Welcome to the new ISOQOL e-newsletter!

Joanne Greenhalgh, PhD
University of Leeds

As president of the International Society for Quality of Life Research, I am pleased to introduce our new and improved newsletter, QualityTALK. I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who submitted a suggestion to the newsletter naming contest held last autumn, particularly our contest winner, Nikki Ow.

It has been a long-term goal of ISOQOL’s to share more scientific content in our communications that is of interest to our membership and others in the health related quality of life (HRQL) field. The new format of the newsletter will help us do exactly that. As part of ISOQOL’s five-year Strategic Plan, we have worked to increase awareness, recognition and support of ISOQOL as the trusted authority in the field. QualityTALK aligns with this goal and allows for easy shareability on all things HRQL.

The newsletter will consist of three main sections:

1. Science TALK will be the focus of the newsletter to aid in our goals for ISOQOL’s communications. Pieces in this section include editorials on ISOQOL endorsed papers, plain English summaries published in QLR and JPRO, as well as emerging topics in the field.

   If you’d like to see your own plain English summary in QualityTALK, you can! ISOQOL is teaming up with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to bring a Communicating Science Webinar to the ISOQOL e-learning platform. The webinar will demonstrate the most effective way to communicate with a lay audience, focusing on the inclusion of plain English summaries with journal submissions.

2. Members TALK highlights ISOQOL members, including leadership, past presidents and award winners.
3. SIG TALK features news, projects and opinions from ISOQOL Special Interest Groups. SIGs accomplish a lot of great work as the grassroots of the Society, and we want to share that!

All editorials in QualityTALK will be archived on the News section of the ISOQOL website for posterity and easy access. We encourage you to share newsletter issues or individual editorials with anyone you think would be interested. ISOQOL will also continue to send our bi-monthly News Update emails for all Society news and announcements.

Lastly, I would like to thank the ISOQOL Communications Committee for their work on the newsletter. They will continue to provide input for incoming newsletter editorials regarding the relevancy, quality, and appropriateness of scientific content.

I hope you are as excited for QualityTALK as I am!

Sincerely,
Joanne Greenhalgh

Interested in learning more about plain English summaries?

In an effort to increase manuscript citations and promote the application of health related quality of life research, ISOQOL added plain English summaries to the ISOQOL Journals submission process.

Adding a plain English summary to your paper submission will help broaden the reach of the article and bring it to the attention of a wider audience. You can view more information about plain English summaries at the ISOQOL website.

Using plain English summaries and other communication methods as working examples, the upcoming Communicating Science Webinar will:

• Develop your public engagement and science communication skills by focusing on the importance of effective, two-way communication
• Enable you to engage in meaningful, reciprocal dialogue with diverse audiences
• Teach how to clearly identify a public engagement goal, define a relevant audience, craft messages tailored to that audience and consider the most effective method for engaging that audience.

This newsletter editorial represents the views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ISOQOL. 

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