Public Health Impacts of Exposure to Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Substances Content on Social Media

Dear Colleagues,

We are calling for papers for a Special Issue titled “Public Health Impacts of Exposure to Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Substances Content on Social Media” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Harmful products, like tobacco, e-cigarettes, alcohol, and other substances, are increasingly promoted and portrayed on social media platforms. In doing so, not only are industries subverting many existing legislations that ban the advertising of these products in a number of countries, but they are also largely targeting vulnerable populations, including children and adolescents, exposed to this contents on social media. 

This Special Issue will explore how industries, like the tobacco industry, promote their products online, and will aim to better understand the strategies that are employed. It will also explore how tobacco, e-cigarettes, alcohol, and other substances are portrayed online, and the implications of how this content may have an impact on the populations exposed to it. The Special Issue will also examine possible regulation models to limit exposure to this form of marketing and influence. Opportunities to use social media to develop innovative interventions and to advance public health measures that aim to control harmful products, and the impact of commercial interests are also discussed, and future research possibilities will be proposed

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Studies involving quantitative or qualitative approaches to exploring social media influences on attitudes and behaviors related to tobacco, e-cigarettes, alcohol, and other substance use in the populations exposed.
• Promotions and intervention (especially prevention and policy) studies incorporating social media so as to reduce the potential harm of online exposure to substance use content.

We would like to invite papers related to these topics for this Special Issue, which we hope will discuss the public health implications of the increasing tobacco, alcohol, and other substances related content on social media.

Dr. Janni Leung
Dr. Gary Chan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.