Abstract
I am honored to be appointed as the new Editor of Criminal Justice and Behavior: An International Journal (CJB) effective January 1, 2018. CJB has a distinguished history, and as a longtime consumer, author, and reviewer for the journal, I am excited and truly humbled to serve the journal in this capacity.
In my role as Editor, I am implementing one operational change. I will be appointing three Associate Editors to assist me with the processing of manuscripts. Each Associate Editor will be responsible for recruiting submissions, identifying reviewers in their content areas, assigning manuscripts to reviewers, and making recommendations for manuscript decisions. All publication decisions, however, will rest with me, as Editor. I am instituting this increase in Associate Editors to reduce the time from submission to editorial decision, an important consideration for authors considering where to submit their manuscripts. Over time, it is my goal to reduce the editorial decision time to 1.5 months—from submission to editorial decision.
Regarding content, I will continue the current journal focus of “scholarly evaluations of assessment, classification, prevention, intervention, and treatment programs to help the correctional professional develop successful programs based on sound and informative theoretical and research foundations”; however, I will broaden the focus to be more consistent with the mission of the International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology (IACFP) to include increased emphasis on criminal forensic populations. It is my view that the criminal justice system is directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, punishing, and treating/rehabilitating those who are suspected or convicted of criminal offenses; thus, CJB should provide scientific coverage of this entire domain.
I will be introducing one new feature—At the Forefront. At the Forefront will provide readers with a concise, focused, expert review of emerging areas in criminal justice psychology. Specifically, At the Forefront will provide readers a state-of-the-art integration and synthesis of previously published work with clear implications for theory and practice and recommendations for future research. This feature is aimed at increasing the quality and impact of CJB for a broad audience.
I will maintain an emphasis on special issues or special sections on controversial content areas of criminal justice research (e.g., use of segregation in corrections, policing, and use of force) or underdeveloped research areas (e.g., risk assessment with female offenders, violence risk communication). It is anticipated that these special issues will increase the quality and impact of CJB for a broad audience. As noted on the SAGE Publishing website, “Special/themed issues can be a great way of focusing attention on a hot topic. A good special issue can enhance the profile of your journal, attract top authors and potentially boost usage and citations.” (https://us-sagepub-com-s.web.bisu.edu.cn/en-us/nam/publishing-special-issues).
CJB is a distinguished journal with a respectable impact factor, excellent readership, and overall journal ratings in domains of interest. For example, see Figure 1 for the Web of Science Journal Citation Reports impact factor for the last 5 years. In addition to that, the journal is currently ranked #13 of 58 journals in the area of criminology and penology, and 51 of 121 journals in the area of clinical psychology. Although none of these metrics are perfect metrics of the value of the journal, they are nevertheless metrics that scientists attend to when determining to which journals to submit their manuscripts. Thus, my goal is that the impact factor will reach 3.0 by the conclusion of my 3-year editorial term. Relatedly, it is my goal that the journal will be in the top five of behavioral science journals publishing on topics of criminal justice, correctional and forensic psychology, and criminology.
5-year JCR Impact Factor for CJB
There are many strategies for increasing the prestige of a journal (as indicated by a variety of metrics to include impact factor) including some questionable practices (e.g., editor requesting increased citations from the journal before accepting a manuscript, introductory articles that cite the subsequent manuscripts in the issue). My primary strategies will be evidenced-based and noncontroversial. First and foremost, increasing the citations for a journal begins by accepting manuscripts reflecting high-quality research. Furthermore, to increase knowledge translation and maximize applied utilization of findings, manuscripts should be clear and comprehensible to a naïve or neophyte scientific audience (e.g., undergraduate and graduate students, practitioners without significant research or data analytic training/experience, and policy makers) and not tailored to the reading acumen of the academic scientist. Thus, my editorial team and I will emphasize the publication of manuscripts with conceptually clear research questions and hypotheses, scientifically sound and precise, yet reader friendly, statistical analyses, and an emphasis on applications for criminal justice practice and implications for future research. For example, presenting findings visually via graphs are typically easier to comprehend than presenting findings with tables or no graphic information. Thus, authors will be encouraged to present findings graphically when relevant and in sufficient detail to warrant inclusion in future meta-analyses of a topic. I believe that this emphasis will create a more user-friendly journal while enhancing the scientific prestige of the journal.
Finally, in an effort to increase transparency in the scientific process, I will encourage authors to make their data publicly available. In addition, I will pursue Open Science Badges for CJB authors. Badges were developed in 2013 by the Center for Open Science to promote soundness and transparency in scientific practice and will be available to authors who voluntarily share data and/or materials or who preregister their study designs or analysis plans.
In closing, I would like to thank outgoing Editor, Emily Salisbury. Emily assumed editorial responsibility for the journal in 2013 and had big shoes to fill after replacing past-Editor Curt Bartol, after his 17-year term as editor. Emily succeeded in creating a smooth transition for authors (and reviewers) and maintained the excellent reputation of the journal through her editorial term. I am thankful to Emily for her support of my term, and I look forward to working with her for another smooth editorial transition. On behalf of consumers, authors, and reviewers, I thank you for your service Emily!