The Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law invites submissions of papers for a special issue on public health law research (PHLR) planned for early 2013. The journal will accept five to seven papers to run in this issue after undergoing peer review.
Eligible Papers
Papers must address a topic in public health law—defined as the relation of law and legal practices to population health—and fit one or more of the following descriptions:
(1) Empirical research report: Manuscripts in this category report empirical, scientific studies of the relation of law and legal practices to population health. The focus of these studies may be direct relationships between law and population health and/or relationships mediated through the effects of law on health behaviors and other processes and structures that affect population health. More specifically, studies could take any of the following forms:
- studies of lawmaking processes that identify factors influencing the likelihood that public health laws will be adopted, the nature of laws adopted, and the process through which they are adopted;
- implementation studies that examine how and to what extent “law on the books” is implemented and enforced through legal practices;
- interventional studies that assess the effect of a law, regulation, or other legal intervention on population health outcomes or on mediating factors that influence health outcomes; or
- mechanism studies that examine specific mechanisms through which law affects environments, behaviors, or population health outcomes.
(2) Systematic review: Manuscripts in this category systematically review empirical studies on the relationship of a particular law, area of law, or set of legal practices on population health and draw conclusions about the strength of the available evidence concerning the relationship. The review should be systematic, that is, follow an explicit protocol for identification and analysis of studies, which is described in the manuscript.
(3) Methods paper: Manuscripts in this category focus on how particular methods of empirical investigation can be used to study public health law questions and advance the rigor of PHLR as a field. The editors are particularly interested in novel applications of well-established methods from disciplines other than law (such as economics, epidemiology, psychology, sociology, and anthropology) and in innovative mixed-methods approaches. In addition to demonstrating the value of a particular method, manuscripts in this category may analyze shortcomings commonly present in existing examples of PHLR.
(4) Agenda-setting paper: Manuscripts in this category focus on a particular topic in public health law and articulate an agenda for research and lawmaking. Holes or weaknesses in the current evidence base concerning the relationship between law and health; missed opportunities in PHLR and public health lawmaking; and suggestions for specific steps that can be taken to bridge identified gaps should be addressed.
With the exception of methods papers, manuscripts should address the institutional issues the findings raise for public health lawmaking (i.e., the effects that the findings may have on the politics and political process of enacting public health laws). Among the questions that could be addressed are: How might the findings inform this political process? What would facilitate the enactment of evidence-based public health laws? What barriers exist to the adoption of such laws? For example, if the research found that a widely pursued avenue of legal reform was ineffective, the paper might discuss how this finding could reshape the political debate about public health law strategies.
The target audiences for these papers include academic researchers; public health policy makers at the local, state, and federal levels; and public health legal practitioners. Papers should be written so as to be accessible to all of these audiences.
Submission Guidelines
Authors may submit abstracts for early feedback by email to Allison Stinson, assistant editor at JHPPL, atjhppl@ssa.uchicago.edu. JHPPL will follow up with authors by December 15. JHPPL will respond to abstracts by either encouraging submission or notifying authors the topic is not a good fit. Encouragement does not guarantee acceptance in this special issue.
If authors choose not to submit abstracts for early consideration, they may submit full manuscripts through JHPPL’s usual process by March 15, 2012.
Additional submission instructions are available here. Submissions must be complete paper drafts and must not exceed 5,000 words exclusive of tables, references, and notes.
Submission Deadline
Manuscripts must be submitted by March 15, 2012.