Manuscript is taking shape!

Writing is in full swing for our book Ecological Health: Society, Ecology and Health. Congratulations to all of you for meeting and in many cases exceeding your first draft deadlines!

Shortly, I will distribute a tentative table of contents for you to have a sense of your coauthors and the depth of scholarship and richness of approaches used to study the social dimensions of socio-ecological health issues.

As an interdisciplinary text, each author has had to engage in knowledge translation, beginning with working from a variety of home disciplines and writing teams through to writing for audiences spanning the medical social sciences and humanities and those using ecosystem based approaches to health research. Knowledge translation (albeit Sharon, Tetroe and Graham, 2009 remind it is a concept with many descriptors) is an important dimension of academic activity at present and texts like this one embody knowledge translation in action within the spheres of academic writing and dialogue.

The second chapter deadline of 4 March is fast approaching as is the opportunity in March to peer review one chapter within this text. Thank you for offering your expertise and energy to this peer review process.

I have also had a series of editorial inquiries about formatting and am always happy to receive and respond to your requests. One point of clarification is that while the published version of the text will be in black & white (grey scale) the online book (available as an eBook) will be in colour and so feel free to include colour images/tables/graphs in your chapter as long as the images can be read easily in both B&W and colour.

Input into the book title is also welcomed; if you have a suggestion for a pithier title please send me your ideas!

Upcoming Deadlines:

• 04 March 2013 – Authors to submit draft two of their chapters. (please also include an anonymous version on this date).
• 08 March 2013 – Anonymous versions of each chapter will be sent out to peer editors. Each author will review one chapter only
•  25 March 2013 – Peer reviews due back to editor.
• 31 March 2013 – Editor will send peer reviews and final editorial comments to authors.
• 15 April 2013 – Authors send editor third and final draft for inclusion text, including all citations, figures, acknowledgements and notes.
• May 2013 – The text will now be in the Emerald Copy Editing process and when your proofs are sent you will have up to 7 days to complete your final proofs, which should be minimal at this stage.  

Emerald Guidelines: 

Emerald guidelines I know that you have already been using but am including again for ease of reference:

·         Emerald Structured Abstract Guidelines: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/guides/write/abstracts.htm. 

·         The Emerald Author Guidelines: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/ebookseries/author_guidelines.htm

·         Emerald Best Practice Guidelines: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/writing/best_practice_guide.htm    

Thank you very much for your commitment to this project; I look forward to reading your second drafts very soon!

The Kunming Statement

Happy New Year!

January 2013 is when writing, editing and compiling chapters for the Ecological Health: Society, Ecology and Health text lights up. From now until the end of April 2013 we will bring this text to fruition.

Reflecting on how to make writing projects meaningful to ourselves and our world, meaningful in the sense that writing can also be part of a change making process, I thought I would share with you the Kunming Statement.

In October 2012, the International Association for Ecology and Health developed a statement which encourages scholars, educators, practitioners, community members and many others to not only cultivate theoretical, methodological and practical insights into the links between society, ecology and health but to also work concretely to improve the health and well being of people, animals and ecosystems in specific places, spaces and times. This statement focuses on contributions to re-articulating and helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals but it also models a more general commitment to translating great insights into thoughtful action.

Please go here to view the The Kunming Statement or alternatively visit the EcoHealth-Live website at www.ecohealth-live.net and click on The Kunming Statement link.

Thank you for being part of this project and for moving forward insights into, and conversations about, the links between ecology, society and health!

Reading List for EcoHealth

Recently, I invited colleagues involved in studying, teaching and researching in the field of EcoHealth to send me the work they are using these days when thinking about the newly emerging field of Ecological Health and when engaging in field building activities at a meta-contextual level. In that the window was short for sending me favorite reads this list is impartial and I warmly invite people to send other suggestions and to comment on ones already listed. There is a comments box at the end of the post or send me an email at ecologicalmedsoc@gmail.com.

I have specifically compiled this list for the reference of the authors of  Ecological Health: Society, Ecology and Health as I would like to ensure that we have a collective set of references to address when framing our thinking about ecology and health and developing our social theoretical engagements with the overarching notion that health is produced in the nexus between human, animal and ecological well being.

       Health in a nested set of ecosystems 

from: http://www.copeh-canada.org/upload/files/en/english%20ecohealth%20teaching%20manual%20-%20copeh-canada.pdf 

Correspondingly, to be considered an 'ecological health' piece of work - whether theoretical or practical - it is expected to seek to engage with health issues as they pertain not only to humans but also to the animals and ecosystems implicated in the larger systems and contexts informing the issues being addressed.

