AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSISTANT EDITOR DEPUTY EDITOR FEATURE EDITOR IMAGE EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS
EDITOR’S CHOICE Values and Pragmatism Fifteen years ago, a redesign of this journal that resulted from a value-driven strategic planning effort gave us pause to reconsider our title. As part of our mission statement, we assert that, “We aim to embrace all of public health, from global policies to the local needs of public health practitioners.” And yet, our title, American Journal of Public Health [emphasis added] or AJPH denotes a more national and at best regional focus. In the end, given the anticipated loss of continuity and feared confusion among our supporters that might stem from a title change, we opted to use smaller font on the cover for “American Journal of” and emphasize in all-capitals bold font “PUBLIC HEALTH.” Values and pragmatism. A commitment to excellence and the belief that there is much to be learned from experts outside of US national borders led the first author [M.E.N.] to create the role of International Associate Editor, now held by her coauthor [K.R.C.] of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and their colleague, Daniel Tarantola, MD, of Ferney-Voltaire, France. Clearly, other AJPH editors have spent large portions of their lives and careers outside of the United States working on diverse public health priorities, from HIV/AIDS (Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH) to health and human rights (Sofia Gruskin, JD, MIA) to public health history (Elizabeth Fee, PhD). On the other hand, there are critical regions of the globe— notably Asia and sub-Saharan Africa---without an International Associate Editor currently in residence. Still, by reserving 2 of the AJPH editorial slots for colleagues residing outside of the United States and signaling their locations on our masthead, we aim to underscore our commitment to understanding what other societies are doing to prevent disease and protect health among their populations. Values and pragmatism. More than a decade ago, AJPH partnered with Environmental Health Perspectives and Mali Médical to build the capacity of the latter, with support provided by the African Medical Journals Partnership Project (see http://www.malimedical.org). Among the ideas for improving the credibility of Mali Médical was to earn its inclusion in PubMed, the indexing database of the US National Library of Medicine. A key step in this process was to improve the quality of Mali Médical by increasing its publishing regularity. At the time, paper journals were considered the standard, and online only journals were just emerging. Nonetheless, given the opportunity of initial hosting on the Environmental Health Perspectives website, Mali
S194 | Editor's Choice
Médical was able to overcome the challenge of sporadic and sparse funding for paper production and distribution, and swiftly earned entry into PubMed. Values and pragmatism. As detailed by Jon K. Andrus, MD, Georges C. Benjamin, MD, and Jeffrey R. Wilson, PhD, MS, in their accompanying Editorial, this supplement results from an ongoing partnership between the American Public Health Association (APHA), the publisher of AJPH, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the publisher of the Pan American Journal of Public Health. This is not a unique happenstance. Indeed, in December 2002, the AJPH devoted an issue to celebrating the centennial of PAHO, with contributions from George A. O. Alleyne, MD, Director Emeritus of PAHO, and several AJPH editors with close ties to the region. It should be noted that PAHO— founded in 1902 as the International Sanitary Bureau---predates the World Health Organization (WHO), which was founded in 1948. From its origins as a sanitary institution concerned with ports and trade, PAHO developed into a truly international organization with a major service record for public health in the Americas and even the world. In this sense, its trajectory has been parallel to that of AJPH. Values and pragmatism. The AJPH Editorial Board has long sought to translate AJPH papers to Spanish and other languages in addition to English to ensure its content is not only read by public health enthusiasts around the globe but also acted upon wherever warranted. How much impact can 3 research papers make to the realization of this vision? As per the theme of National Public Health Week, April 7---13, 2014, with the publication of this supplement we “Start Here.” Where we end up depends upon the evolving goals of this partnership and the collective resolve to achieve them. Values and pragmatism. j
