"...you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone." - Bob Dylan
With apologies to our newest Nobel laureate, I would like to bring your attention to some new and exciting developments at the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice (JPHMP). Beginning in the fall of 2016, we launched a new companion site (http://JPHMPDirect.com) that is to feature multimedia content and supplemental materials intended to enrich the offerings of the Journal. Best of all, JPHMP Direct is free to everyone, thanks, in part, to a generous grant from the de Beaumont Foundation. JPHMP Direct will feature exclusive interviews with Journal authors, as well as series of original columns, videos, podcasts, and much more, designed to engage a deeper conversation with public health thought leaders, researchers, practitioners, students, and other readers. Join us at JPHMP Direct as we build an online community for advances in public health.
In addition to our new online platform, we have additional innovations coming to the Journal. For example, with each issue in 2017, beginning in March, JPHMP will publish a case study depicting real events and describing significant public health policy and administrative issues in business school format. In 2015, JPHMP published a case describing public health in the Bloomberg administration by Kim Isett that won a national award from the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors for the Best Legislation/Government Article. A number of new cases will be published in 2017. The topics include national public health accreditation by Kay Bender, Jessica Kronstadt, and Les Beitsch; reorganization of the Kane County Health Department by Paul Kuehnert; Legionella Outbreak in the Bronx by Alison Chamberlain, Johnathan Lehnert, and Ruth Berkelman; and transition of an HIV population to a new care facility by Matt Fifolt, Lisa McCormick, and James Raper. Eventually, 20 cases will be published in a book, linked to the Journal published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. These cases will include discussion questions, making them highly suitable for training public health professionals and students in skills such as analyzing community problems, developing strategies including negotiation and compromise, working within political situations, and evaluating success. We feel that the new case studies will help personalize the research and practice innovations regularly featured in the Journal.
In addition to the new case study series, we will be revamping the guidance to prospective authors over the course of 2017, which will include new submission types that will better capture the breadth of content that is relevant to public health practitioners and scientists. In addition, we will be inviting authors to contribute to JPHMP Direct, in the form of author interviews, video abstracts, infographics, and profiles in leadership. In short, times they are a-changin' and JPHMP is evolving accordingly.