The Role of Human Concepts in Environmental and Public Health

Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on the role of human concepts in environmental and public health. The venue is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that publishes articles and communications in the interdisciplinary area of environmental health sciences and public health. For detailed information about the journal, we refer you to https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph.

Humans are at the center of many current topics in environmental and public health. How we conceptualize and reason about the world around us has effects on how we interact with our environment, respond to public health messaging, and take steps to mitigate environmental and public health risks. For example, our understanding of how diseases can be transmitted from animals to people or from person to person plays a strong role in how people respond to media and public health communications about both communicable and non-communicable diseases, including novel diseases like COVID-19. Likewise, our understanding of climate change and its impact on public health depends on our ability to accurately reason about accumulation and complex dynamical systems. Interestingly, research on human concepts of environmental and public health risks has only recently begun to emerge as potential strategy for influencing health and welfare. This Special Issue will bring together expert research on human concepts, reasoning, and communication to address current topics in environmental and public health. We especially encourage topics related to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

This Special Issue is open to submissions related to all aspects of how people conceptualize and communicate about topics surrounding the environment and public health. We anticipate the Special Issue to include submissions from research groups of diverse backgrounds and to include a range of topics from preventative health concepts surrounding communicable and non-communicable diseases to more global perspectives on human concepts of climate change.

Dr. Tyler Davis
Dr. Jessecae Marsh
Dr. Micah Goldwater
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.