Announcements

  • Call for papers: Helpline Communication in Healthcare, Social Work, and Civil Society

    2026-06-01

    Call for papers: 

    Special Issue: Helpline Communication in Healthcare, Social Work, and Civil Society

    People facing various difficult life situations, crises, or vulnerabilities have a range of mediated options for seeking help and support. These include emergency services, teleconsultations within traditional healthcare, and mediated interactions with social workers and civil society organizations, such as helplines, which offer various forms of anonymous support. This special issue of Qualitative Health Communication invites contributions that explore helpline communication in its broadest sense and across different organizational contexts.

    By “helpline”, we understand services that provide mediated, low-threshold and free support to individuals navigating difficult life situations, operating across a range of media — telephone, chat, email, SMS, and beyond. Within the health domain, helplines are typically operated either by NGOs connecting individuals with specific concerns to trained professionals, volunteers, or peers, or by public sector institutions such as emergency services within hospital or social care settings. “Helpline communication” thus includes any mediated interaction between users and responders involved in providing help to these users, as well as the broader communicative practices, policies, and technologies that shape such interactions.

    We are particularly interested in contributions that engage critically and reflexively with the communicative dimensions of helpline work — whether at the level of individual interaction, organizational practice, or societal discourse. As helplines increasingly integrate digital technologies, serve diverse and multilingual populations, and navigate complex ethical terrain, qualitative approaches are uniquely positioned to illuminate the lived experiences, relational dynamics, and institutional forces at play.

    Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

    • Helpline communication for emergency services
    • Helplines in civil society
    • Communicative norms and expectations in helpline work
    • The language and imagery of helpline communication
    • Synchronous and asynchronous communication in helpline work
    • Helplines as spaces for mental health support, therapy, or health coaching
    • User and patient perceptions and experiences of helpline use
    • The narrative and discursive construction of trust, authority, or empathy in helpline interactions
    • Ethical tensions in helpline communication
    • Institutional discourses and policies shaping communicative practices in helplines
    • Helplines in multilingual and multicultural health contexts
    • Training helpline responders in communication skills
    • The use of AI, machine learning, or other technologies in helpline communication
    • Communicating with frequent users or specific user segments

    We welcome articles that deal with one or some of the above topics as well as other topics related to helpline communication.

    Submission types: We welcome original research articles, literature reviews, conceptual papers, theoretical contributions, and methodological pieces. All submissions must have a strong qualitative focus and engage with questions relevant to health communication. Interdisciplinary perspectives are encouraged.

    Guest editors

    Trine Natasja Sindahl, Aarhus University, Denmark
    Tine Bennedsen Gehrt, Aarhus University and Central Denmark Region, Denmark
    Carsten Stage, Aarhus University, Denmark

    Timeline

    • Call for papers published: 1 June 2026
    • Brief abstract by mail: 1 September 2026
    • Notification: 15 September 2026
    • Manuscript submission: 15 December 2026
    • Peer review process: 15 December 2026 - 1 February 2027
    • Revision process: 1 February - 10 March 2027
    • Final decision and notification: 1 April 2027
    • Copyediting: 1 April - 15 May 2027
    • Publication of the special issue: May 2027

    Submission Guidelines

    Interested contributors are invited to send a brief abstract (100-200 words) addressing the research topic, the helpline, data and the qualitative methods applied by 1 September 2026 to the journal’s email address (qhc-journal@au.dk). Authors will receive notification of whether their potential contribution is considered within the scope of the special issue by 15 September 2026. Manuscripts are due by 15 December 2026.

    Full manuscript submissions should be submitted through the journal's online submission system. Articles will go through the ordinary peer review process. Please indicate in the cover letter that your submission is intended for the special issue on “Helpline Communication”. Authors should adhere to the journal's author guidelines (https://tidsskrift.dk/qhc/about/submissions).

    Read more about Call for papers: Helpline Communication in Healthcare, Social Work, and Civil Society

  • Call for papers: "Digital Health Communication"

    2024-09-10

    Call for papers

    Special Issue: Digital Health Communication

    This special issue of Qualitative Health Communication is dedicated to exploring the health communication landscape of the digital era. Advances in digital technology have revolutionized the healthcare sector and has allowed for new forms of communication. We see how traditional types of health-related mass communication such as health campaigns move onto social media, providing new means of interaction with citizens in addition to traditional monologic, one-way communication from authorities. Similarly, we see authorities taking on digital media when needed to reach citizens with crisis communication messages, as during the pandemic. Interpersonal communication is impacted by new digital technology. In the primary and secondary health care sectors, technological development has led to the introduction of telemedicine systems enabling digital communication between patients and healthcare professionals, both synchronously, as in video consultations, and asynchronously, e.g. via e-mail consultations or chat functions in apps. Another example is the electronic health record, which was traditionally exclusively doctor-to-doctor communication, but which in many countries, has been made accessible to patients, making it a new form of doctor-patient communication. Outside the established healthcare system, the internet has also provided opportunities for new health communication meetings, such as when patients find each other and form communities in online forums or on social media. In addition, we now see hospitals and general practitioners engaging in types of external communication that have previously primarily been reserved for companies, such as Facebook and Instagram posts. Besides interpersonal communication, we can point to the many forms of human-machine communication taking place in the contemporary digital health landscape, both within and outside of the established healthcare system. Human-machine communication in digital health can include aspects of datafication for instance the patient’s embodied experience, voluntary or pushed modes of self-tracking as well as the use and interpretation of data visualizations.