Mary E Northridge, PhD, MPH Editor-in-Chief, AJPH Kenneth Rochel de Camargo Jr, MD, PhD International Associate Editor, AJPH doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.301986
Mary E. Northridge, PhD, MPH Cynthia Golembeski, MPH Farzana Kapadia, PhD Gabriel N. Stover, MPA Aleisha Kropf Hortensia Amaro, PhD Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH Michael R. Greenberg, PhD Sofia Gruskin, JD, MIA Said Ibrahim, MD, MPH Robert J. Kim-Farley, MD, MPH Stewart J. Landers, JD, MCP Stella M. Yu, ScD, MPH ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR STATISTICS AND EVALUATION Roger Vaughan, DrPH, MS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATE EDITORS Kenneth Rochel de Camargo Jr, MD, PhD (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Daniel Tarantola, MD (Ferney-Voltaire, France) DEPARTMENT EDITORS Roy Grant, MA Government, Law, and Public Health Practice Public Health Policy Briefs Elizabeth Fee, PhD, and Theodore M. Brown, PhD Images of Health Public Health Then and Now Voices From the Past Mark A. Rothstein, JD Public Health Ethics Kenneth R. McLeroy, PhD, and Deborah Holtzman, PhD, MSW Framing Health Matters EDITORIAL BOARD Jeffrey R. Wilson, PhD, MS (2015), Chair Chinua Akukwe, MPH (2015) Caroline Bergeron, MSc (2016) Eric R. Buhi, PhD (2016) Keith Elder, PhD, MPH (2016) Thomas Greenfield, PhD (2015) Jeffrey Hallam, PhD (2014) Dio Kavalieratos, PhD (2016) Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH (2015) Justin B. Moore, PhD (2016) Samuel L. Posner, PhD (2015) Joan Reede, MD, MPH (2014) Helena Temkin-Greener, PhD, MPH (2014) David H. Wegman, MD, MSc (2014) Ruth Zambrana, PhD (2016) STAFF Georges C. Benjamin, MD Executive Director/Publisher Ashell Alston, Interim Publications Director Brian Selzer, Interim Deputy Publications Director Jamie Smith, Production Coordinator Michael Henry, Associate Production Editor (Sr) Aisha Jamil, Associate Production Editor (Jr) Mazin Abdelgader, Graphic Designer Vivian Tinsley, Subscriptions Manager FREELANCE STAFF Kelly Burch, Greg Edmondson, John Lane, Gary Norton, Michelle Quirk, Alisa Riccardi, Trish Weisman, Eileen Wolfberg, Copyeditors Sarah Cook, Marci McGrath, Chris Smith, Proofreaders Vanessa Sifford, Graphic Designer
American Journal of Public Health | Supplement 2 2014, Vol 104, No. S2
EDITOR’S CHOICE Values and Pragmatism Fifteen years ago, a redesign of this journal that resulted from a value-driven strategic planning effort gave us pause to reconsider our title. As part of our mission statement, we assert that, “We aim to embrace all of public health, from global policies to the local needs of public health practitioners.” And yet, our title, American Journal of Public Health [emphasis added] or AJPH denotes a more national and at best regional focus. In the end, given the anticipated loss of continuity and feared confusion among our supporters that might stem from a title change, we opted to use smaller font on the cover for “American Journal of” and emphasize in all-capitals bold font “PUBLIC HEALTH.” Values and pragmatism. A commitment to excellence and the belief that there is much to be learned from experts outside of US national borders led the first author [M.E.N.] to create the role of International Associate Editor, now held by her coauthor [K.R.C.] of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and their colleague, Daniel Tarantola, MD, of Ferney-Voltaire, France. Clearly, other AJPH editors have spent large portions of their lives and careers outside of the United States working on diverse public health priorities, from HIV/AIDS (Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH) to health and human rights (Sofia Gruskin, JD, MIA) to public health history (Elizabeth Fee, PhD). On the other hand, there are critical regions of the globe— notably Asia and sub-Saharan Africa---without an International Associate Editor currently in residence. Still, by reserving 2 of the AJPH editorial slots for colleagues residing outside of the United States and signaling their locations on our masthead, we aim to underscore our commitment to understanding what other societies are doing to prevent disease and protect health among their populations. Values and pragmatism. More than a decade ago, AJPH partnered with Environmental Health Perspectives and Mali Médical to build the capacity of the latter, with support provided by the African Medical Journals Partnership Project (see http://www.malimedical.org). Among the ideas for improving the credibility of Mali Médical was to earn its inclusion in PubMed, the indexing database of the US National Library of Medicine. A key step in this process was to improve the quality of Mali Médical by increasing its publishing regularity. At the time, paper journals were considered the standard, and online only journals were just emerging. Nonetheless, given the opportunity of initial hosting on the Environmental Health Perspectives website, Mali
