Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access published online on December 11, 2007
Journal of Pediatric Psychology, doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsm111
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Journal of Pediatric Psychology (JPP), 2003–2007: Editor's Vale Dictum
Temple University, Department of Public Health
All correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ronald T. Brown, PHD, ABPP, Temple University, 3307 North Broad Street, 300 Jones Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19140, USA. E-mail: rtbrown{at}temple.edu.
As I come to the end of my term as editor of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, I am pleased to report that our publication continues to improve. As the official record of an academically young field, issue by issue the Journal demonstrates that pediatric psychology is maturing into a most productive field.
It has been an honor to edit the Journal. As the previous editors did (Kazak, 2002
; La Greca, 1997; Roberts, 1992), I have prepared this summary of the Journal's status from 2002 through 2007 (Volumes 28–32). I will review significant activities and the process by which manuscripts are chosen and prepared for inclusion. I will describe in broad strokes the authors and their research, and areas in which the field should increase coverage. I will also look at the way in which content reflects larger forces influencing pediatric psychology, and what I believe our profession and publication may look like in the future. Several tables provide detail to support my observations and conclusions.
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Overview |
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 Top Overview Significant ActivitiesManuscript ReviewingTrends in Published ArticlesWhat JPP Reflects About...Concluding CommentsAcknowledgmentsReferences |
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Today, the Journal is published more frequently, and in greater length, than in 2003 when I became editor. Those increases, however, would not be significant were they not matched by qualitative accomplishments. Most notably, the Journal's impact factor, as measured by citations in scholarly literature, has steadily risen to 3.157 over the last 5 years.
In 2003, the editorial team set out to make the Journal author-friendly without sacrificing intellectual rigor. We expanded the number of associate editors to six: Maureen Black, PhD; Barbara Fiese, PhD; Grayson Holmbeck, PhD; John Lavigne, PhD; Raymond Mulhern, PhD; and Lonnie Zeltzer, MD, who managed submissions in addition to identifying topics that merited attention in special issues. Their expertise has been invaluable. With the strong support of an expanded editorial board, we also sought authors in nontraditional areas such as epidemiology, health services research, and health economics, some of whom had not previously published in the Journal. We set up a rotation among editorial board members, who agreed to serve for 3-year terms. We also invited reviewers with particular expertise to join the board. The Journal also continued to rely on many ad hoc reviewers: we now have more than 1,000 colleagues assisting in this capacity. The editorial group worked with many junior investigators who were fairly new to our field and when required, we worked more closely with authors to ready their papers for publication, consulting with them through multiple revisions. We strove to include emerging topics by using shorter-form articles or brief reports. All of these steps enabled us to broaden the Journal's perspective and increase its intellectual relevance, to make it a reliable source of analysis and comment that would be consulted by scholars in fields beyond our own. Indeed, we have been successful in these areas.
I leave the editorship of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology proud of its academic and financial strength, yet with a clear sense that the publication can be improved further. While intervention articles have increased by >50% compared with the previous 5 years (Kazak, 2002), we still do not publish sufficiently in this area, a shortcoming that has persisted since the Journal's start. Pediatric psychology has matured to a point at which we are clearly ready to validate experimentally what we have previously demonstrated by correlation. I believe that clinical trials’ labor-intensiveness and expense are major hindrances to intervention research, in addition to strict regulatory requirements and the time required to obtain verifiable experimental data. In addition, some pediatric psychologists may be hesitant to enter the fiercely competitive arena of federal funding, monies that are needed to support clinical trials in our field. These factors combine to limit the Journal's intervention and assessment content. Increasing content in this area continues to be a challenge.
Just as no person can achieve middle age without experiencing loss, neither can an academic field. In the past 5 years, we experienced the loss of two pediatric psychologists who were instrumental to the development of our field, Lizette Peterson, PhD, to whom we dedicated a special issue in 2005, and Associate Editor Raymond Mulhern, PhD, of St Jude Children's Research Hospital, to whom we have recently dedicated a special issue. Ray was adamant that the Journal's impact must be paramount in our consideration. I believe we have honored his mandate.
