Using New Techniques to Examine the Past: A Computational Assessment of the First 50 Years of the <i>Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law</i>

A rigorous investigation of various characteristics of the past 50 years of scholarship in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law requires the application of large-scale computational text tools. The authors used four strategies to analyze research articles (N = 1,532): keyword searching, named entity recognition, unsupervised topic modeling, and large language modeling. They examined the following characteristics of the articles published in the journal since its founding: main topics, subtopics, and geographic foci; attention to equity/diversity, racism, women's health, and LGBTQ+ people; and methodological approaches. Articles have examined a diversity of health policy topics, although most have concerned health care access and health insurance, and the majority have been based in the United States. The journal's authors have consistently (more than 50% of articles) mentioned issues of health equity and health disparities. They have applied a range of methodological approaches, with empirical legal and policy analyses the most prominent. Qualitative approaches have been consistent while quantitative articles have seen an increase during the past decade. Findings demonstrate the utility of computational methods in future applications for health policy and politics scholarship.