Call for Papers: “Implementation Research, Practice, and Policy”

For the past several decades, considerable scientific and policy interest as well as research activity have focused on developing evidence-based or -informed practices and programs and other innovations intended to produce better outcomes for individuals. Past and current efforts to diffuse, translate, transport, disseminate, mandate, incentivize, and otherwise close the “science to service gap” have not been successful in getting the growing list of evidence-based programs routinely into practice. There is growing interest in implementation science to examine and help solve the problems associated with using science in human services.

While implementation science has been developing slowly for several decades, it has grown rapidly in the past 20 years as the evidence-based program movement has grown. If society wants a good return on its considerable investment in research to develop evidence-based programs, it will need to invest in implementation science and best practices. How is implementation research conducted in complex settings over long periods of time? What is the best science related to implementation? How is the science of implementation operationalized in practice? What does this mean for policies in governments and human service systems?

It is against this background that we invite papers to this topical issue of the Zeitschrift für Psychologie to examine issues related to studying the full and effective use of evidence-based programs and other effective innovations in typical human service settings. We invite articles related to implementation science, practice, and policy. In addition to suggestions for full original or review articles, shorter research notes and opinion papers are also encouraged.

We invite scholars from various areas of human services including psychology, child welfare, education, public health, and global health to submit their abstracts on potential papers electronically to either of the guest editors:

Dean Fixsen (mailto:dean.fixsen@unc.edu)

Terje Ogden (mailto:terje.ogden@atferdssenteret.no)

How to submit: Interested authors should submit a letter of intent including: (1) a working title for the manuscript, (2) names, affiliations, and contact information for all authors, and (3) an abstract of no more than 500 words detailing the content of the proposed manuscript.

There is a two-stage submissions process. Initially, interested authors are requested to submit only abstracts of their proposed papers. Authors of the selected abstracts will then be invited to submit full papers. All papers will undergo blind peer review.

• Deadline for submission of abstracts is January 15, 2013.
• Deadline for submission of full papers is May 15, 2013.

The journal seeks to maintain a short turnaround time, with the final version of the accepted papers being due by May 15, 2013. The topical issue will be published as issue 1 (2014).

For additional information, please contact either of the guest editors.

General Information About the Journal

The Zeitschrift für Psychologie, founded in 1890, is the oldest psychology journal in Europe and the second oldest in the world. One of the founding editors was Hermann Ebbinghaus. Since 2007 it is published in English and devoted to publishing topical issues that provide state-of-the-art reviews of current research in psychology.

For detailed author guidelines, please see the journal’s website at www.hogrefe.com/journals/zfp/.