Call for papers, March 2020 special issue - Deadline for submission: 21-10-2019

Public Health Panorama: Arts and Health

Public Health Panorama is calling for the submission of papers for a special issue on "Arts and Health in the European Region", which will be published in March 2020.

Background

In recent years, a number of academic researchers, activists, practitioners, community groups and policy-makers have contributed to a growing evidence base demonstrating how the arts can improve health and well-being in an impactful, safe and cost-effective manner. This has resulted in an increase in the number of publications, research centres, conferences and networks all directly focused on arts and health research, as well as funding for such topics.

In parallel with these research-based developments, there has also been an increase in arts and health interventions in clinical and public health practice. Several countries in the WHO European Region are now running arts in hospital programmes and in some instances, arts on prescription policies have been developed, which link community arts programmes with primary care services.

This issue of Public Health Panorama is connected to the WHO Regional Office for Europe’s cultural contexts of health and well-being (CCH) project, which aims to systematically explore the ways in which culture affects health, including looking into practical ways that arts and culture can be used to improve health.

Call for papers

The arts and health issue of Panorama will aim to showcase:

  • leading examples of arts in health research and clinical practice programmes, interventions, and evaluations;
  • case studies where health policy-makers have implemented arts in health policies;
  • examples of good-practice in arts and health at a country, regional or local level.

The innovative and effective examples featured in this issue will add to the growing evidence base in this field, helping to inform policy-makers on how the arts can help to address key health and well-being challenges in the WHO European Region.

Public Health Panorama invites a broad range of papers, from those related to health and well-being impact, cost effectiveness and evaluation methodologies, to any other aspect relevant to arts and health interventions. Furthermore, any kind of health issue can be addressed (for example from mental health and neurodegenerative disease to palliative care, etc.) and the social impact of arts-based interventions may also be examined alongside health outcomes. Case studies are invited on any scale, from large national interventions, to local government initiatives or hospital pilot studies. All submissions should be based in, or be relevant to, the WHO European Region and be able to demonstrate policy relevance, particularly in relation to global frameworks, such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, or WHO’s Thirteenth General Programme of Work. Where possible, submissions should also draw on mixed methods and/or multi- and interdisciplinary approaches from the health-related humanities and social sciences.

For the purpose of this issue, the arts are broadly categorized as:

  • performing arts (e.g. music, dance, theatre, singing, film, etc.);
  • visual arts, design and crafts (e.g. painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, etc.);
  • literature (e.g. writing, reading, attending literary festivals, etc.);
  • culture (e.g. going to museums, galleries, art exhibitions, concerts, the theatre, community events, cultural festivals, fairs, etc.).
  • online, digital and electronic arts (e.g. animations, digital painting, electronic music, etc.)

Guidelines for submitting papers

Public Health Panorama invites papers that showcase examples from or relevant to the WHO European Region, intended for policy-makers, planners, researchers, public health specialists, clinicians, educators, civil society and other interest groups. Papers in the form of original research, reviews, project reports, policy analysis and case studies are welcome.

We welcome papers that document experience and lessons learned in low-resource and transitional economies. Manuscripts may be submitted in either English or Russian, and accepted papers will be published in both languages. All submissions will be peer reviewed.

The deadline for submission is 21 October 2019. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the guidelines for authors and contributors. All submissions should be sent to eupanorama@who.int and consist of the manuscript, the duly filled in and signed cover letter template mentioning this call for papers, and a signed licence agreement.

For further queries, please contact eupanorama@who.int .