Research spans biomedical, clinical and public health endeavours. Investment in health research is a hallmark of a society committed to social advancement and better health and well-being for its citizens. Public health research contributes to the protection, promotion and restoration of people's health by generating knowledge about the distribution and determinants of health and disease and other evidence that will enable more effective, efficient, safe, equitable and acceptable policy and practice. The purpose of public health research is to generate evidence to inform policy and practice in public health. Public health research produces 'public goods' and, as such, has a pre-eminent moral claim on public monies allocated to health and medical research.
Public health is multidisciplinary.
Researchers from different paradigms and perspectives are required to cooperate in generating knowledge to promote the public's health. Australian expenditure on health-related research, and public health research in particular, is low in comparison with other OECD countries. Public health research depends on institutionalised capability. A minority of scholarships and fellowships are awarded to public health applicants. There is only one recognised journal which is dedicated to peer-reviewed publication of Australasian public health research.