The spread of false or misleading health information, now a major public health concern, has become more pronounced in the last two decades with the help of the social media ecosystem and has been highlighted most recently by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although many consequences of misinformation are immediately apparent, it also carries with it the danger of more insidious effects. With this in mind, and with more and more people turning to the internet in search of health information, misinformation requires greater action from those working in public health research, policy and practice.
This collection calls for papers including but not limited to those which aim to:
- Assess health misinformation trends and prevalence
- Understand the interactive mechanisms and factors that make it possible to spread health misinformation through social media
- Determine the impact of social media tools in the dissemination of health misinformation and on the development and reproduction of unhealthy or dangerous behaviors
- Assess which strategies are best in combating and reducing the negative impact of health misinformation
- Determine how individuals interact with health misinformation online
- Understand psychological drivers on susceptibility to misinformation
- Explore the characteristics of vulnerable populations to misinformation
- Understand how misinformation exacerbates cyberchondria and other mental health problems
- Understand misinformation in global health crises
- Investigate the impact of misleading research on policy decisions
- Understand how health research and policy can be used to minimize harms from misinformation
- Propose approaches, tools and innovations in knowledge translation to provide reliable and quality information to meet policy and public needs
We encourage authors to visit the websites listed below of each individual journal within this collection, for information on criteria and suitability of their manuscript before deciding where to submit. Please also indicate clearly in the covering letter that the manuscript is to be considered for this collection.
Participating journals
For more information about each participating journal, including article-processing charges, click on its title below. After submitting to a participating journal, each article will undergo that journal's full standard peer review process.
Submission deadline: April 7th 2023