Public Health Reports is dedicated to publishing original research, reviews, and commentaries in the areas of public health practice and methodology, public health law, and teaching at schools and programs of public health. The journal publishes bi-monthly on major topics in public health, such as infectious and chronic diseases, immunization, injuries and violence, substance use disorders, tobacco use, public health methodology, and issues of interest to state and local health departments and schools of public health. Public Health Reports has departments focused on public health law, writing in public health and public health schools and education and features special commentaries by the Surgeon General and the executives within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Supplemental issues are published several times per year, focusing on special topics. Recent supplements have covered HIV care and prevention, syndromic surveillance, and the health of incarcerated populations.

The mission of Public Health Reports is to positively affect the health and wellness of the American public by facilitating the movement of science into public health practice and policy; to publish scholarly manuscripts that describe new and innovative ways to deliver essential services that lead to improved quality, enhanced efficiency, and reduced costs; and to publish evaluations of public health programs that describe models of practice that can be replicated by others or that describe lessons learned.