37.2023, Calls: Qualitative Health Communication - "Special Issue: Helpline Communication in Healthcare, Social Work, and Civil Society" (Jrnl)

Tue Jun 9 10:05:02 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2023. Tue Jun 09 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2023, Calls: Qualitative Health Communication - "Special Issue: Helpline Communication in Healthcare, Social Work, and Civil Society" (Jrnl)

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Date: 08-Jun-2026
From: Matilde Nisbeth Brøgger [matnj at cc.au.dk]
Subject: Qualitative Health Communication - "Special Issue: Helpline Communication in Healthcare, Social Work, and Civil Society" (Jrnl)

Journal: Qualitative Health Communication
Issue: Helpline Communication in Healthcare, Social Work, and Civil
Society
Call Deadline: 01-Sep-2026

People facing various difficult life situations, crises, or
vulnerabilities have a range of mediated options for seeking help and
support. These include emergency services, teleconsultations within
traditional healthcare, and mediated interactions with social workers
and civil society organizations, such as helplines, which offer
various forms of anonymous support. This special issue of Qualitative
Health Communication invites contributions that explore helpline
communication in its broadest sense and across different
organizational contexts.
By “helpline”, we understand services that provide mediated,
low-threshold and free support to individuals navigating difficult
life situations, operating across a range of media — telephone, chat,
email, SMS, and beyond. Within the health domain, helplines are
typically operated either by NGOs connecting individuals with specific
concerns to trained professionals, volunteers, or peers, or by public
sector institutions such as emergency services within hospital or
social care settings. “Helpline communication” thus includes any
mediated interaction between users and responders involved in
providing help to these users, as well as the broader communicative
practices, policies, and technologies that shape such interactions.
We are particularly interested in contributions that engage critically
and reflexively with the communicative dimensions of helpline work —
whether at the level of individual interaction, organizational
practice, or societal discourse. As helplines increasingly integrate
digital technologies, serve diverse and multilingual populations, and
navigate complex ethical terrain, qualitative approaches are uniquely
positioned to illuminate the lived experiences, relational dynamics,
and institutional forces at play.
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
 - Helpline communication for emergency services
 - Helplines in civil society
 - Communicative norms and expectations in helpline work
 - The language and imagery of helpline communication
 - Synchronous and asynchronous communication in helpline work
 - Helplines as spaces for mental health support, therapy, or health
coaching
 - User and patient perceptions and experiences of helpline use
 - The narrative and discursive construction of trust, authority, or
empathy in helpline interactions
 - Ethical tensions in helpline communication
 - Institutional discourses and policies shaping communicative
practices in helplines
 - Helplines in multilingual and multicultural health contexts
 - Training helpline responders in communication skills
 - The use of AI, machine learning, or other technologies in helpline
communication
 - Communicating with frequent users or specific user segments
We welcome articles that deal with one or some of the above topics as
well as other topics related to helpline communication.
Submission types: We welcome original research articles, literature
reviews, conceptual papers, theoretical contributions, and
methodological pieces. All submissions must have a strong qualitative
focus and engage with questions relevant to health communication.
Interdisciplinary perspectives are encouraged.
Guest Editors:
Trine Natasja Sindahl, Aarhus University, Denmark
Tine Bennedsen Gehrt, Aarhus University and Central Denmark Region,
Denmark
Carsten Stage, Aarhus University, Denmark
Timeline:
Call for papers published: 1 June 2026
Brief abstract by mail: 1 September 2026
Notification: 15 September 2026
Manuscript submission: 15 December 2026
Peer review process: 15 December 2026 - 1 February 2027
Revision process: 1 February - 10 March 2027
Final decision and notification: 1 April 2027
Copyediting: 1 April - 15 May 2027
Publication of the special issue: May 2027
Submission Guidelines:
Interested contributors are invited to send a brief abstract (100-200
words) addressing the research topic, the helpline, data and the
qualitative methods applied by 1 September 2026 to the journal’s email
address (qhc-journal at au.dk). Authors will receive notification of
whether their potential contribution is considered within the scope of
the special issue by 15 September 2026. Manuscripts are due by 15
December 2026.
Full manuscript submissions should be submitted through the journal's
online submission system. Articles will go through the ordinary peer
review process. Please indicate in the cover letter that your
submission is intended for the special issue on “Helpline
Communication”. Authors should adhere to the journal's author
guidelines (https://tidsskrift.dk/qhc/about/submissions).

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Discourse Analysis
                     General Linguistics

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