Ecological Health Reading List

Author Update

'Ecological Health: Society, Ecology and Health' is due to make an important contribution to intellectual conversations that are firmly linking the natural world (including awareness of its ecological systems and services) and the health and well-being of wild and domestic animals with work attending to the social dimensions of health, illness, disease, and health care service and research. Given the range of contributions to this text, a unique commonality will be that each person is working on their issues in the nexus between the social, the ecological and human and animal health. 

Publishing Dates and Deadlines:

• 07 January 2013 - Full first drafts of the chapters are due to the editor.  
• 28 January 2013 - Editor will send back comments on the first draft by or before this date.
• 04 March 2013 – Authors to submit draft two of their chapters. (please also include an anonymous version on this date).
• 08 March 2013 – Anonymous versions of each chapter will be sent out to peer editors. Each author will review one chapter only.
• 25 March 2013 – Peer reviews due back to editor.
• 31 March 2013 – Editor will send peer reviews and final editorial comments to authors.
• 15 April 2013 – Authors send editor third and final draft for inclusion text, including all citations, figures, acknowledgements and notes.
• May 2013 – The text will now be in the Emerald Copy Editing process and when your proofs are sent you will have up to 7 days to complete your final proofs, which should be minimal at this stage.  
• Early submissions are warmly welcomed.

Chapter Length and Formatting:

• The length of each paper can be a maximum of 7,500 words total which includes all notes, acknowledgments, tables, works cited and figures (with figures being counted as approx. ½ page or 195 words).  
• The first draft submitted on 7 January 2013 must be already formatted correctly according to Emerald’s guidelines. 
• Each chapter must include a structured abstract: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/guides/write/abstracts.htm. 
• The Emerald Author Guidelines can be found at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/ebookseries/author_guidelines.htm
• Emerald Best Practice Guidelines are at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/writing/best_practice_guide.htm    

Forms and Permissions:

Permissions must be sought by the authors for any third-party materials to be reproduced (e.g. copyrighted figures, tables, long quotations, etc.) and that this should be obtained prior to submission of the volume.

Your questions, comments, or suggestions are warmly welcomed throughout this writing journey. 

Call for Contributions

***EXTENDED DEADLINES***

Call for Papers:  

Ecological Health: Society, Ecology and Health

Volume 15 of the Advances in Medical Sociology Series http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/books/series.htm?id=1057-6290

Volume Editor: Maya K. Gislason (Centre for Global Health Policy, University of Sussex, UK)

Series Editor: Barbara Katz Rothman (Professor of Sociology, City University, USA)

Ecological Health is a newly emerging field of health studies which works at the interface between human, animal and ecological health. You are invited to publish in a cutting edge text in Medical Sociology on the topic of Ecological Health which will bring together a novel collection of initiatives, disciplines and examples of research at the vanguard of integrated social studies of ecological health issues. This distinctive text will serve as a reference tool for sociological analyses of the interrelationship between society, earth systems and health; provide methodological tools for conducting social science research that integrates social, natural and medical systems; and showcase cutting edge empirical research and innovative case studies on integrated health research from around the world.


Papers addressing a wide variety of topics and approaches pertaining to social health research on the links between ecological and human health are invited which include, but are not limited to:

• Historical research on ecology and health;
• Inter/multi/trans-disciplinary health research conducted in the nexus between social and environmental health determinants;
• Ecosystem approaches to communicable and non-communicable health issues both in the Global South and the Global North;
• Multiscalar approaches that link the molecular through to the planetary;
• Climate change and human health;
• Medical systems and institutions and their abilities to tackle the social and ecological dimensions of health issues;
• Innovations in policy formation relating to ecology and health;
• Theoretical, methodological, and practice based insights emerging out of traditions ranging from social theory through to post normal science and complexity theory as applied to social studies of health;
• Sustainable development and health;
• Children’s health and ecology.

How to Contribute & Important Dates:


Contributors should email a 500-750 word abstract by 27 August 2012 to Dr. Maya Gislason at maya.gislason@gmail.com or ecologicalmedsoc@gmail.com. Informal enquiries to these addresses are also welcome. Name and institutional affiliation of author(s) should be supplied, including full contact details of the main author.


Proposals will be reviewed by the editor and authors will be notified by 31 August 2012.
Accepted contributors will be expected to peer-review one other paper.


The deadline for full submissions (7500-8500 words including figures and citations) will be 07 January 2013. Publication of the volume is expected in the autumn of 2013.