Dear colleagues,
We are organizing a Special Issue on the use of social media data to inform public health and policy for the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. This journal is peer-reviewed and publishes articles in the interdisciplinary area of environmental health sciences and public health.
Publicly accessible data from those who post to social media platforms, like Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and YouTube, among others, can be used to rapidly capture and describe health-related attitudes and behaviors. These data are produced organically and can be collected in near real-time, to monitor nascent health-related trends, public reactions to new policies and information campaigns, health emergencies, and user experiences with new products and services that may have direct consequences for public health and safety. Social media platforms also serve as vehicles to implement health communication strategies, and to deliver interventions aimed at promoting health among priority populations.
This Special Issue aims to highlight the utility in analyzing social media data for public health implications. In general, this Special Issue is seeking original submissions that harness social media to examine (1) health or health policy-related discussions, attitudes, and behaviors, (2) online marketing and promotional practices of companies and services that may influence health behaviors, (3) interventions that use social media as tools in intervention delivery, (4) applications of data science or computational social science methods in the health domain, (5) critical analysis of the role of social media in public health, and (6) theory-driven approaches to social media-based inquires. Special attention will be given to innovative submissions that combine data science approaches with theoretical models or frameworks.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jon Patrick Allem
Ms. Anuja Majmundar
Guest Editors