Call for Submissions

Figurative language in medical discourse

Section Editor: Maria Grazia Rossi (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

We are looking for submissions to a special section of Patient Education and Counseling (PEC), focusing on “Figurative language in medical discourse.” This section explores the use of different figurative framing tools (such as metaphors, analogies, etc.) in medical interactions.

We invite submissions that provide insights into how medical concepts are framed through figurative language and ‘translated’ to a lay public in terms of common knowledge. The special section mainly focuses on the different uses of figurative language and their impact on understanding and changing health-related behaviours in diverse medical contexts and conditions.

Key dimensions for exploring different figurative framing tools include but are not limited to:

• their role in understanding and decision-making in medical interactions
• their role in explaining medical jargon
• their uses in communicating values and emotions in medical interactions
• their uses in intercultural communication
• their uses with disprivileged patients and/or with patients with low health literacy

Contributions should address one or more of these dimensions and ground them in records of actual clinical interaction and medical discourse through discursive analysis, medical argumentation, conversation analysis, cognitive theory, experimental approaches such as discursive psychology and related approaches.

We particularly welcome contributions from the global south.

Submissions should adhere to the PEC guidelines for authors. Submissions will be judged on their direct link to the special section focus, the inclusion of practice implications and clarity.

Key dates

Submission Deadline: 31 September 2024

Notification date: 15 October 2024

Completed articles due: 15 December 2024

For further details contact Maria Grazia Rossi (mgrazia.rossi@fcsh.unl.pt)

Submission of Abstracts:

Your abstract of 500 words should be sent to the special section editors in the first instance by email: mgrazia.rossi@fcsh.unl.pt. Please include title, author names and affiliations. The special section editor will review all abstracts to ensure they fit with the remit of this section.

If your abstract is accepted, a full article of no longer than 4,000 words (excluding abstract, acknowledgements, references, tables, figures, and conflict of interest statements) should be submitted by 15 December 2024. Please note that your publication remains subject to peer review. Authors should closely adhere to the journal guidelines for article types and the submission process.