Special Issue "Planetary Health and Public Health"

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce this Healthcare Special Issue on the topic ‘Planetary Health and Public Health’ and seek relevant commentaries, original research, short reports, case studies, perspectives, viewpoints, and reviews.

Planetary health is an emerging framework that promotes a transdisciplinary approach to the complexity of pathways between environmental phenomena (at global and local levels) and health/mental health issues. The planetary health vision breaks the knowledge silos typical of the global health architecture so far; it deconstructs myths about human development and health gains in the last half century; and it questions, once more, the biomedical model. The concept and practice of public health are often based on biomedical knowledge, more focused on treatment, and they link individual- and population-level interventions. The planetary health framework challenges such a public health vision, adding a strong focus on prevention via social and environmental determinants of health at the global level, inviting indigenous knowledge to the table and reinforcing the focus on human and non-human health. The idea of public health always emphasizes linkages and correlations between individuals as well as exposure to environmental hazards, while planetary health is a solutions-oriented transdisciplinary field as well as social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions to Earth’s natural systems and planetary boundaries on human health and all life on earth. Thus, public health can be sustainable by doing no harm to environments and, therefore, the health of communities living in them, in addition to being resilient to climate crisis consequences, such as increased frequent disasters. We need to ask ourselves what health system strengthening means on a warmer planet, what role the health workforce could play in the bigger transition, or how health policies and data can shape the climate change narrative as well as planetary health storytelling. Therefore, in the spirit of the current planetary health discussions, there should be more open and critical dialogue on how modern public health interacts with planetary health.

We cordially welcome submissions on any topic relevant to planetary health. We also invite submissions from the public health community, including, but not limited to, those addressing human health, animal health, social science, health economics, migration studies, and environmental health issues that can help to better understand the wider planetary health agenda.

We believe that this Special Issue in Healthcare will attract more public health researchers working on diverse fields to planetary health. We specially encourage researchers from LMICs in order to give voice to specific challenges of health systems in their countries, often the most affected by the ongoing consequences of the climate crisis, as well as early career researchers and postgraduate students to share their research with us. 

Dr. Muhammad Asaduzzaman
Dr. Davide Ziveri
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.

• planetary health
• public health
• climate change
• environmental health
• infectious diseases including zoonoses (e.g., COVID-19)
• One Health
• migrant health
• mental health
• health system research
• health economics
• NCDs
• antimicrobial resistance
• environmental toxins
• inclusive health
• health equity
• universal health coverage