Call for papers

Submissions have been reviewed and notices of conference acceptances have been sent.

Education has long-term implications for health that are believed to last well into old age, and is also a key determinant of late-life social disparities in health. However, there is limited understanding of the causal mechanisms linking education and health in older age across different cultural, socioeconomic, and policy contexts. To improve this understanding, the Gateway to Global Aging Data and Social Science and Medicine invite submissions for a conference and special issue dedicated to interdisciplinary research studying how education influences health and ageing globally.

We welcome contributions that use rigorous empirical quantitative causal inference methods, as well as interdisciplinary perspectives from sociology, psychology, public health, economics, and beyond. We particularly encourage original articles that leverage global variation in educational trajectories and policies using longitudinal data. Use of the Gateway to Global Aging Data – which is funded by the National Institute of Aging and facilitates longitudinal and cross-country research on aging, health, retirement, and education using data from the Health and Retirement Study and its International Network of Studies – is welcomed but not required. We welcome submissions from all regions worldwide, and particularly encourage studies based in LMICs.

Submissions are encouraged to explore, but are not limited to, global research on the following themes:

• Role of education in explaining disparities in physical, mental and cognitive health
• Effects of education on cognitive decline and dementia, and the role of education in mitigating age-related cognitive impairment
• Studies that leverage cross-national or cross-state variation to understand the health impact of education policies that affect access, type and quality of education
• Impact of education on health across generations, e.g., the impact of children’s education on parent’s health, or the impact of parent’s education on offspring health
• Long-run effects of early childhood education and childcare on late-life health

The conference will take place in Boston, Massachusetts from September 4-5, 2025.

Deadlines:

April 21, 2025: Submissions due

Submissions can either be a draft manuscript or an extended abstract of up to 5 pages describing the research question and motivation, data and research methods, and preliminary results. Submissions can be made through edu.conference@g2aging.org

May 30, 2025: Authors of accepted papers for conference will be notified. Selected authors are expected to attend the conference in September 2025, with reasonable travel expenses and attendance being sponsored by the Gateway to Global Aging.

August 14, 2025:  Paper draft due

Authors of accepted papers for the conference must send their paper drafts to their assigned discussants.

September 12, 2025: Authors of selected papers for the special issue will be notified. All invited papers will undergo the journal’s scientific review process. Invitation to submit to the special issue does not guarantee acceptance of the invited manuscript.

November 14, 2025: Submissions for the special issue are due to Social Science and Medicine

Managing guest editors and conference organizing committee:

• Mauricio Avendano, University of Lausanne
• Maria Glymour, Boston University
• David Knapp, University of Southern California
• Jinkook Lee, University of Southern California

Conference Scientific Committee:

• Mauricio Avendano, University of Lausanne
• Marco Bertoni, University of Padova
• Maria Glymour, Boston University
• Pamela Herd, University of Michigan
• David Knapp, University of Southern California
• Jinkook Lee, University of Southern California
• Emma Nichols, University of Southern California
• Francisco Perez-Arce, University of Southern California
• Jacqueline Torres, University of California, San Francisco
• Katrina Walsemann, University of Maryland