Reply to each post

Post 1 – Katrina 

Requirements to submit research to a professional journal:

First and foremost, there should Have original research work of current interest, then identify a topic or journal with aims & scope familiar to the research project (Aabahishti, 2021). Next is having the information of the authors of the journals that have been selected for the research, then having the articles organized, the gathered data, the original proposal, and other materials related to the subject of the article (Tappen, 2016). Then writing the manuscript and proofreading, it is vital to have it peer-reviewed, re-checked, and then submit it (Tappen, 2016).

Obstacles:

Some of the obstacles that can be encountered is not having enough time to finish the research project. Writer’s block is the most common cause of inability to meet deadlines. Fear of being rejected is also a challenge that writers may encounter, which causes them to overthink and delay the project. Another obstacle is when the manuscript is weakly written, and poorly designed research are the primary reason manuscripts are not accepted (Tappen, 2016).

Post 2 – Juan 

To submit research to a professional journal, the initial step is to select a target journal and research the authors to ensure that your research is applicable and fits formatting or other requirements. From here, the article should be prepared with proper formatting that includes the introduction, statement of relevance, literature review, methods, results, and discussion with a completed outline that highlights the key points of each section (Tappen, 2016). In addition, there must be another peer who can review the journal for critique and then submit it to the journal with a cover letter. As the article is being reviewed, there may be revisions requested that must be completed. Lastly, the article may be accepted or denied based on certain criteria which should be looked over to determine the reasons (Tappen, 2016).

Based on this whole process, the biggest obstacle seems to be the preparation and constant upkeep of managing the article while it is in the review process. Even if the research study was completed, there is still much more work to be done to refine the article and ensure that it meets guidelines. Considering that specific studies need a methodology laid out in a certain format, it is important that researchers are aware of what journals want to ensure that the work done to prepare it all is done concisely.

Post 3- Joseph 

The article appears to be quantitative in nature. The study design is likely a cohort or longitudinal design, as it follows a group of children from grades 1 through 6 and assesses the impact of maternal smoking on childhood overweight over time. The research question is to examine associations between maternal smoking and overweight among school-aged children, and to identify mothers and offspring characteristics that affect children’s weight. The strengths of the study are the longitudinal design where the study follows children over a period of time, allowing for the examination of the relationship between maternal smoking and childhood overweight during different grades. The use of generalized estimating equations allows for the analysis of repeated measurements over time, accounting for potential within-subject correlations. The limitations of the study are the self-reported smoking patterns of mothers are assessed based on self-reporting, which may be subject to recall bias or underreporting. The study relies on Body Mass Index (BMI) as a measure of childhood overweight, which has limitations in capturing body composition and may not fully account for variations in muscle mass or distribution of body fat. While the study accounts for some maternal and offspring characteristics, there may be additional confounding variables that were not included in the analysis. The study’s findings can provide important insights into the association between maternal smoking and childhood overweight among school-aged children. Factors such as geographic location, cultural diversity, and socioeconomic variations may influence the applicability of the findings to other populations. Therefore, caution should be exercised when generalizing the results to broader populations without further validation and replication studies.

Post #4 – Brian 

In the article on smoking during the prenatal period and a potential link to childhood obesity the study was structured in a quantitative manner. This is because researchers used defined standards of numerical measurements to determine multiple factors such as the rate of mothers who smoked preterm, the average birthweight of their children, age, etc. These data forms are numerical; therefore, the study was based on a quantitative research method.

             The design of this research study is quantitative with a longitudinal structure as it follows mothers and newborns over a specified period of time to investigate correlation. The question of interest in this study is whether there is an association between maternal tobacco use at least one year before birth and the development of obesity or overweight in school-aged children. Some of the study’s strengths include the longitudinal design which provides more accurate information, a large study sample, the identification of risk factors, and the use of quantitative estimating equations. Limitations include the potential for recall bias or inaccurate self-reporting, difficulty establishing direct correlation, reliance on a secondary data source, and a possibly low level of external validity.

             The study may have some issues when attempting to generalize the results with the average population. For instance, the patient data was obtained from a single database which may not be representative of other patient socio-economic groups. The patients who were studied were from the United States which may not be representative of patients from other countries. These factors may or may not significantly impact the generalizability of this study when comparing to the general population.