As the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice (JPHMP) marks its 20th year of publication, the editors are embarking on a new partnership with the de Beaumont Foundation. The de Beaumont Foundation is dedicated to building the capacity and stature of the public health workforce, improving public health infrastructure, and advancing the distribution and relevancy of information and data in the field. This aligns well with the values of the JPHMP, which has a long history as a voice for governmental practitioners as authors and a source of information that is readily applicable to practice. The JPHMP has a relatively high rate of practitioner authorship, with approximately one-third of first authors employed by a governmental public health agency. The shared intent of this new endeavor is to maximize the Journal's impact as a source of practice-relevant information and an outlet for the research that is most relevant to practitioners.
The JPHMP and the de Beaumont Foundation have a strong record of previous collaborations. The Journal and de Beaumont have partnered on 2 previous supplements-Big City Health Departments: Leadership Perspectives (January/February 2015) and Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS; November/December 2015), and cohosted a strategic planning summit in September 2015, the results of which were the basis for this current partnership. The strategic planning summit explored the Journal's strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for increased impact. This discussion was informed by a diverse group of public health experts representing the JPHMP editorial board, the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO), the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the National Governors Association (NGA), the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), Wolters Kluwer (the publisher of JPHMP), among others.
As part of this partnership, the de Beaumont Foundation has provided approximately $570 000 in support for the Journal through Associate Editor Justin Moore, who will serve as the principal investigator for the project. The financial support from the Foundation will improve the capacity of the JPHMP to serve as a resource for practitioners, academics, and policy makers with an interest in population-based public health. It will greatly increase the ability of the JPHMP to disseminate timely information in a myriad of innovative formats, placed in context by expert commentary that will analyze and translate scientifically based, innovative research and evaluation to maximally impact practice and policy reform. With the partnership of the de Beaumont Foundation, the JPHMP will be better positioned to continue and expand its work as a forum where developments and innovations in practice, practice-based research, and policy can be described to provide direction for the future.
A focus of this new partnership will be the enhancement of practitioner and policy maker engagement and input into JPHMP content. Emphasis will be placed on expanding current features of the journal: articles utilizing paired authors to include both policy makers and practitioners, and encouraging policy makers to contribute commentaries paired to scholarly scientific articles on vital public health issues.
The JPHMP, founded in 1995, will be greatly enhanced by this partnership with the de Beaumont Foundation. This project will fill the pressing need that public health practitioners have to assess relevant, actionable, practice-based research while identifying key policy messages. This new partnership complements existing supportive relationships with Wolters Kluwer and the ASTHO. Together, the JPHMP and its partners will develop resources for the professional distillation, packaging, and dissemination of the latest practice-based, public health research in a format that is optimally suited for rapid utilization by practitioners.