Alfredo Morabia, outgoing AJPH editor-in-chief, raised the journal’s profile internationally, such as by adding overseas editors, which helped AJPH develop a global public health perspective.
Photo by Michele Late
“Today, we see that many journals are threatened by the new administration. But we’re not scared because we’re our own journal. AJPH today is really a beacon.”
— Alfredo Morabia
APHA’s American Journal of Public Health may be based in the U.S., but it has a global reach. When outgoing editor-in-chief Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD, MPH, took the reins in 2015, he set out to raise the journal’s international profile.
Ten years later, Morabia has done just that. New digital content such as the AJPH Podcast, plus a revamped submission process and connections with editors overseas are just a few of the moves that boosted the journal’s “impact factor” — a reflection of how AJPH articles have been cited more often since his arrival.
The changes allowed the journal to keep up with the pace of public health crises. Research and insight from health experts during Morabia’s tenure put facts, figures and faces on the Flint water crisis in Michigan, lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and attacks on the nation’s public health workers.
Along the way, he put a spotlight on the future of research and publishing through the creation of the AJPH Student Think Tank and student editor position to stay cutting edge in content and marketing.
His efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. During APHA’s 2024 Annual Meeting and Expo, the Association awarded Morabia the Executive Board Impact Award for his and his team’s work in expanding the journal’s access and reach.
Morabia, whose term ends this summer, talked with The Nation’s Health about the journal’s successes and what he hopes for the publication’s future.
How has AJPH expanded its content to a wider audience?
We had several successes — one is I developed a podcast, and this podcast has been really growing in influence and quality. There have been 170,000 listening on Soundcloud. We talk about the content of the journal with our authors.
The other successful initiative has been the newsletter. Every week we have a newsletter that goes to over 100,000 people, so we tell them about the content of the journal, about the podcast, about what’s new on our website in terms of publications.
During your tenure, AJPH’s star rose and racked up tens of thousands more in citations. What was crucial to that success?
First of all, I decided to be much more selective on the research articles that would be considered for publication. Also, I’ve been selecting them at submission before sending them to editors. This has allowed us to do much faster work. The time from submission to decision, which is really the time that matters, went down enormously, especially for research articles.
We also publish opinion editorials — we call them op-eds. We invited a lot of people who had submitted what I would call research “articles” that were not new enough to make it in the journal, but they were using this data to develop their opinions and ideas. So we had this big development of opinions, editorials and perspectives. We invite editorials on every research article that we accept. That rebalanced the journal.
The journal has a Student Think Tank of young professionals that provide input. Tell us about that.
Young people coming in the field who are still students, they bring new ideas, they have a new vision of the world and the journal is cut from that. The role of this think tank is to bring those ideas and actually advise me. I never told them what to do. They told me what to do.
They brought new indispensable perspectives for us to understand what’s going on in public health. They’re very important.
What is the future for AJPH?
The journal is independent. It’s an autonomous journal. We don’t depend on anybody, any corporation. We’re on our own and free to publish what we want and there is no censor.
APHA has given an enormous effort financially and also technically and of course scientifically to have this instrument, and today, we see that many journals are threatened by the new administration. But we’re not scared because we’re our own journal. AJPH today is really a beacon.
What is your advice to your successor at AJPH?
My successor should feel free to lead the journal in the direction that they think is appropriate. That’s what I did. I built upon what existed and brought the journal to a state in which it is scientifically respected, financially balanced. In terms of quality and integration of inclusivity of scientific research, we’ve been the leaders.
We’ve developed some guidance on how journals should be functioning in order to make sure that all the voices have access to their pages. On all these aspects — science, quality, equity, finance — the journal is in very good shape.
I’ve also integrated the journal very tightly to APHA, because we both win from being close to each other. APHA is a terrific organization. It covers the whole of public health from local health departments to surgeon generals. Still, the journal is independent but is also an image that is projected from APHA, which is very positive.
A goal was to make AJPH an international publication. What are some partnerships that helped this?
We have one regional editor for Asia, which is essentially for China, and one regional editor for South America. It is important we keep this attempt to integrate people in a region of the world that has a different public health culture because that enriches the journal.
Their public health culture in China or in South America is completely different than the one we have in the U.S., and the collaboration with those countries should be opening the journal to their way of seeing the world.
I think we could do much more. We could have other continents represented. The journal remains essentially a U.S.-centered journal but it has an impact worldwide. The podcast is listened to globally.
Who would you like to thank as outgoing editor?
I have close to 30 associate editors and they’ve been crucial because they are handling the paper, they’re reviewing the quality. The editorial team has been responsible for this just as much as I am.
The other set of people that have contributed is the close connection with, again, APHA, the close connection with Georges Benjamin, the executive director of APHA, who I see once a month, and the teamwork with (APHA director of publications services) Brian Selzer.
I played my role as a leader in bringing a vision for the journal, but I don’t want to give the impression I did it alone. Having the team is very important.
For more information on AJPH, visit www.ajph.org.
This interview was edited for style, space and clarity.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association