A Call for Papers on Poverty and Human Development

In October 2007, PLoS Medicine will publish a special issue devoted to poverty and human development.

As I discussed in a previous blog, we are one of over 100 journals that will simultaneously publish such a special issue. The Council of Science Editors, which is the organization backing the idea of a "global theme issue," says that it hopes to "raise awareness, stimulate interest, and stimulate research into poverty and human development."

So what kind of papers would we like you to submit?

First, please submit original research that gives new insights into the causes of poverty and its alleviation. We are particularly interested in research that explores the link between poverty and ill health.

Second, we are looking for policy papers (for our Policy Forum section) that outline, in under 2000 words, innovative "pro-poor" strategies. We favor papers that give concrete steps for turning ideas into action.

Finally, we want to hear about success stories, and we'll publish the best ones in our Health in Action section. Such articles are under 1500 words, and they describe (to a general audience) projects that have had an impact. Please tell us what problem your project was trying to address, what exactly you did to solve the problem, what successes you have had, and what challenges you have faced. We want others to be able to learn from your experience.

If you have an idea for an article (a Research Article, Policy Forum, or Health in Action), please send us a pre-submission enquiry: send an abstract and cover letter to medicine_editors@plos.org