American Journal of Preventive Medicine Impact Factor Reaches New High

The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, official journal of APTR and the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM), has achieved a 2021 Impact Factor of 6.604. Impact Factor is a numerical representation of a journal’s scholarly impact, calculated based on the number of citations in a given year of content published in the previous 2 years.

The 2021 Impact Factor represents an increase of more than 1.5 points from the previous year and is the highest in the journal’s 37-year history. AJPM’s rapidly rising Impact Factor has occurred in tandem with a marked increase in submissions since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 2,000 articles submitted each in 2020 and 2021—a 23% increase over the average number of submissions the previous 5 years.

Achieving an Impact Factor over 5.00—the mark of a “high impact” journal and a figure that was first surpassed by AJPM in 2020—has been a goal of Editor-in-Chief Dr. Matthew L. Boulton and his editorial team since he assumed leadership of the journal in 2014. During his tenure, the journal has also undertaken other major initiatives including creating a digital archive of previously print-only material from 1985–1997; implementing special initiatives such as the Article of the Year and From the Archive features; redesigning the cover, website, and branding; markedly increasing social media and other outreach activity; playing a key role in launching an affiliated journal, AJPM Focus; and working closely with the sponsoring societies on conference presentations and the more regular publication of society content in the journal. The AJPM editorial team looks forward to capitalizing on the journal’s momentum to achieve even greater scholarly impact and reach in the future. 

APTR Announces Chair of Teaching Prevention 2023

APTR is pleased to announce that Christine Arcari, PhD, MPH; Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine will serve as the Chair of the Teaching Prevention 2023 Planning Committee.  Teaching Prevention is the APTR annual meeting that brings together faculty, students, and professionals from across the health professions and public health to focus on the knowledge, skills, collaborations, and resources needed to teach, practice, and promote population health. 

Dr. Arcari is the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Her role is to provide leadership and vision in academic affairs for the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She received her PhD in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and an MPH in Community and Family Health from the University of South Florida, College of Public Health. Arcari has an extensive record of teaching, mentoring and promoting student success in public health. She has received numerous teaching awards, including national recognition from the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR), the F. Marion Bishop Award for Outstanding Educator of the Year. Her scholarly activities are focused on education.

Learn more about Teaching Prevention 2023 at www.TeachingPrevention.org.

AJPM Focus Call for Papers

AJPM Focus, the newest official and fully open access journal of APTR, aims to increase inclusivity in people, methods, and outcomes within the preventive medicine and public health literature. To celebrate the launch of AJPM Focus and highlight this goal, we invite manuscript submissions reflecting these themes for two special issues in 2022:

Prevention Research for Inclusivity in People, Methods, and Outcomes

Article submissions should focus on research study designs that generate original prevention evidence or synthesize such evidence. This can include basic science research demonstrably relevant to prevention (e.g., psychosocial or physiological mechanisms underlying health behavior change, epigenetics, the role of inflammation in conditions of public health significance), clinical and population health research, or the synthesis of such research.

Prevention Evidence Translation for Inclusivity in People, Methods, and Outcomes

Submissions should focus on study designs that address prevention issues at any point on the knowledge translation continuum. This can range from narrative reviews to implementation science, interdisciplinary scholarship that brings nontraditional fields into the prevention realm (e.g., human ecology, evolutionary medicine, salutogenesis, sociology), and any other study design that brings research evidence into practice or policy.

All articles submitted before December 31, 2022, will receive a 50% discount on publication costs. Additionally, many institutions have agreements in place with our publisher that enable even lower cost or free publication.

We believe that the aims of AJPM Focus align closely with those of APTR and its members and hope you will submit your work to our journal.

Learn more and submit at: www.journals.elsevier.com/ajpm-focus/forthcoming-special-issues

The Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR) is proud to announce the upcoming class of residents for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) residency rotation located in Rockville, MD. APTR offers field placements for preventive medicine residents and primary care residents with the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Program, based at AHRQ.

The clinical preventive medicine rotation at AHRQ provides an in-depth experience in the process of developing evidence-based recommendations. Residents work closely with AHRQ staff and USPSTF members in a variety of activities such as: participating in scoping of clinical preventive services (CPS) topics; researching information on epidemiology and burden of preventable conditions addressed by CPS; reviewing and summarizing external comments on draft recommendations; researching positions of other organizations; and editing and finalizing recommendations and rationale statements. Other projects may involve developing implementation materials for USPSTF recommendations aimed at patients, clinicians, health plans, employers or policy makers.

2022-2023 Class of Residents

1. Sayuri Inoue, MD, MPP; Stony Brook Preventive Medicine Residency
2. Cara Dooley, MD; University of Maryland - Preventive Medicine Residency
3. Michael Harding, MD; Johns Hopkins University General Preventive Medicine Residency
4. Siri Chirumamilla, DO, MS; Emory University Preventive Medicine
5. Afua Takyi, MD, MS, MPH; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Preventive Medicine Residency Program 
6. Nadia Saif, MD, MPH; University of Maryland Baltimore - Preventive Medicine Residency

APTR-AHRQ Preventive Medicine Residency Rotations

APTR and 58 national organizations support the bipartisan letter urging the highest possible funding in Fiscal Year 2023 for federal programs at HRSA, CDC, and NIH to improve maternal health and eliminate inequities in maternal health outcomes. More women die from pregnancy-related complications in the United States than in any other developed country, and the rate of maternal deaths continues to rise. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 700 pregnancy-related deaths occur in the U.S. each year and 60 percent of these deaths are preventable. Major disparities in maternal mortality exist, with Black women three to four times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to die due to pregnancy-related complications and Indigenous women more than twice as likely than non-Hispanic white women to die due to pregnancy-related complications. The latest data from CDC show a marked increase in maternal deaths during the first year of the pandemic.

Sign-on Letter