Objectives: Public Health Reports (PHR), the official journal of the Office of the US Surgeon General and US Public Health Service, is the oldest public health journal in the United States. Considering its heritage through the eyes of its past editors in chief (EICs), many of whom have been influential public health figures, can provide a fresh point of view on US public health history, of which the journal has been an integral part. Here, we reconstruct the timeline of past PHR EICs and identify women among them.
Methods: We reconstructed the PHR EIC timeline by reviewing the journal's previous mastheads and its articles describing leadership transitions. For each EIC, we identified dates in office, concurrent job titles, key contributions, and other important developments.
Results: PHR had 25 EIC transitions in 109 years of its history, during which a single individual in charge of the journal could be identified. Only 5 identifiable EICs were women, who served as EIC for approximately one-quarter of the journal's traceable history (28 of 109 years). PHR's longest-serving EIC was a woman named Marian P. Tebben (1974-1994).
Conclusions: PHR history revealed frequent EIC transitions and a low representation of women among its EICs. Mapping the timeline of past EICs of a historic public health journal can yield valuable insights into the workings of US public health, especially in the area of building a research evidence base.
Keywords: Public Health Reports; US Public Health Service; public health history; public health practice; scholarly publishing; science writing.