I want to acknowledge the contributions of many individuals who have provided indispensable assistance over the past 5 years, the editorial board members, our contributors, and the representatives of Oxford University Press, all of whom so willingly gave valuable time to nurture the Journal. Naturally, expanding the number and size of issues as we have, and spending greater time with authors placed greater demands on the editorial board, whose members responded diligently, cheerfully and for the most part on deadline.
We appreciate the openness and seriousness of our authors, who were unfailingly gracious in accepting (although sometimes questioning) editorial decisions. On a personal note, my time as editor overlapped 8 years of service on the Behavioral Medicine and Intervention Outcomes of the Center for Scientific Review of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In my time, on a study section, I have seen NIH grants grow into viable research being reported in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, and have watched many former graduate students become junior scholars, some of whom are rising to the senior ranks. Though this forces me to acknowledge growing older, it is an honor and privilege to witness the arrival of the next generation of research and scholars in our field!
Having had the opportunity to observe pediatric psychology from this unique position for the last few years, I am convinced that our field is vibrant and resilient. I look forward to following, and contributing to, its development in future issues.
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Significant Activities |
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TopOverviewSignificant ActivitiesManuscript ReviewingTrends in Published ArticlesWhat JPP Reflects About...Concluding CommentsAcknowledgmentsReferences |
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There have been several developments involving the Journal of Pediatric Psychology over the past 5 years. These include a significant increase in its size and frequency, presentation of highly relevant issues in great depth, the initiation of electronic submission, an expansion of the contributor pool and increased support for contributing authors, particularly those beginning their careers as scientists and academic faculty. In 2006, frequency increased from eight to 10 issues each year, and the annual page budget nearly doubled (from 590 pages in 2003 to 1,115 pages in 2006). These increases were approved by the Society of Pediatric Psychology in view of the publication's fiscal health and overall scientific rigor. We maintained the structured abstract format, and continued to include authors’ academic degrees, to remain consistent with medical journal format. And then there is the most superficial and obvious change: the Journal's return to a Carolina blue cover, as in its earliest issues. Finally, manuscripts became available online within 4 weeks of acceptance through HighWire Press, an electronic journal website, an unprecedented level of access to the most recent research in pediatric psychology.
Increased Size
The Journal has published a total of 441 articles since 2003, compared with 292 in the previous 5 years (Kazak, 2002). Our largest annual increase came in 2006 (Volume 31), when we published 1,115 pages, a 75% increase over the previous year. These increases were prompted by the volume of quality submissions generated by an increasingly diverse group of contributors.
The Journal has cultivated epidemiologists and pediatricians as authors, many of them researchers who were contributing their work to other academic publications. We invited experts from around the world to submit manuscripts for the Journal, expanding its international perspective. And we opened our pages more widely to junior scholars and graduate students, the people who will carry pediatric psychology into the future.
Expanding Contributor Pool
Demographically, senior authors1 in 2007 (Volume 32) were two-thirds female, one-third male, which represents a slight increase in women over the current editorial term, as well as compared with previous terms. In part, this reflects the scientific and scholarly involvement of a greater number of female pediatric psychologists than in previous years. Moreover, I believe that these data also reflect the rising number of women employed in university settings and thriving in academia. Consistently, >60% of Journal authors come from academic health science centers, those affiliated with colleges and universities. Approximately 25% are drawn from independent medical settings, and the remaining work in other professional areas. It is indeed interesting that many of our authors represent traditional academic departments of psychology rather than health sciences centers. In part, this may reflect changing economics in academia, in which pediatric psychologists must support their positions through the generation of external funds. Unless external grant support is available, this may preclude them from conducting independent research. Between one-quarter and one-third of senior authors hold an assistant or associate professorship—the largest segment in terms of academic rank. Consistent with our efforts to broaden authorship, the percentage of senior authors who are graduate students has risen steadily over the last 5 years, from 8% to 26% (Table I). This is the result of the Society of Pediatric Psychology's commitment to the mentoring of students in the scientific arena.
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Geographically, our authors are distributed more widely than ever before, thanks both to the advent of electronic submission, and to the international presence of Oxford University Press. Psychologists from Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia, and Australia are now prominently represented in the Journal's pages. While the majority of our authors still reside in North America,
20% come from beyond this continent.
