Celebrating 25 volumes of the Australian Journal of Primary Health Virginia Lewis Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic. 3083, Australia. Email: V.Lewis@latrobe.edu.au Last year the Australian Journal of Primary Health (AJPH) achieved a major milestone in publishing its 25th volume. From its inception in 1995, the Journal has sought to provide high- quality, robust evidence and commentary on community health services, primary care and primary health. The structure of the Journal and its collaborative co-ordinating mechanisms were innovative in their linkages between key organisations in the field, the multidisciplinary professions, and academic programs. The AJPH had its origins as a newsletter of the Victorian Community Health Association (VCHA). Heather Gardner, Head of the then School of Behavioural Health Sciences at La Trobe University, negotiated the establishment of a new journal based on the VCHA newsletter with Shirley Freeman, the then President of the Association. As its first Editor, Heather was central to the successful development of the Journal to meet the needs of a broad, national and international primary health care community. The Journal was driven forward by her energy and commitment to editorial quality. She encouraged researchers, primary healthcare (PHC) clinicians, staff in community health services, and those involved in developing policy to publish research findings, practice-based experiences and topical dis- cussion papers. Her vision to publish robust evidence, promote debate and inform the direction of primary and community health care in Australia underpins the Journal to this day. Responsibility for managing the Journal transferred to the Australian Institute for Primary Care (AIPC, now the Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing (AIPCA)) when it was established by La Trobe University in 1997. Rae Walker and Hal Swerissen became co-Editors during this period, and Jenny Macmillan took on the role of Executive Officer. As Director of the AIPCA, Hal supported the Journal to develop a national focus through establishing an Advisory Board and convening a National Primary and Community Health Network. The Journal was produced ‘in-house’ by the AIPCA under Jenny’s supervi- sion, including marketing and subscriptions management, guid- ing papers through peer-review processes, and distributing by mail. Layout and printing were the only aspects of production that were done externally. Rae Walker later became sole Editor and had a key role in setting and supporting the Journal’s strategic direction. She was instrumental in making sure the Journal retained a focus on practice and broader policy questions as well as research. Rae also had a major role in developing the Journal’s governance structure, including being instrumental in contracting the publi- cation of the Journal to CSIRO Publishing in 2009. This shift to a professional publisher was a significant step for the Journal, leading to redesigning the format, enhancing internal processes and broadening opportunities for distribution and readership. The Journal also benefitted from the prestige of association with the CSIRO brand. CSIRO Publishing focussed on building up institutional subscriptions from universities and primary health organisations and broadening the reach of the Journal through opportunities such as Hinari, which enables free access to low- and middle-income countries to biomedical and health literature. The partnership with CSIRO was particularly important as the context for PHC research in Australia was changing. As a result of the PHC Research Evaluation and Development (PHCRED) Strategy, direct funding for PHC research was provided to universities and the Australian Primary Care Research Institute was established in 2003 to distribute funding and support research capacity building across the sector. The Primary Health Care Research and Information Service (PHCRIS) was the other key organisation funded under the PHCRED Strategy in 2001 to collect, synthesise and share information and knowledge about PHC and support networking. In the context of the perennial drive to ‘publish or perish’ within the research industry, PHCRED helped to increase PHC research and research outputs in Australia. In 2009, Libby Kalucy, a primary healthcare researcher from Flinders University South Australia and the Chief Executive Officer for PHCRIS joined Rae Walker as co-Editor, becoming sole Editor from 2010 after Rae stepped down, until the end of 2014. Libby’s experience and expertise in effective knowledge translation supported the strategic development and manage- ment of the Journal. To improve the Journal’s processes, particularly in the context of the increasing number of submissions, an Editorial Panel of five Associate Editors was established in 2010, the previous Advisory group was disbanded and the Editorial Board restructured. This structure was more consistent with typical academic journal governance and provided access to a wider network of potential reviewers to cover the diversity of research topics and methodologies while maintaining the relevance of the Journal to front line practitioners. Sponsorship from the Victo- rian Department of Health during this period reflected the growing interest of policy advisors and decision-makers in using evidence. At the suggestion of CSIRO Publishing, the AJPH increased the number of pages per issue and later the number of issues per volume to decrease the delay between acceptance and CSIRO PUBLISHING Australian Journal of Primary Health, 2020, 26, i–ii https://doi.org/10.1071/PYv26n3_ED Journal compilation Ó La Trobe University 2020 www.publish.csiro.au/journals/py Editorial