This week we are carrying on our deep dive into Hot Topics from Cambridge, focusing on our Mental Health collection, in connection with Mental Health Awareness Week.

Hot Topics from Cambridge are bespoke eBook collections, produced to showcase the latest trends in research. Highlighting Cambridge’s breadth of publishing, the collections explore pertinent research topics within a wide range of subjects in Humanities and Social Sciences, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

In discussion with Commissioning Editor Sarah Marsh and Executive Publisher Catherine Barnes, at Cambridge University Press, we explore our Mental Health collection, where you can find popular titles like Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder by Jennifer J. Thomas and Kamryn T. Eddy, the first book of its kind to offer a specialist treatment for ARFID, and Social Scaffolding, which explores how social factors and social identity influence our health and recovery from illness.

Why is Mental Health content important and how can librarians benefit from this collection?

Dr Brock Chisholm, the first Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) was a psychiatrist and he famously stated that “without mental health there can be no true physical health”. Never has this statement been more meaningful, as we deal with the physical and mental health challenges exacerbated by a global pandemic. As a department of the University of Cambridge and a leading academic Press, we are in a prime position to support mental health professionals in both their research and practice, in order to improve outcomes for patients.

Mental health is the largest sub-set of the Press’s book publishing in medicine and we are the go-to publisher for authors in the field. The speciality embraces the team ethos of care, comprising groups such as psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, advanced nurse practitioners, counsellors, social workers, and service planners/managers. Libraries benefit from the breadth of our high quality, international publishing across the major specialities in mental health: psychiatry, psychopharmacology (the biological part of psychiatry) and clinical psychology (the non-drug, therapeutic part) as well as having access to many highly respected titles from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, our publishing partner. Our list is particularly strong in psychopharmacology and the major disorder groups such as depression, schizophrenia, and OCD with significant clusters of titles in addiction, eating disorders, and old age psychiatry. The list dovetails neatly with Cambridge’s other core publishing in neurology, clinical neuroscience, and neuropsychology.

All of our Hot Topics reflect the latest research trends in their given subject areas. How are the titles selected for this collection? What parameters do editors follow?

We aim to choose titles which cover the topics of most interest to academic researchers, providing variety and international coverage from highly respected authors in their field. The selected titles include bestsellers, ground-breaking research, and international coverage across a diverse range of topics.

What makes our collection stand out? Why would you recommend our collection over similar collections from other publishers?

Over a number of years, the Press has focused on developing a fully-round publishing programme in mental health by ‘mapping-out’ the field across subject areas and markets, to ensure that we are able to offer invaluable content to our readers. This disciplined approach, as well as our ability to attract the top authors, have ensured that Cambridge is the leading international publisher in mental health. Cambridge University Press works closely with academics at the University of Cambridge, and others around the world, to enhance its publishing. As part of the University of Cambridge, we are uniquely positioned to transform key insights from research into impactful, real-world teaching and learning content; this means our approach reflects the very latest in academic research into effective teaching and learning.

What is your favourite part of creating these bespoke collections?

Creating these collections is wonderfully indulging for us as it allows us to look back at our publishing and how it has developed over the years. It’s an opportunity to remind ourselves of all of the great books on our list!

The theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’, focusing on five pillars that are key to supporting and improving your mental health, modelled by the New Economics Foundation. These are ‘Connect’, ‘Take Notice’, ‘Give’, ‘Be Active’, and ‘Keep Learning’.  With one in four of us being affected by mental health problems, and the long-lasting effects of a global pandemic, now it is more important than ever to look after your mental health, and support others.

If you would like to find out more about our Mental Health Hot Topic, or any of the other Hot Topic collections, please drop us an email using the details below.

Asia: asiamktg@cambridge.org

India: academicmarketingindia@cambridge.org

Americas: online@cambridge.org

Rest of World: library.sales@cambridge.org