Volume 1 Issue 2 (November 2002)
Harold Harvey and Paul Fleming
In today’s world, buzz words such as accountability, best value, effectiveness and evidence-based practice are the norm in many policy documents and business plans, not to mention their use in political and management rhetoric. Increasingly, professionals in all disciplines are being challenged to offer proof that their practice is effective, efficient and equitable. Traditional modes of working are being scrutinised to prove their worth.
In response to such demands for proof of best practice in environmental health, a growing body of research in the discipline is being generated globally, not least in the UK and Ireland. In the recent visioning document from the Health Development Agency ‘Environmental Health 2012: A key partner in delivering the public health agenda’, there is a call for an enhanced research effort facilitated through the establishment of a national environmental health research agency.
Until recently, while countries such as the USA have had well established routes for disseminating research findings, we on this side of the Atlantic have been less well provided for. To help remedy this situation, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, in a forward-looking move, has now created the Journal of Environmental Health Research.
The first, and in some senses the trial issue of the Journal, has met with widespread approval, with many in the environmental health field and beyond commenting favourably and looking forward to further issues. The working group and staff responsible for this achievement are to be congratulated. This widespread and positive acceptance has led to the continuation of the Journal resulting in our appointment, by the Institute, as editors. We each lead our respective academic disciplines in the University context – Harold Harvey as the Director of the Environmental Health Protection and Safety centre and Paul Fleming as Academic Co-ordinator of Public Health. We also retain firm links with research and practice development in the field which keeps us firmly grounded in the realities of day-to-day practice.
It is our intention to produce two high quality issues of the Journal each year. An Editorial Board is in the course of being appointed and papers will be research-based and rigorously peer-reviewed. It is our intention that the journal will claim its place on key electronic data-bases at the earliest possible opportunity.
Environmental health research in the UK and Ireland is coming of age. It is our hope that the Journal will make a significant contribution to the increasingly research-based work of Environmental Health professionals.
Each issue of the Journal will be published in three versions; full printed, abstracts and electronic journal. In keeping with the environmental ethos, submissions to the Journal and the peer review process will be managed electronically with no requirement for printed copies. Readers will be encouraged to adapt their literature access methods so that in course of time the electronic version will become the primary means of accessing the Journal.
November 2002