    We welcome articles that deal with one or some of the above topics as well as other topics related to digital health communication. Articles must have a strong qualitative focus.

     

    Read more about Call for papers: "Digital Health Communication"

  • First issue published

    2022-02-14

    We are happy to announce that our first issue is out. It is a fantastic showcase of current qualitative research in the health communication field. We thank our authors for all their hard work and our reviewers for their equally hard work. No issue without authors and reviewers! Please have a look at the first issue. To give you a little taste, here are some of the keywords: surgeons, antenatal, Covid-19, psychiatry, intercultural communication, experiential knowledge, chronic, infodemic, palliative care, lay-friendliness, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, interviews, co-design.

    Remember that we still have room for articles in Issue 2 (to be published in July). 

    Read more about First issue published

  • Call for reviewers

    2021-09-06

    Qualitative Health Communication (QHC) is now calling for reviewers. We wish to establish a bank of permanent reviewers, so if you have expertise in health communication and qualitative research, please let us know. We are looking for both experienced researchers/reviewers and early career researchers who might not have a lot of review experience.

    What are you signing up for?
    We hope that our reviewers will take two reviews a year, but you can, of course, always decline if you are too busy, the article is outside your expertise, etc.

    What’s in it for you?
    You will get experience with reviewing articles in a friendly environment (the editors will help you in any way you need). Your name will feature on our website in our list of reviewers.

    How to sign up?
    Please send us an email at qhc-journal@au.dk with 3-8 keywords that reflect your research expertise. Please send keywords that reflect your area of health communication as well as your expertise in qualitative research methods (e.g. interview method, conversation analysis, or similar).

    Read more about Call for reviewers

  •  Open call: Qualitative Health Communication. Submit your paper now.

    2021-02-23

    Qualitative Health Communication (QHC), is a new, no-fee, open access online journal dedicated to publishing articles employing qualitative methods to investigate, improve and innovate health communication.

    We are calling for submissions to QHC’s second issue (to be published in July 2022) and subsequent issues via the journal's website https://tidsskrift.dk/qhc/. Detailed instructions for authors can also be found on the website.

    This is a general call for submission not tied to a special issue topic. All submissions within scope of QHC are welcome. Submission from researchers at any stage of their career is encouraged.

    All submissions will be peer-reviewed: initial screening in-house followed by external peer-review. There are no article submission or processing fees. Accepted articles will be available online free of charge.

    The first issue of Qualitative Health Communication (QHC) will be published in January 2022 featuring contributions by renowned health communication researchers. Topics include COVID-19 communication, communication in antenatal group consultations, paediatric palliative care, surgeon-patient consultations, communication in patient information leaflets and forensic assessment reports and co-construction of experiential knowledge.

     QHC acknowledges the interdisciplinary nature of health communication, and thus is not restricted to a certain discipline and welcomes contributions from a wide range of fields (e.g. linguistics, communication, media, medicine, nursing, public health, health services research, ethics, philosophy, anthropology) as long as studies employ qualitative theories and methods.

    QHC seeks to provide a forum for qualitative research into topics such as:

    • interpersonal communication
    • public health campaigns
    • digital health
    • health communication in the mass media
    • patient engagement
    • health promotion
    • health literacy
    • or any topic you find to be relevant for health communication

    For questions or additional information, please contact: qhc-journal@au.dk

    Inaugural editorial team 

    Editor-in-Chief:
    Dr Matilde Nisbeth Brøgger, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark.

    Senior Editors:
    Dr Maria Dahm, Institute for Communication in Health Care, Australian National University, Australia.
    Dr Jane Ege Møller, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark.
    Dr Maja Klausen, Department for Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.
    Dr Antoinette Fage-Butler, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark.

    Read more about  Open call: Qualitative Health Communication. Submit your paper now.

  • New Journal Announcement - Qualitative Health Communication

    2020-08-20

    New Journal Announcement - Qualitative Health Communication
    Communication is a fundamental component of health. Effective health communication is critical for patient safety and quality of care and has important societal implications. Communication permeates health care, from diagnosis to treatment, from medical education to patient education, from social media to patient narratives, from the doctor's office to the public sphere; spanning a vast interdisciplinary field of research.

     The number of interdisciplinary studies employing qualitative methods to investigate health communication has been steadily increasing, but the number of journals to disseminate findings is low, and there is no journal dedicated exclusively to publishing qualitative health communication research.

     Qualitative Health Communication (QHC) aims to fill this gap making research and pedagogical, methodological and theoretical perspectives on qualitative health communication broadly accessible.

     With the first issue to be published online in January 2022, QHC is a new peer-reviewed, Open Access scientific online journal dedicated to qualitative studies in and of health communication. There are no submission or publication fees. The journal will have two issues per year publishing original articles, reviews and book reviews.  

    Our first issue to be published will be by invitation only, but we welcome your submission via the journal website for future issues. Detailed author guidelines can also be found under About -> Submissions. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries – our e-mail is qhc-journal@au.dk.

     

    Inaugural editorial team
    Editor-in-Chief:
    Dr Matilde Nisbeth Brøgger, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark.

    Senior Editors:
    Dr Maria Dahm, Institute for Communication in Health Care, Australian National University, Australia.
    Dr Jane Ege Møller, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark.
    Dr Maja Klausen, Department for Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

    Contact information: qhc-journal@au.dk

    Read more about New Journal Announcement - Qualitative Health Communication