THE SCIENCE AND POLITICS OF POPULATION HEALTH: GIVING HEALTH A GREATER ROLE IN P

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This paper argues that there are several gaps in the dominant scientific and political perspectives on population health, which, if closed, would help to give health a bigger role in setting national and global priorities and policies. The paper is an example of transdisciplinary synthesis, ranging across several, discrete research fields and disciplines to make a broad statement about the social significance of population health.
There is a story behind the paper. It was rejected by five international health journals over a two-year period before being published in an online journal that uses a novel post-publication review process. The story illustrates problems with scientific publication, especially its system of ‘blind’ (anonymous) peer reviews. So I decided to supplement the paper in this publication with a commentary on the journals’ responses to the paper, the reviews of the published paper, and an invited column about synthesis and its hazards for a science magazine.