Letter from the New Editor-in-Chief

I am delighted to usher in the New Year by addressing you in my first editorial as the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the European Psychologist. It is my pleasure and privilege to serve the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA) in this function, and I look forward to working with you to further advance the European Psychologist as a high-ranking outlet for quality psychological research.

The European Psychologist is already well established as a unique voice of psychology in Europe, integrating knowledge across specializations and providing a platform for communication among psychologists throughout Europe and worldwide. One of the great strengths of the European Psychologist is that it disseminates research from both basic as well as applied fields within psychology. From my standpoint as a researcher and director of a postgraduate program in educational counseling and school psychology, I sense that one of the biggest challenges facing a journal such as the European Psychologist is to integrate the need to publish basic research with the responsibility to focus increasingly on relevant questions for society at large, addressed using state-of-the-art methods.

My vision for the future of the European Psychologist includes building upon and broadening the successes of the past 15 years. I see the journal as having enormous potential to shape and impact not only the knowledge of our academic colleagues, but also to serve our societies by informing practitioners working with both community and clinical populations, as well as stakeholders ranging from educators to health care providers and policymakers at the governmental level. I see the European Psychologist as a journal for vital and meaningful inquiry, and see its great potential to contribute to advancing the progression of the field of psychology away from an overfocus on significant alpha levels toward a focus on significant and meaningful questions, addressed with sound methods. Over two decades ago, Kupfersmid (1988) outlined three areas of dissatisfaction with much of what is published in professional journals: overly narrow research on irrelevant topics, editorial biases in accepting and rejecting manuscripts, and an overfocus on statistical significance testing resulting in well-researched but never-published file-drawer studies and an abundance of meaningless findings. Although there is no perfect solution to these issues, I hope to address them as well as I can during my tenure as editor, to further improve the quality and impact of the European Psychologist.

With thought toward realizing this vision, I wish to encourage more integrative submissions such as review articles, meta-analyses, special issues, and series of articles across issues on topics of broad public appeal. For example, topics such as migration and social change across Europe, poverty and developmental outcomes, risk taking and economic growth, belief systems and ecologically relevant behavior, costs and benefits of modern family structures, and individual loneliness in a globally communicating world would likely receive much attention and appreciation, not only from scientists, but also from practitioners in emerging and traditional psychological fields within and across the disciplines. Such timely papers could have a meaningful impact on both policy and practice. Indeed, just in the past year, one such special section of the European Psychologist with broad implications provided readers with up-to-date and relevant information in the area of stress and coping ranging from empirical studies on couple relationships (Knoll, Schwarzer, Pfüller, & Kienle, 2009; O’Brien, DeLongis, Pomaki, Puterman, & Zwicker, 2009) to a meta-analysis on the effects of self-efficacy on coping with collective trauma events (Luszczynska, Benight, & Cieslak, 2009). A second special section highlighted the benefits of ambulatory assessment, that is, sampling life in real time rather than relying on retrospective reports, for improving the quality of research across a range of contexts (e.g., Ebner-Priemer & Trull, 2009; Hoppmann & Riediger, 2009; Klumb, Elfering, & Herre, 2009). Yet another of many notable articles from the past year with potentially wide appeal addressed the integration of Turkey into the European Union (Raufaste, Pompanon, & Vautier, 2009).

I also plan to work closely with our strong team of associate editors, as well as our excellent editorial board of researchers from across Europe, and our much appreciated ad hoc reviewers, to strengthen the quality of the journal through the peer review and publication process. The length of manuscripts will continue to be limited to 7,500 words for original research papers and to 2,500 words for brief research reports, including abstracts, references, figures, and tables. The European Psychologist is receiving more quality papers than ever, and page limits ensure equitable space for all accepted papers. Proceeding in a new direction for the journal, we will adopt a double-blind or “masked” review process in accordance with the standards of the American Psychological Association (2001), and in accordance with research indicating that masked review contributes to the fair evaluation of manuscripts, increasing gender equity, and reducing biases for both unknown authors and institutions as well as more prolific authors (Snodgrass, 2006). Beginning in 2010, manuscripts will be sent out for review with the title page containing author names, affiliations, and the author note removed. In addition, authors will be responsible for removing identifying information from the body of the manuscript. In another shift, a systematic and transparent evaluation tool will be introduced into the review process with the aim of improving our focus. Reviewers will be asked to rate manuscripts on several dimensions in addition to providing their written comments. These dimensions will include (a) overall contribution to the given field, (b) innovativeness of the manuscript, (c) review of the literature, (d) strength of the study design and methods, (e) strength of the analytical approach, (f) novel empirical contribution, (g) implications for further research, (h) potential value to society, and (i) clarity of presentation.

It is my hope that these new practices will not only further enhance the quality of the European Psychologist, but will increase its impact as well. The impact factor of the European Psychologist has risen steadily over the last several years, increasing both its attractiveness to potential authors as well as its influence in the field. While the impact factor is not necessarily the most important criterion for evaluating the standing of a journal, it is a clear-cut, accessible, and standardized indicator, and one of our goals is to see it increase further in the next 5 years.

In closing, I wish to acknowledge and heartily thank the tremendous group of people who propelled the European Psychologist to the point where it is today. On behalf of EFPA, as well as the readers of the European Psychologist, I extend a genuine and heartfelt appreciation and thank you to Professor Rainer Silbereisen, Editor-in-Chief, Verona Christmas-Best, Managing Editor, and Katrin Mueller, Editorial Assistant, who so skillfully advanced the journal during the last 6 years. The dedicated Jena group facilitated an open, collegial, and transparent handover of the editorial duties, and their work has greatly aided the new editorial office in achieving a smooth transition and in maintaining the high standards of the Jena group. Second, our thanks go to Hogrefe Publishing, in particular to Dr. G.-Jürgen Hogrefe, Robert Dimbleby, and Christina Sarembe, who have efficiently supported the European Psychologist on the production and marketing end over the years. Sincere gratitude is also directed toward the team of associate editors. Their expertise and efficiency has enhanced the quality and editing process of the European Psychologist enormously. As transitional times facilitate change, Tim Brennen, University of Oslo, decided to retire from his role as an associate editor at the end of 2009, due to new duties within his department.¹ However, I am thrilled to be able to count on the experience of Gian Vittorio Caprara, Katariina Salmela-Aro, Lars Bäckman, and Norman Anderson as they continue in their roles as associate editors, as well as on the expertise of an outstanding group of colleagues on the editorial board. Last but not least, I am happy to welcome Kristen Lavallee, the new Managing Editor at the Basel office, and Sylvia Buergin, the incoming Editorial Assistant.

I am very much looking forward to your submissions. If you are interested in submitting an integrative paper, either on one of the topics mentioned above or on another topic aimed at attracting a broad readership, please send me a short summary of your intention.