PLOS Medicine editors comment on progress of World Health Report 2012

In this month's editorial, the PLOS Medicine Editors comment on the World Health Organization's (WHO) latest World Health Report, originally planned for publication in 2012, and the outcomes of the journal's collaboration with WHO on the intended theme of "no health without research."

As part of that collaboration, the journal editors and WHO previously called for submission of papers to a joint collection on that theme, inviting "the submission of articles, especially from low- and middle-income countries, on topics related to the strengthening of key functions and components of national health research systems", intended to accompany the official publication of the Report.

The Call for Papers has resulted in a Collection of papers highlighting these topics at http://www.ploscollections.org/whr2012.

However, the PLOS Medicine Editors now report on delays and changes in scope of the Report, saying that "in light of the interest in the Collection, it is disappointing to learn that the 2012 World Health Report will now not exist, at least as originally envisaged… the report has been delayed until 2013." The editors note that "the report's focus will now be oriented towards 'the contributions of research to universal health coverage' but that its scope, and linkages to previous reports in related areas such as the previous report on Health Systems Financing are still unclear."