The “Best of 2025 List” of Health Promotion Researchers

Each year the editorial team of the American Journal of Health Promotion selects our “Best of the Year List” of health promotion studies from the prior year. This editorial features the Editor’s Picks Award, the Editor in Chief Award, the Michael P. O’Donnell Award and the Dorothy Nyswander Award for the best research and writing published in 2025 in this journal. Our criteria for selection includes: whether the study addresses a topic of timely importance in health promotion, the research question is clearly stated and the study methods are well executed; whether the paper is often cited and downloaded; if the study findings offer a unique contribution to the literature; and if the paper is well-written and engaging. Awardees in 2025 offered new insights into health literacy, gun violence, social determinants and youth fitness, the effectiveness of health coaching in weight management and factors that affect access to GLP-1’s. This “best of 2025 list” featured studies based in health systems, workplaces and communities and includes case studies and qualitative and quantitative research methods that enable researchers to better explain what amplifies or hampers well-being.