Public Health Law Research: Making the Case for Laws that Improve Health

Public Health Law Research is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. PHLR is housed at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. This program funds projects looking at places where law and public health intersect, drawing also on the fields of medicine, economics, sociology, psychology and public policy.

The program’s website includes information on research done by grantees with links to their final papers where available. It also has many methods guides posted. A few of the titles here include Crafting a Public Law Research Proposal, Using Logic Models for PHLR Research, Using Qualitative Methods in Public Health Law Research, and Evaluating Public Health Law Using Randomized Experiments, among others.

Public health laws have been collected here by topic. Legal datasets are available for topics such as obesity prevention, distracted driving, state vaccination, tobacco control, and alcohol policies.

The Network for Public Health Law offers technical assistance, help in locating speakers, and networking opportunities. It is also housed here, with most services currently free.

Find this link and others on our Professional Associations, Organizations, and Resources and our Grant and Research Information web pages.