Increased Flexibility
While maintaining a rejection rate of 75–80% over the past 5 years, the editorial board has been flexible with fledgling authors, helping them refine their work through several iterations, in keeping its commitment to mentor emerging scholars. Increased consultation allowed us to present emerging topics—and researchers—in the Journal. In the process, we gave new issues and authors vital exposure to academic criticism.
Given that most pediatric psychology articles report on applied research, much of the Journal's increased content concerns investigation with a practical intent, such as studies in clinical settings, including assessment issues and clinical trials. Articles of this type increased from 49% in 2003 to 71% in 2007. Pediatric psychologists are concerned with practice issues in the pediatric health care setting, and their research explores the association of disease and psychological adaptation, as well as chronic disease assessment and management in children and adolescents.
Frequently, we used the brief report format to publish work that was not yet fully developed or in which the number of study participants was too small to warrant a full report. These articles, often just 12 manuscript pages, not only increase awareness of what is on the horizon in pediatric psychology, but stimulate additional work in new areas (Table II). We rarely received manuscripts intended for the brief report format but encouraged authors to resubmit their articles in this format if they were simply judged as not yet being ready for a full publication.
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We continued to solicit commentary on emerging areas of inquiry and on articles that warranted additional discussion and when called upon, individual experts complied. However, no unsolicited commentaries were submitted, consistent with my predecessors’ experience (Kazak, 2002
). Additionally, few case studies were submitted and only three were suitable for publication during this term. For the first 2 years of my editorial term, we solicited literature reviews in areas that we believed capable of stimulating additional research. Here again, few unsolicited reviews were submitted. Admittedly, we had hoped to include a literature review in each issue, but were unable to persuade our colleagues to submit sufficient material. This may reflect increasing pressure on pediatric psychologists to secure external funding for empirical research, and to devote more time to income-generating pursuits, at the expense of these types of scholarly endeavors.
Special Issues
An expanded publication schedule enabled us to prepare special issues on emerging and developing topics, areas in which colleagues had expressed interest, were investigating or were considering for investigation. The result was 15 targeted issues, sections and miniseries on subjects that included pain, HIV, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, adolescent smoking, longitudinal designs, and the effect of substance abuse on development before and after birth, to name just a few. One special issue shed a hopeful light on the progress in treating pediatric cancer: rather than probing the question of grief, cancer studies now focus on survivorship and developmental issues associated with managing cancer (Table III).
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We intended for special issues to stimulate investigation into emerging areas, many of which will shape not only pediatric psychology, but mental health care and health care overall. Many topics generated ample submissions, including: posttraumatic stress, edited by Nancy Kassam-Adams, PhD; longitudinal research in pediatric psychology, edited by Grayson Holmbeck, PhD; and pediatric obesity, edited by Maureen Black, PhD and Deborah Young-Hyman, PhD In 2008, we will publish a special issue on empirically validated assessments, edited by Lindsey Cohen, PhD, that was the result of the assessment task force established by Annette LaGreca, PhD, past president of the Society of Pediatric Psychology.
Eliciting submissions on other topics, however, proved more challenging: I was particularly interested in encouraging more manuscripts on public health and pediatric psychology, and we planned a special issue edited by Bernard Fuemmeler, PhD, MPH and myself, although we had few submissions.
Several public health issues deserve more exposure in the Journal, such as access to care, the value of pediatric psychological services in injury and injury prevention, and the capacity of pediatric psychological services to reduce health care utilization and improve outcomes. It may be that experts writing in these areas submit work to scholarly publications in public health and pediatrics, but bringing them to our pages is certainly worth pursuing.
Bold Editorial Policies
Expanding from 68 members in 2003 to approximately 80 today, the editorial board now includes physicians, public health experts, junior scholars, and individuals holding positions at the National Institutes of Health. Their perspectives, combined with those of the members representing theoretical and clinical psychology, enrich our intellectual foundation, enabling us to explore more issues, attract diverse authors and readers, and gain scholarly relevance. The expanded board has set a bold standard, garnering a diverse group of contributors who research and write on a wide array of topics. The Journal is a better publication for their efforts.
