Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) welcomes submissions for its upcoming collection, “Public Health and Medicine: Combating Racism Through Research, Training, Practice, and Public Health Policies.” In April 2021, CDC declared racism as a public health threat, identifying it as one of the fundamental drivers of health inequities. A plethora of US cities and counties have similarly declared racism as a public health issue. The American Medical Association recognizes that racism, in its systemic, cultural, interpersonal, and other forms, is a serious threat to public health, the advancement of health equity, and a barrier to appropriate medical care.
Over the past decades, there has been a need to expand research and implement multicomponent ways to ameliorate the persistence of racial inequities beyond traditionally explored socioeconomic factors. Race is primarily a social construct, based on nationality, ethnicity, or other markers of social difference. Racism differs from race in that it operates as an organized system in which one racial group uses its power to devalue, disempower, and deprive other groups they deem inferior of valued societal resources and opportunities. Racism, in various forms, occurs in different settings (eg, health care systems, labor, criminal justice, education, housing, communities). Racism is detrimental to health, a root cause of health inequalities, and a major source of stress across the lifespan. It has created and sustained reciprocal factors that contribute to health inequities, and it remains a worldwide public health challenge requiring open discussion. PCD is interested in publishing peer-reviewed papers offering insights into the roles of public health, medicine, and policy to combat all forms of racism through research, training, practice, and public health policies.
For this collection, PCD encourages the submission of manuscripts covering any topic related to racism or public health inequities. Please refer to the Types of Articles page on PCD’s website for specifications of each article type. Examples of topics include but are not limited to the following:
- Racism and disease risk among diverse populations and patients
- Physical and mental effects of racism on health
- The link between sustainable development goals and structural systemic forces related to racism
- Multiple pathways of racial residential segregation and their effect on racial health disparities
- Methodologic approaches to measuring racism across the lifespan
- Data sources (existing and proposed) to explore all forms of racism
- Analytic measurement challenges to understanding and mediating effects that contribute to observed patterns of racism over time at multiple levels of analysis
- Protective factors against racism across the lifespan
- The impact of internalized racism on health: how to measure it beyond the individual level to the cumulative impact of individual, cultural, and structural forms of racism
- Patients and/or community members talking about their experiences with racism and suggestions on how to change and improve collaborations and partnerships
- The differential effects of institutional racism on policies, practices, and laws and how they affect members of certain racial groups and those groups as a whole
- Institutional, organizational, or community policies and changes implemented to address institutional and/or systemic racism
- Examples of how public health, medicine, and public policy simultaneously collaborate to combat racism
- Exploration of the impact of racism on communities and the role of advocacy as part of the solution
- Local and state health departments working collaboratively with diverse communities to address all forms of racism
- The art and science of developing, implementing, and evaluating public health communication campaigns that consider aspects of setting, life experiences, and organizational change to address anti-racism structures
- Use of community-based participatory research to facilitate actions, awareness, and improvements outside of academia and into the community
- Interventions (beyond competency training) that impact health care providers and lead to improvement in patient outcomes
- Systematic racism and its impact on maternal health
- Systematic racism, chronic disease inequities, and COVID-19
- Impact of racism and racial discrimination on psychological, mental, and emotional health
- The identification of clearly enumerated competencies to build anti-racism awareness and capacity among health professionals
- Anti-racism, pedagogy, public health education, and/or medical education
- Reliable tools and resources used to develop training curricula, training academies, and other learning opportunities that address racism
- Evaluation approaches to assess effectiveness of training to build competencies and identify what has changed because of the training
Submission Guidelines
Although not required, corresponding authors are strongly encouraged to submit an inquiry to the journal in advance of submitting a manuscript to determine suitability. PCD asks that only the corresponding author submit an inquiry to the journal for review. The corresponding author is the person who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the submission, peer-review, and publication process if the paper is accepted. The corresponding author’s inquiry should include the following information:
- Article title
- Name of the corresponding author
- Author name(s), degree(s), title(s), and affiliation(s)
- PCD article type (visit https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/for_authors/types_of_articles.htm)
- Has the article ever been submitted elsewhere for consideration? If yes, please indicate the name of the journal, the date of the final decision, and an explanation of the decision
- Indicate that the inquiry is related to this Call for Papers
- Abstract (300 words or less)
Submit inquiries to the Editor in Chief at PCDeditor@cdc.gov for consideration. PCD will provide feedback to the corresponding author about the journal’s interest in the proposed manuscript and guidance on what information is needed. The deadline to receive inquiries is April 30, 2022. If your inquiry is accepted, the deadline to receive your final manuscript is October 31, 2022.If accepted, your manuscript will be reviewed and published on a rolling basis. Articles will be assembled into a PDF collection accessible on the PCD website after all accepted papers have been published. Cover letters to the Editor in Chief are required and must state that the submission is for consideration in the PCD collection, Public Health and Medicine: Combating Racism Through Research, Training, Practice, and Public Health Policies.
About the Journal
PCD is a peer-reviewed public health journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and authored by experts worldwide. PCD was established in 2004 by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion with a mission to promote dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and policy makers worldwide on the integration and application of research findings and practical experience to improve population health. For more information about the journal, please visit https://www.cdc.gov/pcd.