A critical discourse analysis of how public participants and their evidence are presented in health impact assessment reports in Wales.

This analysis suggests that participants and their evidence are presented in specific ways within HIA reports and that these are particularly shaped by genre, authorial stances and approaches to abstracting and re-ordering texts. Acknowledging these issues may create opportunities to develop HIA in new directions. Further research to test these conclusions and contribute to a wider "sociology of public health documents" would be of value.