Electronic Production
In the past 5 years, we have made the transition into full electronic production. Beginning in 2004, all submissions and communications became electronic. The adoption of Manuscript Central has helped to ensure that files come to production quickly and in good condition. Though we experienced a few difficulties in moving to electronic production, we worked through problems with the support of Oxford University Press, which has been a valuable partner throughout my tenure as editor. Undeniably, having the Journal available in electronic and paper form has vastly increased access and contributed to its growing influence. In 2006, an average of 25,000 articles were downloaded, compared with 5,014 in 2003.
Electronic publication allows individual articles and whole issues to be available online through HighWire Press, weeks earlier than the print version. It enables images to be exported to PowerPoint programs, and content tables and abstracts to be delivered to personal digital assistants. Oxford also has transferred the entire Journal of Pediatric Psychology catalog into electronic form, creating a digital archive that dates back to the first issue, Winter 1976.
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Manuscript Reviewing |
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TopOverviewSignificant ActivitiesManuscript ReviewingTrends in Published ArticlesWhat JPP Reflects About...Concluding CommentsAcknowledgmentsReferences |
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Acceptance Rate
A total of 1,176 submissions were reviewed from 2002 (during my term as editor-elect) to 2007, with an annual average of 129 accepted for publication. This total represents an increase of 65% from the last editorial period, and is consistent with the increased length and number of Journal issues. Annual acceptance rates for papers ranged from 14% to 32%, consistent with those under previous editors.
Editorial/Publication Lag
Editorial lag, the time between a paper being received and authors being notified of publication decisions, was just over 7 weeks, consistent with previous editors. Publication lag, the time between an article reaching final form and being published, however, was shortened dramatically thanks to electronic publication. As noted earlier, advance access is an added benefit of electronic production: individual articles can be posted online as they reach final form and an entire volume is available in just 6 weeks, 2 weeks earlier than the print version.
Impact Factor
One of the most exciting developments over the past 5 years is the growing recognition of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology as a source of credible academic information. Our Social Science Citation Index impact factor, which reflects the number of Journal citations appearing in other scholarly publications over a 2-year period, has risen to 3.157 (Fig. 1). The Journal currently ranks sixth among 53 journals in developmental psychology overall, and compares favorably with well respected publications in children's developmental psychology, including Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Developmental Psychopathology, Health Psychology, and the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
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While impact factor is only one measure of quality, we believe that it signifies the achievement of a certain stature by the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. We are proud to be in the company of peer journals that we respect, and are pleased to have achieved a position on the leading edge of our field, a goal since the Journal began publication in 1976. In addition to the number, it is worth noting the array of publications in which Journal citations appear. We are encouraged that our content has relevance for so wide a range of academic specialties.
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Trends in Published Articles |
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Author Demographics
The percentage of female authors has increased over time, averaging 65% between 2003 and 2007, compared with 55% between 1988 and 1992 (Roberts, 1992
). Consistent with the Journal's efforts to work with emerging scholars, more articles are being written by junior faculty and trainees. In 2007 (Volume 32), more than half of Journal articles were contributed by these groups—25% by associate/assistant professors, and 26% by students (Table I). Our authors’ professional affiliation has remained fairly constant over the past 5 years: 60–70% come from academic health science centers, 20–30% are employed in independent medical settings, and the remainder work in other areas.
Collaboration has remained an important trend among Journal authors: from 2003 to 2007, between 41 and 43% of published papers had three to five authors, possibly due to the increasing use of multi-site studies that has been a trend at the National Institutes of Health (Table IV).
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During this period, authors’ theoretical orientation with regard to their manuscript was most often biological/medical (ranging from 31 to 39% annually), developmental (13–31%) or social interaction (11–29%). The investigation of psychosocial issues in disease, including the relationship between psychosocial variables and biological indicators of disease (e.g., examining how family functioning predicts HgbA1C, a marker of glycemic control among individuals with insulin-dependent diabetes) is indicative of pediatric psychology's increasing understanding of the pathophysiology of disease (Table V).
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Population Demographics
A high percentage of articles reported on studies of patients with chronic medical conditions (Table VI). This is likely due to the number of pediatric psychologists who work in academic health science centers. More work is needed on acute medical conditions, which are difficult to track because short hospitalizations, increasingly due to managed health care, do not permit the physician–patient exposure required for psychological studies. Ideally, now that the American Academy of Pediatrics has conceptualized attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as a chronic illness (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2000
), the Journal should also increase content in developmental and learning disabilities, because these conditions relate to chronic disease and are very much at the core of the delivery of pediatric primary care. It may be that research on these topics is being directed to more narrowly focused publications, such as neuropsychology and medical journals. Nevertheless, it is an area for future emphasis.
