Call for Papers: Scope (Health & Wellbeing) 8, "Connection"

Scope: Contemporary Research Topics (Health & Wellbeing) 8, “Connection” (November 2023)

Call for papers for Scope (Health & Wellbeing) 2023. The eighth issue will provide the opportunity for authors to consider, discuss and debate how connection is understood in relation to health and wellbeing.  

Connection is about a relationship between two or more things, or groups, or people. We make a connection when we catch our second bus for the journey, pick up the dog lead and see the hound leap excitedly at us, access the internet, or have an ah-ha moment when something we read or hear about connects with something we know. Connection between self and concepts, ideas, and theory is fundamental to learning. Connection underpins collaboration, and it is through collaborative work that boundaries expand, and new understandings emerge. Defined by Brene Brown as “the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued”, connection between people and within communities is fundamental to collective and individual wellbeing. The concept of whakapapa encapsulates the ultimate in connection. Being 'the process of layering one thing upon another' whakapapa helps us understand that there is connection between now and the past, between all people, and between people and the rest of the natural world. Connection is all powerful and all important.  

Submissions for Scope (Health & Wellbeing) 8, "Connection", are invited from all disciplines including health such as nursing, occupational therapy, midwifery and sport we also welcome contributions from the arts. Authors are encouraged to explore connection and its relationship with health and wellbeing in any form. Submissions are encouraged from researchers, educators, industry, writers, theorists and historians. Please refer to author guidelines for submissions at https://www.thescopes.org/contributors and to consult online versions for examples. Authors are welcome to contact Editor-in-chief jean.ross@op.ac.nz for discussion, otherwise submissions should be sent in electronic format by 30 June 2023 for review and potential inclusion to Professor Jean Ross (Editor-in-chief) at Te Pūkenga/Otago Polytechnic Ltd | Te Kura Matatini Ki Otago, Private Bag 1910, Dunedin, New Zealand,  jean.ross@op.ac.nz.  

Peer review forms will be sent to all submitters in due course, with details concerning the possible reworking of documents where relevant. All submitters will be allowed up to two subsequent resubmissions of documents for peer approval. All final decisions concerning publication of submissions will reside with the Editor. Opinions published are those of the authors and not necessarily subscribed to by the Editors or Otago Polytechnic. For further questions about submissions please contact the Editor-in-chief at jean.ross@op.ac.nz.