Meet the Editor! Peter Francis Raguindin, new Editor in Chief of the Young Researcher Editorial series

We are happy to host an interview with Peter Francis Raguindin, the new Editor-in-Chief of our Young Researcher Editorials (YRE) series! Any comments? Share them below or directly to Peter on Twitter (@feeterprawnsees)

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am Peter, a Filipino, currently in my final year of my Ph.D. at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine- University of Bern.  I finished Medicine and did further clinical training in Pediatrics in the Philippines (Manila). I did a double degree Masters in Vaccinology and in Cell and Molecular Biology from France (Lyon), Belgium (Antwerp), and Spain (Barcelona). My research interests continuously evolve and cover infectious diseases, child health, cardiology, women’s health, and spinal cord injury. I am a movie junkie (but not tv series!), a non-fiction book fanatic, and a home buddy (even before the pandemic started!). I am an avid fan of the Oxford comma (please, this is extremely important). I listen to a lot of Reggaeton. I sing in the shower, dance inside my room, and devour a lot of documentary films in my free time. I prefer beaches over mountains, summer over winter, drama films over comedy, sad stories over happy endings, and cheeses over chocolates.

How did you become involved with IJPH and the YRE?

In my opinion, communication is the most challenging task for a researcher – this goes for both spoken and written form, and for which the latter seems more challenging. I have always been interested in medical writing. Thus, I have been looking for some extracurricular work that can enhance my writing skills. I saw a prospect through the Swiss Schools of Public Health through their innovative program with the International Journal of Public Health. The Young Researcher Editorials Series empowers Ph.D. students by giving them an opportunity to be heard by the scientific community.

What will your priorities be as an Editor in Chief of the YRE?

Vasilis has set the standards higher for the series. We have had the most number of editorials under his term. My main goal for my term is to promote equity by giving more space for PhDs in the global south. I plan to regionalize the call to ensure that we are getting submissions from all parts of the globe. My second priority is to give space to non-pandemic-related topics. The current pandemic has resulted in an onslaught of papers (including editorials) related to the pandemic. And although the pandemic will not end very soon, I would like to provide a space to Ph.D. students whose work goes unnoticed because of the current bias over pandemic-related research. I would like to give space for emerging topics, like planetary health, healthy aging, and health among special groups (e.g., immigrants, transgender, people with disabilities). Finally, the shift to a new publisher has caused glitches in our workflow. I plan to organize this the soonest so that both the authors and our editors would have a pleasing experience. Of course, all these would not be possible with the help of the team, Diana Buitrago Garcia (Bern), German Guerra (Geneva), Ana Cecilia Quiroga (Lucerne), and the outgoing EIC, Vasilis Nittas (Zurich). We represent a diverse group, coming from different universities, expertise, and background.

How could someone get involved in the YRE?

If you are a student or a junior postdoc in one of the affiliated institutes of the Swiss Schools of Public Health, then you are most welcome to join our team. We are currently in need of two more editors willing to take on the challenges in scientific publishing. Kindly send your curriculum vitae and a short motivation letter to peter.raguindin@ispm.unibe.ch (Peter Francis Raguindin).

Otherwise, one could submit their manuscripts through our online platform. We look forward to receiving manuscripts from Ph.D. students and junior postdocs from different parts of the world who want to discuss emerging topics that need to be heard.

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