In 1999, the Journal created a new department, Public Health Matters, to identify and bring to light public health research and practice beyond the disciplines of epidemiology and clinical medicine. In a November 1999 editorial ( Levin BW, Northridge ME. Why “public health matters.” Am J Public Health. 1999;89: 1631–1632 ), Betty Levin, then department editor, and Editor-in-Chief Mary Northridge described the new department as one that would promote high-quality public health research from the social and behavioral sciences; multi-disciplinary and transdisciplinary research; and a variety of research methods, including qualitative and multiple methods. The department would feature a range of article types, including synthesis articles and articles examining basic social and behavioral science constructs used in public health research and practice, such as race, socioeconomic status, disparities, and gender. These articles would be written in a style that would be accessible to readers in disciplines and fields related to the social and behavioral sciences. Our purpose here is to alert readers and contributors that we are making some changes (e.g., the name of the department, some aspects of the format), although we are keeping the same basic mission as when the department was created.
How we think about the causes of public health problems and how we choose to intervene (Tesh SN. Hidden Arguments: Political Ideology and Disease Prevention Policy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press; 1988) are dependent on the perspective each of us brings to this task of discovery. Since one of the critical roles played by any discipline—for our purposes, the social and behavioral sciences—is to frame issues, we have chosen to change the name Public Health Matters to Framing Health Matters. If you have a bit of whimsy, you can read the department title as “Framing Health Matters?” or “Framing Health Matters!”
In addition, because many of the articles for this department require a format different from traditional research and practice articles, we have adopted an analytic essay format that joins the existing research and practice format. The analytic essay format to be used with Framing Health Matters allows up to 6500 words in the main text, 4 tables/figures, an unstructured abstract of 120 words, and Chicago or AMA style for references. However, we strongly encourage authors using the analytic essay format not to exceed 4000 words unless absolutely necessary.
As newly appointed editors for the department, we want to celebrate the progress that has been made in the coverage of social and behavioral sciences under the direction of Levin and Northridge and to indicate our strong support for the department’s original vision. We believe that the public health problems with which we as a society are struggling need the commitment, participation, and understanding provided by the social and behavioral sciences. We want to emphasize the importance of using methods appropriate to the questions under study, the importance of viewpoints reflecting multiple disciplines, the importance of alternative research designs and methods, and the importance of appropriate frameworks in addressing public health problems. We appreciate new ideas and thoughtful questions that substantiate the value and the contributions of the social and behavioral sciences to public health research and practice. We encourage social scientists to submit articles to Framing Health Matters and hope that the changes we have made will better accommodate their work and the important role of social and behavioral science in public health.