PSYCHOTHERAPY: THEORY, RESEARCH, PRACTICE, TRAINING
Editor: Charles J. Gelso, Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park
Volume 42, No. 1 (Spring 2005)
Editorial
From the time of its first volumes in the 1960s, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, & Training has had a special place among publication outlets in our field. It is the one journal that has emphasized the integration of theory, research, and practice. Furthermore, from its early years I believe this journal, more than any other top tier journal of which I am aware, has emphasized the publication of research and clinical theory that are novel, creative, and clinically meaningful. This emphasis was evident in the Journal's early editorial statements. For example, Editor Arthur Kovacs in 1976 called for authors to submit "only their new ideas, the controversial, the good examples of practice-relevant detail … and to omit the well-known, the obvious, the lengthy introduction and generalities of the old-fashioned article format." This statement was striking to me when I read it as a young scientist-practitioner, and I have always admired this thrust. In fact, such an emphasis may be especially important in our current era, where there appears to be an almost obsessive concern in many outlets with methodological and quantitative detail, often seemingly at the expense of the novel and the creative. Too often it seems that the "good idea" plays second fiddle, for example, to quantitative sophistication. If I have a bias as an editor, it is toward favoring the creative, the new idea, and the clinically meaningful piece. Of course the best scientific and clinical works possess both rigor and relevance, both methodological sophistication and creativity. Papers representing this combination will naturally be given the highest priority.
Types of Papers to be Published
The Journal will publish the full range of articles on psychotherapy and related activities, including therapy training. Empirical studies, conceptual and theoretical papers, integrative reviews, and examples of clinical technique are all welcome. Authors are encouraged to incorporate case examples into each of these types of articles, as I believe doing so enhances both scientific and clinical relevance. Similarly, the Journal will publish articles presenting case studies, either single cases or multiple cases. Case studies have had a controversial history in our scholarly journals. The kind of case study manuscript in which we are particularly interested seeks to foster or test clinical theory, illuminates and tests clinical technique, and is well integrated with relevant literature. It goes considerably beyond simply presenting an "interesting case."
Science and practice are not only advanced through theory and research, but also through thoughtful, direction-pointing reviews of theory and research. Articles presenting such reviews are certainly of interest to Psychotherapy. We are interested in both the traditional scholarly review and what I refer to as the "practice review." The traditional review may or may not employ meta-analytic techniques. As for the practice review, it is an integrative review of relevant empirical and/or theoretical literature, with a special emphasis on implications for psychotherapeutic practice. I describe this kind of review on pages 132 of this issue. Suffice it to say that these kinds of reviews are rare in our field in comparison to the traditional review, and they are of great interest to the Journal.
With this first issue of 2005, the Journal is beginning a Brief Reports' section. The short article format (no more than 15 doubles-spaced pages, including abstract, text, references, and tables) is especially suited to studies or clinical papers that represent beginning research efforts in an area, studies that are methodologically limited but may have significant heuristic value, well done studies that may have a narrow scope, and of course small studies. Submissions of brief reports should have "brief report" as part of the short title in the upper right part of each page. This will insure that editorial reviewers understand that they are evaluating the paper as a brief report.
The Journal will also occasionally publish comments. These can serve to highlight significant aspects of a paper, offer alternative views, and add a critique that may be useful to readers. Of course, comments have the added advantage of spicing things up a bit!
Content Areas
As of this writing, several special sections or issues are at various planning stages. A special issue is being organized for December 2005 on the interplay of techniques and the therapeutic relationship. We are also planning a special issue on culture, race, and ethnicity in psychotherapy (see Call for Papers in this issue), and special sections on psychotherapy supervision and the latest developments in the therapeutic working alliance. I expect to publish other special issues and sections that address underrepresented and growing-edge topics.
Although an editor of a journal such as Psychotherapy can influence the field through creating special issues and sections, it is important to not have too much influence in this way. Science and practice are best advanced, in my view, by allowing for the submission and publication of manuscripts on topics that individual authors choose, without being influenced by an editor or group of editors who decide the topics that are favored and disfavored. My most basic concern is that we publish high quality work, and that the Journal influence quality rather than the specific content areas that are studied.
I should also add that Psychotherapy remains committed to publishing research and theory from all theoretical vantage points, for all age groups, and on all treatment modes, e.g., individual, group, couples. If you see more articles on one theoretical approach, one treatment more, or one age group than others, it is because that is what is being submitted. But our greatest interest is in having articles published on the full range of theoretical approaches and treatment modes, and for all age groups. To keep things balanced, submissions on under-investigated theories, modes, and age groups will be given a slight edge in the editorial process.
Some Methodological Priorities
During the last couple of decades, we have moved from what may be termed paradigm fixation as far as research methodology is concerned toward much greater flexibility of methods. The so-called received view that espouses experimental method and nothing else is no longer seen as the only way to true understanding. Instead, a wide array of methods is viewed as acceptable. To my mind, this methodological diversity is very healthy, and Psychotherapy will have the most positive impact if it remains methodologically open. Thus, we seek to embrace laboratory as well as field studies; small as well as large sample studies; process, outcome, and process-outcome studies; qualitative as well as quantitative studies; correlational as well as experimental studies; studies focusing on the individual as well as group studies; and of course theoretical as well as empirical studies. Again, it is the quality of the study rather than the particular method that matters most.
I would like to conclude this editorial by offering some notes of appreciation. First, I want to acknowledge the immediate past editor, Wade Silverman, for his decade of good work on the Journal and for helping make my break-in period as Incoming Editor relatively smooth. Ten years is a long time to be an editor, and Wade's willingness to serve for these years deserves our gratitude. I also want to thank John Norcross, who in his role as Chair of Division 29's Publication Board, has provided wonderful guidance throughout the process of organizing my editorship. The Journal's Manuscript Coordinator, Denise Park, and Editorial Assistant, Elizabeth Doschek, have done a great job of learning and negotiating APA's computerized manuscript submission and evaluation system, called JBO, and of helping a rather technophobic Incoming Editor learn to use the system with a degree of comfort! I am indebted to them.
I am extremely pleased to acknowledge Nick Ladany and Lisa Samstag as the Journal's new associate editors. Both of them are outstanding scholars of psychotherapy in their own right, and each is already contributing in major ways to the Journal. Finally, I want to bring to your attention the members of our editorial board, who are listed on the journal masthead. These top scholars, educators, and practitioners of psychotherapy make a vital, if silent, contribution to the editorial process, and I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge publicly their contributions.
Editorships are always heavy jobs, not without their share of anxieties and certainly with their share of headaches. Despite these realities, I have very much enjoyed my year as Incoming Editor, and I am looking forward with excitement to the years ahead.
