100 YEARS AGO
The Laboratory in the Service of the State
The main work of either the state or the city public health laboratory may conveniently be grouped under five headings: Diagnosis, Preparation of Sera and Vaccines, Examination of Water and Sewage, Examination of Foods and Drugs, and Examination of Milk. . . . If the progress of diagnostic work in the state laboratories seems rapid and encouraging, developments in the line of preparing prophylactic and curative sera and vaccines are much more modest. . . . It is somewhat surprising to find that only five states . . . prepare diphtheria antitoxin, while only one (New York) makes tetanus antitoxin and only one (Massachusetts) smallpox vaccine.
From AJPH, March 1916
50 YEARS AGO
Committee on Public Policy and Legislation
[T]he APHA has been extremely active in the considerations of the Congress . . . and has attempted . . . to represent the best interests of the public. . . . The APHA successfully supported an appropriation to the Public Health Service to establish the National Clearing House on Cigarette Smoking and Health. In respect to legislation proposing a warning label on cigarette packages and a restriction on the advertising of cigarette products, the results were less impressive. The law that was passed . . . is a clear-cut victory for the tobacco industry by absolving them from any responsibility for the deleterious effects which result from cigarette smoking.
From AJPH, March 1966
As editors and social scientists, we strongly believe that the public health problems with which we as a society are struggling need the commitment, participation, and understanding provided by the social sciences. We emphasize the importance of theoretically driven research, of using methods appropriate to answer the questions under study, the importance of viewpoints reflecting multiple disciplines, and the value of alternative research designs and methods.
From Framing Health Matters …
In 2006, AJPH created a new department called Framing Health Matters (McLeroy K, Holtzman D. Framing Health Matters. Am J Public Health. 2006;96(9):1537). Coedited by the authors of this column, the department actually evolved from one that was established in 1999 called Public Health Matters (Levin BW, Northridge ME. Why “Public Health Matters.” Am J Public Health. 1999;89([11]:1631–1632), both of which had the goal of highlighting public health research and practice beyond the disciplines of epidemiology and clinical medicine. The primary focus of the department has been on promoting and publishing high quality public health research from the social sciences. For 10 years, Framing Health Matters has supported multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research as well as research that employed a range of methods, including qualitative and multiple methods. In addition, the department encouraged a variety of article types, including synthesis and review articles and those examining basic social science constructs used in public health research and practice, such as gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other social determinants of health. Our purpose here is to again alert readers and contributors to AJPH that we are making some changes, but retaining the same basic mission.
We believe the article by Herd et al. in this issue of AJPH (pp. 421-429) nicely illustrates the type of work that has been published under the Framing Health Matters banner. The authors demonstrate how the social and political context of young women who were high school graduates in 1957 and had one or more pregnancies before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision significantly affected their mental health later in life.
…. To Perspectives From the Social Sciences
In keeping with the primary focus, the department’s new name will be Perspectives From the Social Sciences. We feel this name will better align with the focus and be more relatable, especially to those social scientists outside the United States who are contributing to and reviewing for AJPH in greater numbers. We will continue to require the analytic essay format, an unstructured abstract, and up to four tables and figures; however, all contributors will be required to not exceed the 4000-word limit (reduced from 6500 words) in the main text, to follow the AMA Manual of Style, 10th Edition for references, and to include no more than 40 cited references per article. Additional references can always be made available to readers in an online appendix as supplemental material. As editors of the department over the past decade, we have found that most authors can present their research in 4000 words or less, without any loss to their main message.
Social Sciences and Public Health
Most importantly, we will continue to appreciate new ideas and thoughtful questions that substantiate the value and contribution of the social sciences for public health research and practice. We encourage submissions to Perspectives From the Social Sciences and hope that these changes will continue to accommodate your work and the vital role of social science in public health.