Announcements

PCD Receives Highest 5-Year Journal Impact Factor in Its History

Announcement posted 6/26/2025

PCD cover Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) is proud to announce receipt of a 2024 Journal Impact Factor of 3.9 in the 2025 release of Journal Citation Reports (JCR) in the category Public, Environmental & Occupational Health. Most impressive is the increase in PCD’s 5-year Journal Impact Factor, from 4.3 for 2023 to 4.6 for 2024. This year’s 5-year Journal Impact Factor is the highest the journal has received since the journal was established in 2003. The 5-year Journal Impact Factor represents the average number of times that an article published in the previous 5 years (2019–2023) was cited in 2024. JCR also ranked PCD in the top 6% (43rd of 699) of journals worldwide in the category Public, Environmental & Occupational Health. Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) ranked PCD third of 33 open-access US public health journals, placing it in the top 6% worldwide of all 31,136 journals and in the top 10% (16th of 167) of US journals in the category Public Health, Environmental & Occupational Health. PCD is indexed in PubMed and PubMed Central and has an acceptance rate of 21.9%.

PCD Editor in Chief Receives 2 SOPHE Awards, Named SOPHE President

Announcement posted 3/27/24

The journal is excited to announce that PCD’s Editor in Chief, Leonard Jack, Jr, PhD, MSc, was named the newest President of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE). Dr Jack was sworn in as President on Wednesday, March 20th. He was also awarded 2 of SOPHE’s most prestigious awards: the SOPHE Presidential Citation for outstanding contributions to advancing the field of health education, health promotion, and behavioral sciences and the SOPHE Trophy for demonstrating dedication and exemplary service in advancing the mission and vision of SOPHE. Please join us in congratulating Dr Jack on these exciting awards and achievements.

PCD Celebrates 20th Anniversary in 2024

Announcement posted 12/19/23

Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) is excited to celebrate 20 years of bringing you rigorous, timely, and relevant peer-reviewed chronic disease research. Over the past 2 decades, the journal has brought its diverse group of readers articles that have influenced policy changes, guided health care professionals in their fields of work, and informed the public on important chronic disease-related findings while offering actionable ways to make improvements in personal behaviors and foster community change. PCD is honored to be able to continue to provide its readers with articles that matter and help authors put their work into action.

PCD relies on the contribution of experts working in multiple fields who contribute their time and expertise to the journal as associate editors, editorial board members, Statistics Review Committee members, and most recently as members of the Student Scientific Writing and Review Training Committee. We look forward to recognizing these members, both past and present, and hearing what PCD has meant to them as part of our anniversary celebrations.

As we move into the new year, we will establish the “Dr. Lynne Wilcox Paper of the Year” honoring PCD’s founding editor. We look forward to announcing the winning paper in September 2024 and celebrating with a special ceremony. In addition, the journal will share the many transformations and successes it has seen and achieved over the past 2 decades, publish several important collections, including a special anniversary collection, and more. We hope you’ll join us here on our website and on our social media channels as we celebrate this milestone over the coming months.

The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors’ affiliated institutions.