Editorial

It is an honour to be taking over the editorship of Psychology of Music at an exciting point in the history of the Journal. In 2012, both the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE) and the Journal celebrated 40 years in existence, with a 40^th anniversary conference at the Institute of Education, London and a commemorative issue of the Journal revisiting key articles published throughout the history of the Society (available free of charge from SAGE’s website). Since taking over as incoming editor in January 2012 I have been working hard with my team, Allan Hewitt, Assistant Editor, and Rachel Hallett, Editorial Assistant, to master the intricacies of the online system, keep reviews and processing of manuscripts under way, and consider how to put our ideas into practice. Our sincere thanks are due to Raymond MacDonald, outgoing Editor, and Laura Mitchell, outgoing Assistant Editor, for all their help and advice in the transition period.

In the last year we have seen an improvement in the international status and ranking of the Journal, with a new Thomson Reuters impact factor in Psychology of 1.568 and a SCImago ranking of 0.047, making us the second highest SCImago-ranked music journal. As Editor, my aims are to strengthen the Journal in publishing high quality research at the forefront of psychology of music, and to do so in as timely a fashion as possible. The Online First system and the increase to six issues a year from 2012 have had a positive impact on this, but the excellent health of the discipline means that submissions continue to rise both in quantity and quality, and we continue to seek innovative ways of addressing this. Space will be identified in each issue from 2014 onwards for short, timely research articles that are identified as meriting more rapid publication (more information is available on the SAGE website), and, if appropriate, authors will be encouraged to present their work as succinctly as possible to facilitate timely publication. I want to encourage new researchers to become involved in the Journal, and recognising that not all researchers have the support of a mentor, Associate Editors will offer support to first-time reviewers and authors (outside the peer review system). Finally, I am keen to expand the range of work published in the Journal and to include position statements, reviews and theoretical articles as well as empirical work presented as full articles or short notes. I hope that these initiatives will keep Psychology of Music at the cutting edge of the discipline and strengthen its reputation as an excellent place to publish high quality work. The support of SAGE has been and will continue to be vital in these endeavours, and we are working closely with Louise Skelding and Amy Goggins on issues relating to the Journal from proofreading through to strategic direction and marketing. I would encourage all prospective authors to read the revised 2013 guidelines for submission, as there are a number of new features we have introduced to help in these activities.

We have updated the team of Associate Editors and members of the Editorial Board for Issue 41 onwards (listed inside the front cover), and I am very pleased to welcome a range of new members to these roles, as well as many whose continued support is very welcome. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those retiring members of the Board and Associate Editors who have given their valuable support to Psychology of Music. The new team of Associate Editors will be working with us to maintain the reviewers’ database and supporting those new to publishing and reviewing, and all the Editors and the Board will be undertaking valuable work in promoting the Journal and supporting its work through reviewing. We also have a very large pool of expert reviewers who help support the peer review system, and again both Raymond and I would like to thank all those who have reviewed for us in the past and those who continue to perform this important role. The present scale of the Journal means that I would not be able to carry out the role of Editor without the support of a large number of other people, and I will be very grateful for ideas, suggestions, and input from you all.

Alexandra Lamont

Keele University, UK

Dr Alexandra Lamont is currently Senior Lecturer in Psychology of Music at Keele University, based in the School of Psychology/Centre for Psychological Research. Her undergraduate degree was in Music from the University of Cambridge. After completing an MA in Music Psychology at City University, London, she returned to Cambridge to complete her PhD in the School of Education under the supervision of Ian Cross, exploring children’s cognitive understandings of musical pitch. She was appointed Lecturer in Psychology at the Psychology Department, University of Leicester in 1999, and moved to Keele in 2001 to direct the MSc programme in Music Psychology and teach across the undergraduate programme in Psychology. She currently leads two masters programmes at Keele, in Child Social Development and Psychology of Health & Wellbeing. Dr Lamont has conducted a very broad range of research over the past 20 years, drawing on both quantitative and qualitative approaches and spanning the disciplines of music, education and psychology. She has worked with a very wide age range from infants through to older adults, exploring responses to music as well as active music-making, in a range of contexts from tightly controlled laboratory settings through to the muddy fields of British popular music festivals. As well as her responsibilities for Psychology of Music, Dr Lamont is also a member of the Editorial Boards of Musicae Scientiae, the British Journal of Music Education, Music Education Research International, and Music Performance Research.