Zahid Ahmad Butt, MBBS, PhD, University of Waterloo, Canada
Becky White, PhD, Curtin University, Australia
BMC Medical Research Methodology is calling for submissions to our Collection on the impact of rapid spread of either accurate or misleading information on medical research during public health crises, which can become a critical challenge in global health.
Zahid Ahmad Butt, MBBS, PhD, University of Waterloo, Canada
Dr Zahid Butt is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo and a Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Research for Pandemic Preparedness. He is a physician and infectious disease epidemiologist by training, with over 20 years of public health experience. His research applies a ‘syndemic’ framework to examine inter-relationships between epidemics of diseases, social disparities, co-morbidities, and substance use, using epidemiological, statistical, spatial and machine learning methods. Dr Butt has expertise related to epidemiological and statistical modelling, social determinants of health, analysis of big data, and infodemics and infoveillance.
Becky White, PhD, Curtin University, AustraliaDr Becky White is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Curtin University, Western Australia. She specializes in infodemic management, health promotion, digital health and the intersection of information environments and public health. Becky has worked on infodemic-related projects across a range of areas, including as part of the global COVID-19 response, researching information trends over the course of the pandemic and vaccine-related narratives and misinformation. Becky is especially interested in information equity, including how priority population groups experience infodemics, and opportunities to create healthier information environments. She has published and contributed to a number of academic publications and technical documents. Becky is an IUHPE accredited Health Promotion Practitioner.
BMC Medical Research Methodology is calling for submissions to our Collection on the impact of rapid spread of either accurate or misleading information on medical research during public health crises, which can become a critical challenge in global health.
Medical research plays a role but is not the only actor in determining the public perception of the value of research, its findings, and the way these are reported in published form and shape public health policies; rather, medical researchers act alongside science communicators, social media, professional journalists, public institutions, just to name a few, able to influence the information landscape and the way scientific findings are used and disseminated within and outside of the scientific community.
As the global community is facing major challenges due to the spreading or new or old infectious diseases, a deluge of information, including misleading or false content is spreading even faster through the internet, social networks, and the media, dangerously altering risk perceptions and disseminating false information about diseases, their causes and dynamics, as well as potential treatments. The surge of excessive, false, or misleading information may pose new and serious threats to global health that should be adequately tackled through major research efforts and carefully targeted, evidence-based policy interventions.
This collection seeks to explore different approaches to understanding, preventing, managing, and mitigating the impact of infodemics on public health outcomes. While the main focus is on infectious diseases, the collection also welcomes studies on any other conditions or health-related practices that are commonly the target of misinformation or subject of misconception.
We invite contributions that address a wide range of topics, including but not limited to:
All manuscripts submitted to this journal, including those submitted to collections and special issues, are assessed in line with our editorial policies and the journal’s peer review process. Reviewers and editors are required to declare competing interests and can be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.
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There are currently no articles in this collection.
This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Infodemics" from the dropdown menu.
All manuscripts submitted to this journal, including those submitted to collections and special issues, are assessed in line with our editorial policies and the journal’s peer review process. Reviewers and editors are required to declare competing interests and can be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.