Aims and Purposes

The COMET (Communication, Medicine and Ethics) Society is planned as a multidisciplinary network of researchers, educators, healthcare professionals and research students. Its objective is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and the promotion of the study of communication-oriented research and development within the broad fields of healthcare communication, taking in interactional, institutional/organisational, and policy perspectives.

The successful launch in 2003 of a series of annual international COMET conferences, together with the publication of the journal Communication & Medicine since 2004, provide two important grounds for the establishment of such a Society.

The COMET Society will offer a forum for international participation. It will be initially co-ordinated by Srikant Sarangi (Health Communication Research Centre, Cardiff University, UK), Peter Schulz (Health Care Communication Laboratory, University of Lugano, Switzerland), Christopher N Candlin (Centre for Language in Social Life, Macquarie University, Australia) and Paul Crawford (Health Language Research Group, The University of Nottingham). The Society plans an Advisory Executive Board, which will include a representative from Mouton de Gruyter, as the publishers of Communication & Medicine. Initially, the Health Communication Research Centre, Cardiff University, will act as the host institution for the Society.

Activities

To include:

• Support for the organisation and promotion of COMET conferences.
• Support for the organisation and promotion of workshops, summer schools, special sessions on key themes (e.g., project planning; getting published; curriculum development; public engagement; bibliographical resources etc.)
• Support for the further development of the journal Communication & Medicine.
• Support for research students to participate in COMET conferences, and related events,  for example, through the provision of bursaries.
• Support for the development of online linkage and information/ideas exchange among members, through its website.
• Support for the establishment of collaborative projects with existing networks and associations in the field.

Several categories of membership are proposed:

• Individual (standard): for individual academics and researchers, healthcare professionals, and practitioners.
• Individual (student): for registered research students who need to present certification of their current status.
• Institutional: for recognised research centres and university/college departments; departments of medicine and healthcare; and professional associations.
• Institutional: for publishers and other commercial organisations in the fields of the Society.

Membership Benefits

• Advance notification of the Call for Papers and other information about the annual international COMET conference and related regional/national events.
• Provision of discounted participation rates at the annual COMET conference and other associated events.
• Enabling of access to the COMET society listserv.
• Provision of regular email messages about special events and opportunities, as well as updates and additions to the Society website.
• Provision of discounted subscription to the journal Communication & Medicine.
• Circulating of current listings of relevant employment/research opportunities.
• Opportunities for the promotion of relevant publications/programs at Society-related events and conferences.

Membership fee

This will be variable to reflect the different membership categories and associated benefits.

Coordinators

Srikant Sarangi ~ Cardiff University, United Kingdom

Christopher N. Candlin ~ Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Peter Schulz ~ Health Care Communication Laboratory, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

Paul Crawford ~ School of Nursing, University of Nottingham

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