Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) remains committed to its mission of promoting dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and policy makers worldwide on the integration of evaluation, research, and practical experience to improve population health. Publishing collections of articles on relevant current topics is one of the ways the journal fulfills that mission, disseminating proven and promising findings, innovations, and practices in chronic disease prevention and control.

This year, PCD published more collections than ever before, collections that highlight the work among National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), its partners, and its awardees as well as collections of peer-reviewed papers facilitated by NCCDPHP guest editors. PCD is extremely proud of these collections, and we encourage our readers to take a look at the work published throughout the year:

• PCD released a groundbreaking new collection of articles on Indian wellness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country (GHWIC) seeks to build on a new sense of possibility in Indian Country. This collection of 7 articles chronicles the journey of GHWIC, from conception to behavioral outcomes, as the first 5 years come to a close.

• Population Health, Place, and Space: Spatial Perspectives in Chronic Disease Research and Practice is a collection of 24 articles that demonstrates the use of geospatial data to inform

• surveillance, epidemiologic research, program evaluation, resource allocation, program planning, and communication for chronic disease prevention and treatment.

• Health Care Systems, Public Health, and Communities: Population Health Improvements features 16 articles that explore an array of new approaches for improving systems and addressing upstream causes, sharing early outcomes and identifying changes in workflows to ease implementation and promote sustainability of improvements.

• The 9 articles in the NCCDPHP Program Evaluation collection offer insights into the development, implementation, and evaluation of population-based interventions and share evaluation findings and lessons learned from public health and clinical interventions implemented by NCCDPHP, its partners, and its awardees.

• And finally, 6 articles published in December 2019 describe the evaluation of the CDC Colorectal Cancer Control Program from 2009–2015, including its implementation, outcomes, and costs.

These articles contribute to the limited body of peer-reviewed literature about programmatic design approaches and best practices for large, multistate, population-level public health interventions to increase use of CRC screening tests.

In addition to the collections, PCD had other successes in 2019: an increase in our impact factor, now at 2.038 (2018), as well as an increase in our five-year impact factor to 2.844. PCD also established the Statistics Review Committee (SRC) with the goals of advancing understanding and dissemination of statistical methods and testing in the public health field and helping practitioners use this statistical knowledge in decreasing chronic disease and improving health across the life span. PCD’s SRC members are volunteers with training and expertise in statistics and biostatistics who assist the journal with assessing peer-reviewed articles

to determine the appropriateness of the research and evaluation questions; selection of the study sample; statistical tests used; and analysis of data based on research design, distribution of data, and type of variable being examined. Finally, PCD added to its team several new associate editors whose expertise in key chronic disease areas will increase the quality, depth, breadth of published work in PCD.

As always, we extend our thanks for your support, and we look forward to another innovative and productive year in 2020.

Publication date from document properties.

2019PCDYearInReview.pdf