Call for Submissions – Chapter Proposals and case studies/descriptions. Abstracts due September 15.
– Now Accepting Abstract Submissions to be considered for edited volume.
Book Title: From Transactional to Transformational: Bridging Theory and Practice in Health Communication Partnerships
Volume Editors: Ashley Duggan (Boston College), Marie Haverfield (San Jose State University) and Pádraic Dunne (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – RCSI- University of Medicine and Health Sciences). This edited volume is in contract with Peter Lang under the Health Communication Series (Gary Kreps, series editor).
Overview:
This edited volume will be written as a resource for health and healthcare scholars engaged with or interested in partnership building. This edited volume shows how partnerships between health communication scholars and healthcare professionals, community partners, or interprofessional collaborations can make a difference in research, education, and advocacy. This edited volume provides an overview of the partnerships we often see in health communication research, highlights core concepts and considerations across partnerships, includes case studies to illustrate strengths and challenges of partnerships, and unpacks assumptions that often arise in interdisciplinary efforts. Contributions reflect and inform research, teaching, and policy from local, national, and international perspectives. Our overall focus is to build capacity for successful partnerships across the health care landscape. We want chapters from people who work across countries and contexts, allowing for multiple perspectives in the edited volume. Submissions should share actionable insights for improving the delivery of care or for facilitating well-being through more effective communication and collaboration. We are intentional about including chapters that reflect diverse voices, contexts, and methodological approaches.
We seek authors for two submission types:
Chapters / Bridging Theory and Practice: Learning from and with each other: These chapters build and articulate the intellectual foundation for successful partnerships. Chapters introduce and unpack the theoretical frameworks for how and why partnerships make a difference. We want authors to share insights and opportunities for partnerships to inform healthcare delivery and policy; describe how to build access to healthcare settings, healthcare providers, patients, and families; or how to co-create communication skills education for health care learners. Together, chapters emphasize partnership considerations that can create shared meaning, new knowledge, and the merging of ideas for creative solutions. These chapters build the intellectual foundation for partnerships, show how partnerships facilitate coordination, and potentially develop relationships that make us better in our partnership work. In other words, these chapters in the volume map out the concepts that move us from transactional to transformational relationships in our partnerships. These chapters will be 3,000 words.
Case studies / Descriptions of Successful Partnerships or Lessons Learned: Case studies / descriptions of successful partnerships describe examples of bridging approaches and communication processes with practice to illustrate and promote shared understanding of lessons learned. Case studies or descriptions should be related to health communication research, teaching, or policy. Partnership case studies are intended to illustrate partnership-building strategies employed across four types of partnerships: (a) partnerships between researchers and professionals in healthcare, (b) academic–community leader partnerships to combat health inequities, (c) healthcare organization–community partnerships to improve healthcare access and health outcomes, and (d) interprofessional collaborations within healthcare organizations and across organizations with a health-related mission, such as partnerships emphasizing communication skills training. These case studies / descriptions will be 1,200 to 1,500 words.
Initial list of chapters that we hope to receive (but additional or different chapters are welcome):
Preface: Bridging Theory and Practice / Learning from and with each other
Chapter 1: Partnerships for Impact: Making a Difference
Author: Marie Haverfield (submitted as part of volume proposal)
Chapter 2: A North Star for Health Partnerships that Facilitate Well-Being: Positive Health Sciences as a Unifying Framework to "Meliotropism"
Authors: Pádraic Dunne and Ashley P. Duggan
Chapter 2: Considerations at the Local, National, and International Level
Chapter 3: Connecting Theoretical foundations in Teaching
Chapter 4: Connecting Theoretical foundations in Policy
Chapter 5: Communication Theory as an Antecedent and Outcome
Chapter 6: Interpersonal Frameworks
Chapter 7: Organizational and Community Frameworks
Chapter 8: Working Across and Within Systems
Chapter 9: Cultures of Health Communication and Healthcare
Chapter 10: Embracing the Unfolding Processes of Knowledge Creation Between
Health Communication Researchers and Health Professionals
Chapter 11: Criticality in Health Communication and Health Communication Partnerships
Chapter 12: Inter-disciplinarity, Multi-disciplinarity, and Translational research as Partnerships
Chapter 13: Connecting Theoretical foundations in Research: Moving from Coordination to Co-
Creation
Case Studies / Descriptions examples could include (but are not limited to):
Case studies bridge theory with real-world application by showcasing: Lessons learned from partnership-building efforts, Communication approaches used to build trust, align goals, and sustain collaboration, or Insights relevant to research, education / teaching, or policy / advocacy within health communication. Case studies reflect partnerships that explore and improve the ways in which health and healthcare scholars, professionals, community members, patients, and caregivers communicate. This section of the volume capitalizes on the ongoing effort to connect health communication researchers while simultaneously promoting capacity building across the health communication field in support of successful partnerships.
- Discuss experiences building and working in partnerships, including strategies employed, and also challenges faced in attempts to build collaborative, cohesive partnerships toward a shared goal.
- Success stories or stories of partnerships that did not develop as planned and descriptions of how the obstacles can be instructive.
- Address a partnership / collaboration that worked to improve healthcare delivery, policy, research, or education.
- Give a narrative example of building access to healthcare systems, clinicians, patients, or families. Case studies may focus on approaches to health communication skills education for learners and professionals.
- Focus on reflections on interprofessional or community-based partnerships. Case studies might explore relational and collaborative models that emphasize shared meaning and creative solutions.
Abstract Submission Guidelines and Intended Timeline:
- Chapter Proposal Deadline: September 15th, 2025
- Proposals should include:
- Chapter title
- Abstract / Topic overview / Intended contribution (250 words max)
- Type of submission: Chapter OR Case study/Description.
- Author names, brief bios (150 words max per author), affiliations, and countries.
- Notification of Acceptance: October 2025
- Chapter Drafts Due: late January 2026
- Feedback provided by editors: February 2026
- Completed Chapters and Case Studies Due: June 2026
Marie Haverfield will answer any initial inquiries and coordinate with other editors during the submission process. Please direct questions and submit proposals to Marie Haverfield, marie.haverfield@sjsu.edu