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In terms of age, most studies still involve dispersed age groups, suggesting a lack of focus on discrete developmental stages, as Kazak (2002
) and Roberts (1992) noted (Table VII). However, this tendency is beginning to diminish. Gradually, researchers are making an effort to keep age groups homogenous, perhaps due to multi-site studies that make it easier to assemble a population of adequate size within specific age parameters, or due to more stringent requirements of age homogeneity to obtain federal funding. Over the past 3 years, more pediatric psychological studies have focused on adolescents. Happily, it is now possible to study older populations with chronic conditions, because children with diseases that previously had a guarded prognosis now survive longer. Longitudinal studies of children and adolescents with chronic disease will likely be more prevalent, again given the keen interest in the special issue edited by Associate Editor Grayson Holmbeck, PhD (Volume 31, Number 10).
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Grant Support
Funding of pediatric psychological research is directly affected by public policy but with an administrative delay, as budgets and directives work their way through federal bureaucracies. So, the effects we see in studies being published currently reflect funding policies dating back as early as the Clinton administration. More authors reported grant support early in my editorial term, particularly NIH funding. During 2006–2007, however, support has decreased due to reductions in federal support that were introduced in subsequent budget cycles (Table VIII).
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The expense of research, which is the heart of intervention and assessment, in an environment of reduced funding, suggests that the Journal may continue to lack content in these areas.
Article Types
The distribution of Journal articles during the past 5 years has been consistent with that of other editorial periods. The majority are reports on applied research, which increased from 49% in 2003 (Volume 28) to 71% in 2007 (Volume 32). (Note that much of this percentage increase is linked to the overall expansion of articles.) We had limited success in increasing literature reviews: the percentage rose from 4% in 2003 to 16% in 2007. In general, it has been difficult to solicit authors to prepare literature reviews. This may be a function of increasing emphasis on funded research and third-party billing to cover faculty and staff compensation. Recent writing on specific diseases or conditions tended to center on diabetes, cancer and increasingly, on obesity. We should devote more space to HIV/AIDS, intervention outcomes, and access to and integration of care, among other topics (Tables II and VIII). Some have suggested that publishing additional literature reviews will increase the Journal's impact factor, as more of its articles will be cited in these reviews.
As mentioned, topics of particular interest were examined in numerous special issues, a special section, and a miniseries (Table III).
Research Purpose
As noted, the Journal has struggled with a lack of intervention content since its inception, and improving performance in this area has been an ongoing goal. We have made modest progress, increasing intervention articles to 23 from the 14 published between 1998 and 2002 (Kazak, 2002). Due to 50% increase in Journal articles over the past 5 years, however, this represents a smaller percentage (4%) of articles than under previous editors (Table IX).
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In an effort to stimulate sorely needed clinical trials, early in my term, we featured articles on the conduct of clinical trials (McGrath, Stinson, & Davidson, 2003
; Stinson, McGrath, & Yamada, 2003) and promised assistance for new investigators embarking on intervention research (Brown, 2003). We might hope that the American Psychological Association's support for evidence-based practice (American Psychological Association, 2006), coupled with a health care system that increasingly employs evidence-based medicine and demands that all practitioners demonstrate the efficacy of their clinical work, will encourage increased intervention research in pediatric psychology.
Prevention articles present another gap: between 2003 and 2007 the Journal published just eight such articles, peaking in 2005 with five. In the period from 1988 to 1992, 3.8% of Journal articles concerned the prevention of psychological or physical problems (Roberts, 1992).
The large number of assessment articles is encouraging, as assessment is a precursor of clinical studies. The field has evolved to the point that pediatric psychology now has measures specific to chronic illness, rather than borrowing from the psychopathology literature, as was done a decade ago. I believe that the steady rise in these assessment articles (from 24 in 2003 [53%] to 80 in 2007 [83%]) indicates a maturation in our field that will lead to enhanced pursuit of funding, more clinical research, and an increase in intervention research articles. Clearly, assessment instruments have increased and are well validated, both in the United States and other cultures. These are promising indicators for future intervention research (Table X).
