Public Health Research & Practice

Public Health Research & Practice is Australia’s leading journal with a dedicated focus on the connection between research, policy and practice in the public health space.

Published by the Sax Institute for more than a decade, PHRP is peer-reviewed and open-access to readers.

It has an Impact Factor of 4.4 (2022), highlighting the journal’s value in publishing articles that have real-world impact in public health policy and practice.

It is ranked as Australia’s No. 1 journal in the two fields of health policy, and of public health, environmental and occupational health by the independent Scimago Journal Rankings (SJR, 2022).

The journal plays a central role in helping the Sax Institute achieve its mission to improve health and wellbeing by driving the use of research in policies, programs and services.

With an influential and growing audience of policy makers, public health professionals and clinicians, PHRP has helped bring national and international attention to issues of public health interest or concern. Examples include a review of evidence on lung cancer screening in Australia, a Federal Government announcement of funding for the first national skin cancer campaign in over a decade in late 2021, and action by leading alcohol manufacturers to redress the lack of age-restriction controls on Facebook and Instagram advertising in response to research published on the issue.

First established by the NSW Ministry of Health in May 1990 as the NSW Public Health Bulletin, the journal was relaunched by the Sax Institute under the name Public Health Research & Practice in 2014. In 2025 the journal adopted a continuous publication model as it moved its publishing operations under the management of CSIRO Publishing.

The journal is guided by an expert Editorial Board chaired by Editor-in-Chief Professor Don Nutbeam, a world-renowned and widely published expert in public health. Over a distinguished 30-year career, Prof Nutbeam has held a number of important posts, including a six-year term as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, Head of Public Health for the UK Government, Academic Provost at the University of Sydney and consultant for the World Health Organization.