S194 | Editor's Choice
Médical was able to overcome the challenge of sporadic and sparse funding for paper production and distribution, and swiftly earned entry into PubMed. Values and pragmatism. As detailed by Jon K. Andrus, MD, Georges C. Benjamin, MD, and Jeffrey R. Wilson, PhD, MS, in their accompanying Editorial, this supplement results from an ongoing partnership between the American Public Health Association (APHA), the publisher of AJPH, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the publisher of the Pan American Journal of Public Health. This is not a unique happenstance. Indeed, in December 2002, the AJPH devoted an issue to celebrating the centennial of PAHO, with contributions from George A. O. Alleyne, MD, Director Emeritus of PAHO, and several AJPH editors with close ties to the region. It should be noted that PAHO— founded in 1902 as the International Sanitary Bureau---predates the World Health Organization (WHO), which was founded in 1948. From its origins as a sanitary institution concerned with ports and trade, PAHO developed into a truly international organization with a major service record for public health in the Americas and even the world. In this sense, its trajectory has been parallel to that of AJPH. Values and pragmatism. The AJPH Editorial Board has long sought to translate AJPH papers to Spanish and other languages in addition to English to ensure its content is not only read by public health enthusiasts around the globe but also acted upon wherever warranted. How much impact can 3 research papers make to the realization of this vision? As per the theme of National Public Health Week, April 7---13, 2014, with the publication of this supplement we “Start Here.” Where we end up depends upon the evolving goals of this partnership and the collective resolve to achieve them. Values and pragmatism. j
Mary E Northridge, PhD, MPH Editor-in-Chief, AJPH Kenneth Rochel de Camargo Jr, MD, PhD International Associate Editor, AJPH doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.301986
Mary E. Northridge, PhD, MPH Cynthia Golembeski, MPH Farzana Kapadia, PhD Gabriel N. Stover, MPA Aleisha Kropf Hortensia Amaro, PhD Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH Michael R. Greenberg, PhD Sofia Gruskin, JD, MIA Said Ibrahim, MD, MPH Robert J. Kim-Farley, MD, MPH Stewart J. Landers, JD, MCP Stella M. Yu, ScD, MPH ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR STATISTICS AND EVALUATION Roger Vaughan, DrPH, MS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATE EDITORS Kenneth Rochel de Camargo Jr, MD, PhD (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Daniel Tarantola, MD (Ferney-Voltaire, France) DEPARTMENT EDITORS Roy Grant, MA Government, Law, and Public Health Practice Public Health Policy Briefs Elizabeth Fee, PhD, and Theodore M. Brown, PhD Images of Health Public Health Then and Now Voices From the Past Mark A. Rothstein, JD Public Health Ethics Kenneth R. McLeroy, PhD, and Deborah Holtzman, PhD, MSW Framing Health Matters EDITORIAL BOARD Jeffrey R. Wilson, PhD, MS (2015), Chair Chinua Akukwe, MPH (2015) Caroline Bergeron, MSc (2016) Eric R. Buhi, PhD (2016) Keith Elder, PhD, MPH (2016) Thomas Greenfield, PhD (2015) Jeffrey Hallam, PhD (2014) Dio Kavalieratos, PhD (2016) Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH (2015) Justin B. Moore, PhD (2016) Samuel L. Posner, PhD (2015) Joan Reede, MD, MPH (2014) Helena Temkin-Greener, PhD, MPH (2014) David H. Wegman, MD, MSc (2014) Ruth Zambrana, PhD (2016) STAFF Georges C. Benjamin, MD Executive Director/Publisher Ashell Alston, Interim Publications Director Brian Selzer, Interim Deputy Publications Director Jamie Smith, Production Coordinator Michael Henry, Associate Production Editor (Sr) Aisha Jamil, Associate Production Editor (Jr) Mazin Abdelgader, Graphic Designer Vivian Tinsley, Subscriptions Manager FREELANCE STAFF Kelly Burch, Greg Edmondson, John Lane, Gary Norton, Michelle Quirk, Alisa Riccardi, Trish Weisman, Eileen Wolfberg, Copyeditors Sarah Cook, Marci McGrath, Chris Smith, Proofreaders Vanessa Sifford, Graphic Designer
American Journal of Public Health | Supplement 2 2014, Vol 104, No. S2
