Call for Papers | Rural Health Disparities: Contemporary Solutions for Persistent Rural Public Health Challenges

Announcement posted 4/18/24

Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) welcomes submissions for its upcoming collection, Rural Health Disparities: Contemporary Solutions for Persistent Rural Public Health Challenges. Public health challenges have been documented in rural geographical areas and remain persistent public health, medicine, and health services problems. These challenges include limited health care access, excessive tobacco use in poor counties, limited physical activities, socioeconomic inequities, behavioral and mental health conditions, and major chronic diseases. These persistent rural health challenges magnify and lead to racial and socioeconomic disparities. The goal of this collection is to capture current solutions to these challenges. Peer-reviewed articles appearing in this collection will help advance the discourse on rural public health beyond biomedical models for chronic disease prevention.

For this collection, PCD encourages the submission of manuscripts covering diverse topics using various article types. We encourage authors to explore the social determinants of health, environmental influences, policy interventions, and community-based initiatives contributing to chronic disease prevention in rural areas. Please refer to the Types of Articles page on the journal’s website for specifications for each article type. PCD is seeking submissions on topics including but not limited to the following:

1. Community─clinical linkages to improve population health in rural settings
2. Systematic reviews of effective chronic disease interventions in rural settings
3. Comparisons of health outcomes among rural population subgroups, emphasizing within-group analysis over rural─urban comparisons
4. Methodological solutions to common challenges with rural public health data analysis
5. Practical solutions to chronic disease prevention challenges faced by public health practitioners in rural areas
6. Community engagement approaches to address chronic disease prevention
7. Community health workers to address access to care in rural settings
8. Opportunities and challenges for rural local health departments to use evidence-based policies, implement practices to guide continuous quality improvement, and establish effective diverse partnerships to improve population health
9. Use of geographical information systems (GIS) to identify incidence of chronic disease, access to care, and resources contributing to or limiting population health in rural settings

Submission Guidelines

Corresponding authors are required to submit an inquiry to the journal to determine suitability in advance of submitting a manuscript. PCD asks that only the corresponding author submit an inquiry to the journal for review. The corresponding author is the person who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the submission, peer-review, and publication process if the manuscript is accepted. The corresponding author’s inquiry should include the following information:

• Article title
• Name of the corresponding author
• Author name(s), degree(s), title(s), and affiliation(s)
• PCD article type (visit https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/for_authors/types_of_articles.htm)
• Has the article ever been submitted elsewhere for consideration? If yes, please indicate the name of the journal, the date of that journal’s final decision, and an explanation of the decision
• Indicate that the inquiry is related to this Call for Papers
• Abstract (300 words or less)

The deadline to submit an inquiry is July 19, 2024. Submit your inquiry to the Editor in Chief at PCDeditor@cdc.gov for consideration. PCD will provide feedback to the corresponding author about the journal’s interest in the proposed manuscript and guidance on what information is needed.

The deadline to receive your final manuscript is January 24, 2025. If your inquiry is approved, your final manuscript will undergo internal review and external peer review. Manuscripts accepted for publication will be published on a rolling basis. Articles will be assembled into a PDF collection accessible on the PCD website after all accepted papers have been published. Cover letters to the Editor in Chief are required and must state that the submission is for consideration in the PCD collection, “Rural Health Disparities: Contemporary Solutions for Persistent Public Health Challenges.”

About the Journal

PCD is a peer-reviewed public health journal published by CDC and authored by experts worldwide. PCD was established in 2004 by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion with a mission to promote dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and policy makers worldwide on the integration and application of research findings and practical experience to improve population health. PCD has a current Impact Factor of 5.5 (2022) and is ranked 21st of 180 journals in Journal Citation Reports (JCR). For more information about the journal, please visit https://www.cdc.gov/pcd.

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