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Ethical Regulatory Trends
For the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, the most important development in this area since 2003 has been the increased use of conflict-of-interest forms in research, in which the investigator may, for example, own significant stock in a pharmaceutical company. By signing conflict-of-interest forms, investigators attest that they have no investment in firms funding their research. Verifications of this type underscore the independence and veracity of research in pediatric psychology, which is essential in maintaining the integrity of the Journal and all academic publications. While pediatric psychologists may not have as many competing interests as our physician colleagues, an awareness of potential conflicts will help maintain high ethical standards.
Finally, although the majority of authors acknowledge Institutional Review Board Approval (IRB) and consent from caregivers, consistent with the observations of Kazak (2002), fewer articles mention assent from children participating in studies. Also of interest is that over the past 5 years, no articles have appeared on research ethics in pediatric psychology. These important areas cannot be ignored and must become part of our professional conversation—and of this publication—as our discipline matures.
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What JPP Reflects About Pediatric Psychology |
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Clinical Practice
The fact that the Journal is a longer, more frequent publication today indicates that our profession is indeed alive and well. And since much of the interest in pediatric psychology emanates from universities and medical centers, I anticipate that future work will increasingly address the areas in which we now see gaps. For example, I expect that the rate of clinical trials and intervention studies will accelerate, enabling the Journal to increase its reporting in these areas.
I anticipate that the collaboration indicated by the growing number and diversity of contributors will continue, tapping the talents of junior scholars and their mentors to initiate new studies and increase our understanding. We will become ever more accustomed to working in teams across locations and cultures—to execute studies with greater age specificity, leading to deeper knowledge about preschoolers, middle school-aged children and adolescents.
In this way, the Journal is an excellent compass: pointing toward areas in pediatric psychology that merit attention and exploration. These include public health issues such as preventive care, health disparities, and access to psychological services, overuse of emergency room care, health services research, the integration of psychological and primary care, and the psychosocial implications of chronic diseases and conditions, such as HIV/AIDS and bone marrow and organ transplantation (Table XI).
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To accomplish these things, we must seek new financial support for increasingly expensive clinical trials. The current wealth of applied research in pediatric psychology presages an increase in clinical research. Coupled with the fact that we work within an evidence-based health care system, an approach that is supported by the NIH and other federal funders, our field is well-positioned to compete for grant support for our research.
Scientific Research
Many of the trends we have seen reflected in the Journal hint at the evolution of scientific research in pediatric psychology. Children with serious and chronic illness are living longer; this will permit increased study of their psychosocial development and adaptation over time. Interest in longitudinal and experimental research is building, and the Journal responded with a special issue that examined current investigations and the statistical methodology being developed to pursue investigations over time (Volume 31, Number 4, Holmbeck, Ed.).
The Journal also reflects interest in a range of chronic conditions that affect children and adolescents. Traditionally, cancer has received much attention, but it has now been joined by other chronic illnesses that include diabetes, asthma, and obesity. All research in pediatric psychology will be enhanced by the movement toward multi-site studies, which allow a more coordinated approach to assembling study groups. By widening our net geographically, we can design research with larger study groups that meet more specific parameters. Ideally, this will strengthen the external validity of our studies and lead to more meaningful conclusions. However, such studies are difficult to conduct without adequate grant support.
Increased assessment research has led to the development of new instruments with which to measure psychological, physiological, and sociological conditions and characteristics in children and adolescents. The development of our own instrumentation signifies the emergence of pediatric psychology as an independent field.
Professional Issues
Pediatric psychology values methodical and intellectual inquiry. We must respond to developments in our field and events in the wider world that affect our profession and patients. This means, that we need to be persistent in pursuing issues that affect the way we do our work, such as funding and regulatory matters relating to research, health care access and the definition, integration, and compensation of services. We need to rigorously assess the shortcomings of ourselves and our profession, working to remedy them as we pursue high intellectual, ethical, and standards of care.
