The Milbank Quarterly and health services research, 1977-1990.

This article explores the relationship between the Quarterly and the contemporary history of health services research. Between 1977 and 1990 most of the articles in the Quarterly addressed the dominant concerns of the growing constituency that identified with the newly named field of health services research. However, the Quarterly also reflected its editor's interest in an older tradition of health care reform and public health in the United States and abroad. An analysis of the articles published in the Quarterly in three periods (1977-1981, 1981-1986, 1986-1990) reveals themes that received consistent attention, others that received increasing attention, and still others that were accorded diminished attention. This analysis highlights the value of the Quarterly as a source of insight about the individuals who have written for, edited, guided, and read it.