A Chapter Closes at Environmental Health Perspectives

After 5 years as Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), and at the close of a chapter in the journal’s history, it is time to reflect on my tenure as EIC and the legacy of the journal (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

EHP publishing and editorial team gatherings, 2020–2024.

In my opening editorial,¹ I anticipated some changes at EHP that would be enacted during my tenure as the first EIC who would not be an National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)–based federal scientist. However, I could not have predicted all the changes that would happen over these last 5 years.

Some of the changes were by design. We overhauled editorial processes, conducted a strategic planning summit to collaboratively design the future of EHP, grew the impact of the content we publish, further engaged the scientific community outside of NIEHS in our processes, added new article types, and launched important new initiatives while sunsetting some activities.

Other changes were not planned. Shortly after I joined the journal as EIC, expecting to be the one journal team member not regularly on site at the Institute, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and the entire team transitioned to remote work (Figure 2). The team’s productivity and commitment remained strong. Even while submission volumes to the journal grew substantially, the changes enabled our team to work effectively and efficiently in locations that stretched across the country. The journal thrived and grew from 384 submissions in the first quarter of 2020 to 636 submissions in the first quarter of 2025.

Figure 2.

The EHP team pivoted successfully to remote work.

Now EHP faces an even greater challenge as new funding priorities at the National Institutes of Health spell changes that require a new chapter for the journal.

A Season of Growth

I came to the EIC position at EHP excited about the many possibilities for further growth of a highly respected journal, unique among environmental health science publications. Since its inception in 1972, EHP had been published with support from the NIEHS.² Over the years, the journal launched successful programs in science communication, education, and international outreach, in addition to becoming the premier journal publishing under the broad scope of environmental exposures and human health. Dozens of federal staff and contractors—including many unsung heroes—contributed to its excellence over time, and our rich community of peer reviewers and editorial board members raised EHP to the pinnacle of scholarly publishing.

The journal adapted over the years to the broadening scientific interest in the environmental health sciences and evolved into a highly selective outlet for the most novel and rigorous work in the field, with a reputation for editorial excellence. EHP was on the vanguard of Open Access and has remained a leader in scholarly publishing best practices.

In 2020, we began a series of changes to the peer review flow at the journal to reduce the time to editorial decisions and to engage outside academic experts more deeply in the editorial work of the journal. Since May 2020, Deputy Editors—leading scientists in their disciplines—have worked closely with me and the EHP editorial staff to consider manuscripts for peer review, assist with triage, and make final recommendations for eventual publication of papers.

EHP started publishing two new article types in 2021: Research Letters and Invited Perspectives. Research Letters present brief original research results in a format that supports more rapid dissemination of important research findings. For Invited Perspectives, editors solicit experts to provide brief commentaries on original articles published in EHP and explore broader implications of the new work. Readers and authors have appreciated both of these additions.

Also in 2021, EHP launched the Early Career Researcher Initiative (ECRI) to engage recently fledged environmental health scientists in the operations of the journal. We invited these emerging leaders to advise the initiative and developed processes to encourage new researchers (ECRs) to learn about scholarly publishing, assume the role of editors and authors, and to engage in peer review. By May 2025, 117 ECR reviewers were enrolled in the EHP peer reviewer database. Most of the original advisory panel members, who also conducted frequent high-quality reviews for the journal, accepted our invitations to serve on the EHP Editorial Review Board.

The international program of EHP transformed³ from sharing journal content internationally to creating a venue to publish environmental health science advances from researchers in low-resource settings. The Journal of Health and Pollution (JHP), formerly published by Pure Earth, found a new home at EHP Publishing in 2023, with an editorial process focusing on supporting the development of authors and editors in low- and middle-income countries. Kalpana Balakrishnan assumed the role of JHP EIC.⁴

A New Chapter

The last 4 months have been difficult for the EHP team. We learned that key contracts that provided the staff and processes needed to publish a journal would not receive renewed funding. Given the uncertainty about our operational ability to continue publishing new papers, in April, both EHP and JHP made the difficult decision to stop accepting new submissions and to move papers under consideration through the peer review process to final decisions as quickly as possible. The team heard consistent and unwavering support for the journal from the research community. The staff worked tirelessly to move papers to acceptance at a record pace. Regrettably, dozens of high-quality papers that had been selected for full peer review but had not yet been recommended for acceptance were returned to authors for submission to a different journal. The EHP News Program, which for many years set the standard for science communication in the environmental health sciences, was closed.

Even as these painful changes have occurred and many staff have already found positions elsewhere, the team has worked to set the stage for a sustainable future for EHP that will not depend on its longstanding support from NIEHS. The journal team remains optimistic that the next chapter will allow EHP to continue as the most desirable journal in which to publish advances in environmental health sciences. That future will inevitably mean a loss of some of the special aspects of the publishing program. There are still uncertainties, but the next chapter will no longer have the tight connection to NIEHS; it may not permit the return of the News Program nor allow the journal to waive all publication costs to all authors. We also anticipate a continued pause to the JHP program. Most painful is the loss of the remarkable and talented team that has worked to edit and publish EHP and JHP in their current forms.

Looking forward, I am optimistic that the spirit and history of EHP will be maintained and relaunched under a different publishing model. We are committed to the journal remaining part of a nonprofit publisher and to continuing Open Access publication of all content. The journal must continue to be editorially independent,^5,6 with editors making content decisions without interference from the publisher or from political partisans. Importantly, we have worked to ensure that all published content from the history of EHP will remain freely available to readers and that the articles now posted as “advance publication” will be fully published in the coming months.

As we close this last issue of EHP within NIEHS, there is a remarkable legacy to celebrate. Over the more than 50 years of EHP being published at NIEHS, thousands of authors, peer reviewers, editors, staff, and contractors have contributed to the successes of the journal and associated programs. As the next iteration of EHP comes into focus, I celebrate all these outstanding contributors and invite you to join me in looking forward to a successful new chapter.

Publisher’s Note: For over 50 years, NIEHS has supported Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), a well-regarded, peer-reviewed environmental health sciences journal. One of few scholarly journals supported by the federal government and the only journal supported by NIH publishing original research, EHP published work from extramural scientists, NIEHS scientists, collaborations between the two, and research groups across the globe. The outstanding original research and reviews published in the pages of EHP spanned fundamental, translational, clinical, and public health topics relevant to the critical environmental health issues of the day. The idea for EHP started with former NIEHS Director David Rall, who envisioned a space to publish environmental science findings that had human health implications (Lucier and Hook editorial, 1974, https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.7481). The unique position of EHP fostered a strong sense of belonging and community for the researchers and readers it served, and the journal was pivotal to the development of the environmental health sciences as a recognizable set of disciplines. With support from NIEHS, EHP achieved Open Access status, being free to read since 2004, and eventually migrated to Diamond Open Access status, making the science truly accessible to all. EHP published key findings in environmental health that were editorially independent from industry or corporate influence. To ensure that the journal continues to have both the financial resources and the editorial independence that it needs to succeed, NIEHS leadership took the initiative to release the journal and its archive to an external publisher. By taking these actions, we fully expect that the journal will be well positioned to continue to flourish and to provide outstanding support to the global environmental health sciences community. Richard Woychik, Ph.D., NIEHS Director, and Trevor K. Archer, Ph.D., NIEHS Deputy Director.