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Very few health scholars and professionals, and fewer still in health education, would have encountered during their academic or professional preparation any of the concepts, principles, or methodologies of what is now called “systems science.” Characterized by analytic approaches that accommodate, for example, nonlinear relationships, bidirectional feedback loops, and time-delayed effects, systems science is concerned with how we understand and act effectively within complex systems. With such a broad purview, the very notion of systems science itself often raises puzzling questions about its scope, depth, and potential value for health promotion and public health work. Thus, it may seem surprising that within just a few month’s notice, more than 40 teams of investigators responded to a call for papers on “Systems Science Applications in Health Promotion and Public Health” that Health Education & Behavior (HE&B) issued in March 2012. Systems science has intellectual origins in general systems theory and research dating back to the 1930s. Often associated with the seminal work of the Austrian biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy, there are in fact scores of other strands of inquiry that have combined and complemented one another to yield what is now a phenomenally rich space of thinking and practice (International Institute for General Systems Studies, 2001; von Bertalanffy, 1968; Weckowicz, 1989). Studies using a systems perspective have opened important frontiers in disciplines such as anthropology, biology, psychology, and the social sciences, as well as in applied sciences such as cybernetics, engineering, medicine, and public health, where applications anchored in a systems view have become increasingly prominent (Institute for Systems Biology, 2012; Milstein, 2008; Richardson, 1991). Interest in systems science and its implications for improving public health has been building for several decades. This wave of interest stems in large part from the growing recognition that traditional research methods in the behavioral and social sciences, which typically feature narrow problem definitions and linear analytic representations, are by themselves insufficient to adequately address the complexity of the most pressing population health challenges (Livingood et al., 2011; Mabry, Marcus, Clark, Leischow, & Mendez, 2010; Sterman, 2006). Systems science offers a complementary approach, capable of addressing more complex, interactive phenomena, while also attending to the practical constraints and opportunities that shape the contours of the social, physical, and organizational settings in which responses to those health challenges must occur (Leischow & Milstein, 2006; Luke & Stamatakis, 2012; Mabry, Olster, Morgan, & Abrams, 2008). Both governmental and nongovernmental health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Institute of Medicine, and many others, have formally acknowledged the value of systems science (Best, Clark, Leischow, & Trochim, 2007; Gerberding, 2005; Hussey et al., 2013; Institute of Medicine, 2012; Mabry et al., 2008; Milstein, 2008; NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, 2013). Accordingly, investments in understanding the potential of systems science and its applications to public health problems have been growing through a widening array of funded research and training programs (Mabry & Kaplan, 2013). Several of the authors whose work is published in this supplement, in fact, were recipients of those investments, and their pioneering work has already begun to enhance programs and policies such that the public may be the ultimate beneficiaries of those investments. 503343 HEB401S10.1177/1090198113503343Health Education & Behavior 40(1S)Mabry et al. research-article2013

Opening a Window on Systems Science Research in Health Promotion and Public Health