly stated conclusion.  

For qualitative works, the submitted manuscript must provide: 

  • A clearly written introduction section; 
  • A methods section; 
  • A statement that the project was approved by an Institutional Review Board, if applicable; 
  • A results section containing a narrative describing the qualities or results of the methodological approach; 
  • A discussion section that articulates the value or meaning of the findings as they relate to the topic of the research, and that discusses the limitations of the research; and
  • A clearly stated conclusion. 

ASHRR is open to submissions of multiple genres of academic writing. These include:

  • Quantitative research experiments;
  • Survey research;
  • Qualitative research;
  • Research briefs;
  • Case studies;
  • Research investigating healthcare access within Appalachia; and
  • Research investigating the practice of healthcare within Appalachia. 

Please contact the editing team if you have any questions about whether your work is appropriate for submission to ASHRR.

The above is a broad overview of the requirements for publication in ASHRR. Please see “Manuscript Preparation Guidelines” for the full list of submission criteria and citation guidelines.