International Journal of Public Health

New year brought some changes in the Intnerational Journal of Public Health: One of our Editors in Chief since 2001, Thomas Abel, is stepping down from his role to focus more on his own research. Thomas has been instrumental in helping the Journal transform from the Sozial und Präventiv Medizin to International Journal of Public Health, which has now reached an impact factor of 2.241!

Continuity in our Journal is ensured by Thomas Kohlmann, who continues to serve as an Editor in Chief, as well as two of our previous Senior Editors that are now part of the new team of Editors in Chief: Nino Künzli and Andrea Madarasova Geckova.  Read the Editorial of our new Editors in Chief here and Editorial by Thomas Abel here.

We would like to thank Thomas for all his work and wish him all the best for his future endeavours and wish to our new Editors in Chief a productive and successful collaboration!

Linked to the October 2011 special issue on “Migrants and ethnic minorities in Europe: new challenges for public health research and practice”, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is pleased to announce the online publication of a new, original article in the IJPH.

The article “Health, migration and border management: analysis and capacity-building at Europe’s borders” outlines the methods and results of an in-depth situation analysis in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia as well as the subsequent development of training modules and guidelines for health professionals and border authorities.

We look forward to your feedback on this work and invite IJPH readers to discover further details on the IOM website: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/increasing-public-health-safety-alongside-new-eastern-european-border-line/lang/en

The authors

Jennifer Hollings

Mariya Samuilova

Roumyana Petrova-Benedict

One of the major stresses of PhD students and researchers in general, is getting their work published in peer reviewed journals.  I am sure there are more than enough of us that at some point thought “if only I knew the secrets to writing my paper in a way that will increase the possibilities of getting it published”

Well, I have good news for you! The Swiss School of Public Health+ is organising a three day course called “Writing a journal article…and getting it published” , with the purpose of enabling PhD students to write their papers and get them published! You will be using material from your very own research.

The course will be taught by Professor Nicola Law and it will be held on 19-21 March 2012, at the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine in Bern. You can register online until February 16th! Hurry, as there is a limited number of participants for that course!

After thinking and blogging about the use of social media in Public Health, it was bound to happen…The International Journal of Public Health has now a twitter account! Make sure you follow us for sharing public health news and thoughts timely and interactively!

If you have a twitter account, we are interested to hear about your exprience with it. Do you find it useful? Do you find it fun? What should a newbie like us know?

The latest issue of the Inernational Journal of Public Health was a special issue! Entitled Housing for Health Promotion , it covers a wide range of subjects related to housing and health! From the health of homeless to place integration and health in old age and improving health and energy efficiency through community interventions, this issue has something for everyone!

The Editorial by Dr. Roderick J Lawrence and the commentaries by Matthias Braubach and Roderick J Lawrence will surely help to stir interesting discussions on the matter of housing and Health Promotion!

Have a look and let us know what you think!

Hello everyone! We are back and we would like to wish to each and every one of you a very happy and creative new year! We start off 2012 with an interesting announcement!

The Global Advocacy for Physical Activity (GAPA), is the advocacy council of the International Society for Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH) and has just published its newsletter for 2011, which you can download here.

Highlights of the Newsletter include:

• United National High level Meeting on NCDs – a watershed for physical activity

• Advocacy tools

• Sharing news more often—Webinars, GlobalPAnet (a regular physical activity information service via an e-news and website)

• News from the Regions

• Promoting physically active young people – whole of school programmes

• NCD Alliance raises the bar on NCD advocacy

• Events in 2012

With physical inactivity having been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for mortality in the world, this newsletter makes a very interesting read! So do our latest articles on physical activity and exercise! A few examples:

- Weight-loss practices among university students in Mexico (available free of charge!)

- Factors associated with physical activity among Canadian high school students

- Modifiable cardiovascular risk factors among adults in Aleppo, Syria

- Longitudinal associations between family characteristics and measures of childhood obesity

Happy reading!