PHRP journal celebrates its first Impact Factor

Public Health Research & Practice (PHRP), the Sax Institute’s peer-reviewed journal, has received its first Impact Factor, achieving an exceptional score of 4.4 which puts it on a par with long-established international journals in the public health and health policy space. The Impact Factor is an internationally recognised index calculated to give an indication of a journal’s impact and is commonly used to assess the relative importance of a journal in its field.

The score places PHRP in the top 25% of journals globally in the Web of Science database category of Public, Environmental and Occupational Health journals, and in the top 10 of almost 100 emerging journals in that same category.

“This exceptional first Impact Factor is a milestone for PHRP, providing empirical evidence of its value as a truly influential journal in the field of public health policy and practice, in Australia and internationally,” says Editor-in-Chief Professor Don Nutbeam.

“By supporting the development of PHRP, the Sax Institute has created a high-quality, effective platform for disseminating outstanding Australian health research to decision makers not just in this country, but increasingly across the globe. We have a distinctive subscriber profile that is different to most journals, with our balanced mix of researchers, practitioners and policy makers, and have progressively grown the number of international subscribers and contributions to the journal.

“This excellent result reflects on the remarkable work of our editorial team, our Editorial Board and all our wonderful authors. We look forward to publishing more original, high-quality research that will have a real impact on people’s health and wellbeing.”

The most highly cited PHRP articles of the past few years have understandably had a COVID-19 theme, including:

Other highly cited papers include:

“It’s pleasing to see confirmation of the impact and reach of PHRP reflected in this new Impact Factor,” says Sax Institute CEO Dr Martin McNamara.

“PHRP’s achievements are a great example of connecting health researchers and decision makers to consider emerging evidence relevant to tackling the key health challenges. The journal is an important tool for the Sax Institute in our mission to drive the use of evidence in policy and improve health and wellbeing.”

The Impact Factor is independently calculated by data and analytics organisation Clarivate by dividing the number of citations of papers published in the previous two years by the number of potentially citable papers.

The journal is also ranked by the research group Scimago as the number one ‘health policy’ journal in Australia, as well as being the number one journal in the field of ‘public health, environmental and occupational health’ (2022 data).

The Scimago rankings also demonstrate PHRP’s strong international presence; it is ranked in the top 60 of nearly 300 ‘health policy’ journals globally, and in the top 25% of journals in the ‘public health, environmental and occupational health field’.

Published by the Sax Institute since 2014, Public Health Research & Practice is an open-access, peer-reviewed quarterly journal with a strong focus on the connection between research, policy and practice. It features high-quality papers that inform public health policy and practice, paying particular attention to innovations, data and perspectives. PHRP draws its readership from across the globe, with more than 40% of website views coming from outside Australia.

The journal is guided by a highly experienced Editorial Board, chaired by Editor-in-Chief Professor Don Nutbeam, an internationally recognised leader in public health. Its most recent issue is focused on wellbeing and public health, with articles contributed by world leaders in the field.

Sign up to receive quarterly updates of new issues of PHRP here.

Find out how to submit a paper here.