Dr Sarah Parker (Centre for Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine) and Dr Louise Caffrey (School of Social Work and Social Policy) are guest editing a new Special Issue for the journal Systems, titled Systems Approaches to Public Health: Navigating Complexity and Advancing Equity.

Public health challenges such as pandemics, climate change, chronic disease and widening inequalities arise from complex adaptive systems in which social, technical and biological factors interact. Although systems thinking and complexity science are increasingly recognised as essential to addressing these challenges, practical applications remain limited. The Special Issue seeks to advance the field from thinking in systems to doing in systems by showcasing work that applies systems concepts in real-world public health contexts.

The editors invite contributions that demonstrate how systems approaches inform the design, implementation, analysis or evaluation of interventions, policies or practices, with particular attention to equity, resilience and system-level change. Empirical studies, methodological advances and conceptual papers are all welcome.

 Key information

  • Submission deadline: 31 July 2026
  • Article types: Research articles, reviews and short communications

Researchers working on public health, health systems, equity, complexity science or related areas are encouraged to consider submitting.

For further information, please contact Dr Parker (SAPARKER@tcd.ie ) or Dr Caffrey (louise.caffrey@tcd.ie)