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Topics | Distribution | History | INFO Editorial Advisory Committee | Staff
Population Reports is a thrice-yearly journal from the Information & Knowledge for Optimal Health (INFO) Project of the The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs (CCP). Population Reports is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It provides an accurate and authoritative overview of important developments in family planning and related health issues free of charge for developing-country audiences.
Population Reports has recently adopted a new, more focused editorial approach that seeks to meet the most pressing information needs of family planning and related health programs and providers. The new Population Reports is more topical and thematic, while less comprehensive. It addresses specific concerns with the best guidance available and the evidence concerning that guidance. The content is intended to be practical and immediately applicable, including special features meant for direct use on the job.
A 23-person Editorial Advisory Committee and as many as several dozen other experts in the specific topic review manuscripts for Population Reports. Population Reports is written largely by the Population Reports staff and is published three times a year. It is published in English, French, and Spanish. Selected issues are translated into Portuguese and made available on the Internet in collaboration with Bibliomed. Selected issues in Arabic, Russian, Turkish, and other languages are occasionally published in collaboration with local organizations. Issues are posted on the Population Reports web site at: http://www.populationreports.org. We welcome ideas for Population Reports topics. How are Population Reports topics selected?
Full-text of recent issues can be found online. Each issue is assigned to one of 10 different series:
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Population Reports is distributed to more than 160,000 addresses, to which we send approximately 200,000 copies. Developing-country addresses comprise 90% of the total. Geographic distribution of developing-country addresses is:
| Africa | 31,400 | Near East | 9,600 |
| Asia | 20,200 | India | 40,000 |
| Latin America | 41,800 | Developed Countries | 17,000 |
Single and multiple copies are distributed free of charge to qualifying personnel in developing countries. In the USA and other developed countries, multiple copies are $2.00 each; full sets of reports in print are $35.00; with binder, $40.00. Issues in print and ordering information are listed on the back of Population Reports issues. Issues may also be ordered over the Internet.
The first Population Reports' issue - Series C, Number 1, Laparoscopic Sterilization, A New Technique - was issued in January 1973; six months after the Population Information Program (PIP) was developed by Phyllis Tilson Piotrow, Ph.D. Under contract to the US Agency for International Development (AID) and through the George Washington University (GWU) Medical Center's Department of Medical and Public Affairs Population Reports circulated approximately 5,000 copies in 1973 and expanded to over 83,000 copies within five years.
On July 1, 1978, Johns Hopkins University assumed responsibility for PIP. Moving to Hopkins from GWU, Dr. Piotrow continued as Director and Ward Rinehart became Editor of Population Reports. An announcement in the first Population Reports to be issued at Hopkins-Series J, Number 20, Filling Family Planning Gaps-stated that PIP would continue "to perform the three previous major functions: (1) preparing and distributing Population Reports; (2) collecting and abstracting information for POPINFORM and providing POPINFORM services to the developing world; and (3) maintaining, updating, and expanding an international mailing list of up to 100,000 names and addresses.
Over the years Population Reports has gone through many changes. Supplemental materials began to come with selected issues in 1977. In 1989 The Journal's appearance changed to the current design used today. Population Reports became a part of the information super-highway in 1997. Each published issue was now available on the Internet.
Population Reports now has 15 fulltime staff members. From time to time a pool of external writers will be called upon to write selected issues. Population Reports' international mailing list now has 160,000 addresses which receive approximately 200,000 copies of each issue. Besides the original foreign-language translation goals of French, Spanish, and Portuguese, some reports are also condensed and translated into Arabic, Indonesian, Russian, and Turkish. Since 1985, the production and design of Population Reports has been handled in-house using desktop publishing. Two of the most popular reports published are the Counseling Guide (since updated with GATHER Guide to Counseling), which introduced the "GATHER" acronym for counseling steps that is now used worldwide, and the 1986 issue on AIDS education, one of the first publications on that subject written for developing country readers. In total, over 150 reports have been published.
In 2002 USAID awarded CCP with the Information & Knowledge for Optimal Health (INFO) Project. Population Reports closed its chapter with PIP June 31, 2003 and opened a new one with the INFO project. Under the INFO Project, Population Reports will continue to be a leader in producing quality reports and materials to support health care decision-making in developing countries.
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Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Government or The Johns Hopkins University.
