Editorial - Advocating for public health: does the real world matter?

Abstract

Researchers are, with some exceptions, notoriously reluctant to occupy the public stage. With some notable exceptions, their work is mostly done behind a screen of academic or organisational inscrutability, with findings being revealed via journals boasting a readership, if one is lucky, of a few hundred. It?s not uncommon for research findings to be regarded as highly successful if they?ve been cited by a dozen other authors. Many articles are read and acted upon by almost no-one, even though they may represent a considerable advance in knowledge. Attacking the academic publishing system is not the intention of this editorial, as appropriate as such an attack may be. What this does suggest, however, is that researchers concerned with improving public health and wellbeing need to re-think strategy. Observation of the public health and health promotion record over many years suggests that health promotion should be rooted in the idea that research must be tied to action; to be effective, evidence must be operationalised. The truth may indeed set us free, but it needs to be effectively deployed before that happy consequence can be realised.