By: Abby Cloud and Kaitlyn Connell

Last month, Dr. Rachel L. Bailey, along with Kyeongwon Kwon, Christopher Garcia, and Pei Wang—three doctoral students in the School of Communication—had a manuscript accepted by Appetite, an international peer-reviewed research journal specializing in human and animal intake of foods and drinks.

The accepted manuscript, “Fast Food Menu Calorie Labeling Contexts as Complex Contributing Factors to Overeating,” includes research on the effectiveness of menu calorie labeling in terms of people selecting lower calorie food items. The authors focused on visual cues and how they might help further reduce the caloric intake of folks dining at locations offering menu calorie labeling.

According to Appetite’s publisher, Elsevier, submitted articles are published at a 30% acceptance rate, making this feat a great stride for the students and their professor.

“I have benefited directly from research collaboration with professors,” said Kwon. “Recent collaboration work with Dr. Bailey motivated me to escape my academic comfort zone and expand the breadth of my research. Also, I have gained a new perspective from her expertise!”

As these doctoral students continue their studies, they have the opportunity to participate in ongoing research within the field with adept faculty members.

“By brainstorming ideas and sharing knowledge, the collaboration with my peers kept me engaged and passionate about research,” said Kwon. “More importantly, it has accelerated productivity and the quality of research, which is important for Ph.D. students!”