LINGUIST List 25.470
Tue
Jan 28 2014
FYI: Call for Book
Chapters: Crucial Conversations
Editor for this issue:
Uliana Kazagasheva <ulianalinguistlist.org>
Date: 27-Jan-2014
From: Catherine Smith
<casmith24
wisc.edu>
Subject: Call for Book
Chapters: Crucial Conversations
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Crucial Conversations: Meeting health
information needs outside of healthcare.
To be published by Chandos Publishing (a
division of Elsevier), 2015.
Editors: Catherine Arnott Smith, PhD, and Alla
Keselman, PhD.
Proposals due February 15, 2014; drafts due
June 1, 2014; full chapters due September 1,
2014.
Introduction:
The book will address the challenges and
ethical dilemmas concerning the delivery of
health information to the general public in a
wide variety of non-clinical settings. Instead
of patient education or patient communication
in hospitals and clinics, our interest is the
challenges and successes of presenting health
information outside of patient care by
non-clinicians. Potential roles of interest
include librarians, educators, social services
workers, journalists and science writers who
enable information exchange among the public
through traditional and social media channels,
and all who moderate or enable health
communication online. Potential settings of
interest include, but are certainly not limited
to, public and academic libraries; schools;
colleges; community health centers and other
social service agencies; and World Wide Web
environments supporting patient communities
(e.g., PatientsLikeMe, 23andMe).
Consumer health information provision is
conducted by professionals working in a range
of fields, including librarianship, education,
journalism, and health communication. Linguist
researchers working in
machine learning and in discourse analysis are
among the contributors to health communications
research. The editors of this volume are
interested in seeing submissions from linguists
who have investigated
health information provision - verbal, or
computer-assisted.
The challenges and controversies of this
material are both practical and ethical in
nature. On a practical level, professionals
need to ensure that the information they
provide is understood the way they
intended.
The consumers who receive the information
differ in their background knowledge, health
literacy, health beliefs, and understanding and
attitudes towards risk. Meanwhile, the
information is being exchanged in
a particular professional context, a context
that affects and is affected by the information
giver's ethical standards and work processes.
Some of the controversies in this domain are
uniquely characteristic of their fields; others
are general, arising from the sensitive nature
of health information and the ambiguity of the
exact role of the professional who provides
it.
The book begins with an overview of the
historical key issues in this domain, and
addresses the connection between biomedical and
information professional ethics in the fields
tasked with health information provision. Next,
we address user-centered issues: the interplay
between lay information seekers' prior
knowledge and those attributes of their
background that affects their understanding of
health information. The next section centers on
the professionals and practitioners who provide
health information to lay people in specific
contexts outside of healthcare professional
practice. Finally, examples of challenges
inherent in particular information resources
are presented.
Suggested Topics for Submission:
The following outline gives an idea of the
populations, professionals and information
resources we are particularly interested in;
however, this list is not meant to be
exhaustive or restrictive, and potential
contributors who have other ideas are
encouraged to contact us with their
suggestions.
Section 1: Overview
The principles of medical ethics
Health literacy and illiteracy
Section 2: Target Populations, Professionals,
Resources, Settings
Populations include: the aged, teenagers,
parents, migrant workers, homeless people,
low-income/transient/uninsured persons,
immigrants, and sexual minorities.
Professionals include: journalists, librarians,
educators, social services workers, information
technologists.
Information resource challenges include
balance; credibility of online information;
alternative explanations and popular challenges
to scientific expertise; information
architecture; and online support groups
(considered as information venues).
Settings include: Libraries, social service
agencies, World Wide Web environments
supporting patient communities (e.g.,
PatientsLikeMe, 23andMe)
We are looking for original work that has not
been published elsewhere, of a length between
10,000 and 14,000 words.
Important Dates
Contributor selection process begins: February
15, 2014. All contributors will be notified by
March 15, 2014. Drafts are due to coeditors on
June 1, 2014, and final manuscripts on
September 1, 2014. Coeditors will review and
contact contributors with suggested revision as
necessary between September 2 and October 31,
2014.
This book will be published by Chandos
Publishing [
http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/ChandosHome.aspx].
Chandos and its parent, Woodhead Publishing,
are divisions of Elsevier. These publication
houses are international firms specializing in
library and information science, Internet and
social media, and science, technical and
information trends worldwide.
Please send chapter proposals (~350 words) and
a current curriculum vita to lead editor
Catherine Arnott Smith(casmith24
wisc.edu), University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Contact Prof. Smith or
coeditor Dr. Alla Keselman
(allagkeselman
gmail.com) with questions.
About the Co-editors:
Dr. Catherine Arnott Smith is an Associate
Professor in the School of Library &
Information Studies, University of
Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a PhD in Library
& Information Sciences/Medical Informatics
and an MSIS in Information Sciences/Medical
Informatics (University of Pittsburgh, 2002 and
2000 respectively), as well as master’s degrees
in library and information science and American
History/archives administration (University of
Michigan, both 1992). Her research interests
are consumer health vocabularies and consumer
health informatics, as well as clinical
information exchange in nonclinical spaces,
such as public libraries and university
disability resources centers.
Dr. Alla Keselman holds a PhD in human
cognition and learning and an MA in biomedical
informatics from Columbia University. Dr.
Keselman, currently a Senior Social Science
Analyst in the Division of Specialized
Information Services, National Library of
Medicine, conducts research into lay
understanding of complex health concepts,
health literacy, and consumer health
informatics, as well as the role of libraries
and librarians in providing health information
to the public. Dr. Keselman's expertise also
includes the development of life sciences and
health education resources for K-12 students
and teachers.
Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics;
Discourse Analysis; General Linguistics
Page Updated: 28-Jan-2014