Hispanic Health Care International: Meeting the Needs of Our Readers

Abstract

Hispanic Health Care International (HHCI) is the official journal of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN). HHCI is a peer-reviewed journal that serves as an interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of information for clinical practice, education, research, and policy on issues concerning Hispanic/Latino populations around the globe. In addition to our commitment to the Hispanic/Latino population, we are committed to doing our best to meet the needs of our reading audience. With this commitment in mind, this editorial reports on the journal’s accomplishments and new features over the past year. During 2019, HHCI saw growth in circulation (i.e., subscriptions). In addition, there was an increase in online usage with full-text downloads up by 16%. The journal enhanced its productivity and number of article submissions during 2019. HHCI is proud to report an efficient full peer-review process: average time to first decision within 1 month of manuscript submission and an average time to final decision within 3 months. HHCI is taking steps to provide its authors with strategies to enhance visibility of their published articles. HHCI now features visual abstracts, which authors can use to share their work on social media platforms. HHCI, via its publisher Sage, partners with Kudos, a service that provides authors with tools to enhance visibility and impact of their work. In direct response to feedback from the readers and subscribers, HHCI began two new series of articles in 2019. In response to a “call to action” to strengthen the mental health workforce (National Council for Behavioral Health, 2018), HHCI began publishing a series of brief reports focused on mental health topics. In particular, these reports serve to raise awareness among health care providers, educators, researchers, and policy makers about the important issues surrounding the mental health needs of the Hispanic/ Latino population. The series began in the September issue with an article focused on an understudied, and sometimes ignored, problem: Hispanics and suicide. In this December issue, the negative impact of discriminating policies on the mental health of Hispanics is discussed. To address a request by our readers for more resources that can be used to enhance scholarly productivity, HHCI will publish a series of articles focused on scholarship. In this December issue, you will find the first article in the series, which gives “tips” for reviewing the literature and writing literature reviews. Dr. Norma Cuellar, NAHN President, and Editor of the Journal of Transcultural Nursing (https://journals.sagepub. com/home/tcn), authored the article, and I encourage you to read it and share it with your colleagues, as it provides many pearls of helpful information. Future articles in the series will focus on topics such as grant writing, giving professional presentations, and preparing abstracts. The goal of these articles is to provide readers with practical tips, useful resources, and opportunities for mentoring. If you have suggestions for articles or topics for this series, please contact the HHCI editor. As 2019 comes to an end, I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the journal’s readers, peer reviewers, authors, and dedicated editorial board members for sharing their their time and expertise with HHCI. In addition, the journal is grateful for the support of NAHN, First Point Resources, and the HHCI team at Sage Publications. Without all of you, there would be no HHCI journal. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2020!