We need to be more inclusive, to open the profession to colleagues from different experiences and professions. For the Journal, this means that the publication must attract diverse authors and editorial board members, extending invitations to scholars of varied ethnicities and countries of origin. We have begun this process by increasing physician representation on the board and adding a prominent physician–researcher, Lonnie Zeltzer, MD, as an associate editor. That said, we need to do more, adding accomplished investigators from schools of nursing and public health who conduct research in pediatric chronic illness. We also need to address the fact that there are few individuals of color or minority status on the editorial board, despite a search that continued throughout my tenure. This may be a staffing issue, in that nearly all pediatric psychologists are of European ancestry. As such, it is a challenge that will take several years to rectify, as more diverse students are recruited and trained.
The Journal continues to seek content on professional practice and issues; this is perhaps one of the richest areas for productive discussion, yet one that attracts little attention. While the first issue in 2003 was specifically devoted to issues of training, these articles were actually solicited and edited by me under my predecessor. Perhaps, we are reluctant to examine areas so close to home; that is exactly why we should. Perhaps, we are stymied by financial pressure to produce research with more immediate applications, yet examining our profession can only strengthen the relevance of what we do as clinicians and researchers.
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Concluding Comments |
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The wealth of investigation and reporting in pediatric psychology that has made it possible to publish longer and more frequent issues of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology bode well for our profession. We are rapidly deepening knowledge in our field, establishing its relevance to sister disciplines such as public health, child development, and the neurosciences. New knowledge, communicated in pediatric psychology's expanding literature, signals our ascent as an independent branch of psychology, consistent with the Society of Pediatric Psychology's division status within the American Psychological Association. We now have many more assessment instruments unique to pediatric psychology than previously. Pediatric psychology has evolved from primarily relying on correlation investigations, which indicates the early adolescence of a field, to the establishment of experimental investigations, signaling maturity.
Again, it has been a privilege and an honor to serve as editor over the past 5 years. Indeed, it has been one of the highlights of my career as a pediatric psychologist. There are several individuals to whom I am grateful, including associate editors Maureen Black, PhD, Barbara Fiese, PhD, Grayson Holmbeck, PhD, John Lavigne, PhD, Lonnie Zeltzer, MD and the late Raymond Mulhern, PhD. Their unwavering support was demonstrated through their diligent management of mountains of manuscripts, and by their service as guest editors of many special issues. They also generously gave their time to critique my editorials, sharing both intellectual insights and practical advice. I am indebted to Susan Simonian, PhD, continuing education editor for the Journal, and to Carrie Rittle, MA, who has served dutifully as the editorial assistant during my entire term. I have watched her mature in the process and have had the privilege of watching her family grow. Finally, my sincere appreciation goes to Dennis Drotar, PhD, who will be the next editor. He was unfailing in his devotion, preparing commentaries related to clinical trials, and providing feedback to me on various editorial statements. There is no finer academic citizen and scholar in our field.
I am grateful to Oxford University Press, which has partnered with the Society of Pediatric Psychology to publish the Journal over the past decade. No publisher better exemplifies quality scholarship than Oxford. In particular, Shelley Andrews, Executive Editor of journals, has been a superb colleague and friend. The editorial board and reviewers have been most gracious in all of the demands that I have made of them over the past 5 years. Rarely were manuscripts sent back to my office because they could not review them and their comments added so much to the final quality of the Journal. Finally, our authors and prospective contributors have always been most kind to me and the associate editors. They took criticism with grace and utilized the review process to enhance their work. When there were delays in reviewing, which were not frequent, and when rejections were issued, authors were remarkably understanding.
As an editor, I have developed even greater respect for the majesty of the peer-review process. Not only does it enhance the quality of what we publish, it shapes pediatric psychology for the next generation of scholars and enhances the lives of the children we serve. Having had this opportunity to lead our field in this small way has been the capstone of my career, and I want to thank all of those colleagues and friends who worked with me over the past 5 years.
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Acknowledgments |
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I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Maureen Black, PhD, Pamela J. Forsythe, Grayson Holmbeck, PhD, Michael C. Roberts, PhD, and Lonnie Zeltzer, MD for valuable comments during earlier drafts of the article.
Conflicts of interest: None declared.
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Footnotes |
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1 Senior author here is consistent with American Psychological Association usage, that is, the author who contributes most to a paper's conceptualization and writing.
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References |
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