Editorial

Welcome to 2018 and issue 1 of our 17th year in production. This year also marks the 19th year since Penny and I first had the discussions with Sage publications in London about the possibility of setting up a journal that primarily focussed on social research and the lived experience of dementia. In an early attempt to honour this scope and the ensuing agreement by Sage publications to support the production of the Dementia journal, our first editorial in volume 1 of issue 1 was written by Gloria Sterin, an academic, person living with dementia, mentor and friend of Penny. In our opinion, that first editorial carries as much weight and power today as it did in 2002. For example, Gloria’s words in the first editorial that ‘people can cope with this disease … but you need time’ (Sterin, 2002, p. 9) are profound in their simplicity, depth and what it is to be a human being living in an altered – and constantly altering – state of lived experience. Static for a moment but a moment that captures all that you are and all the countless possibilities, and limitations, that such an experience entails.

This year, 2018, sees the Dementia journal recommence our special editions through invited Guest Editor(s) who give their time to share their networks and expertise with the readership. As such, we are delighted to welcome Paul Camic (who is also on the Dementia journal Editorial Board), Sebastian Crutch and Hannah Zeilig as Guest Editors for issue 6 and their special edition will focus on the arts and dementia. Penny and I are very excited about this ground-breaking collection of articles and would like to take this opportunity to thank Paul, Hannah and Sebastian, and all the contributors to the special edition, for their time and work in putting this issue together. As a taster for the edition and the arts movement, can we recommend the weblink to ‘Created Out of Mind’ which professor Sebastian Crutch directs and Paul and Hannah are collaborators: http://www.createdoutofmind.org/. In a related development, and launched in 2017, was the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing report, Creative Health, which contains several components related to dementia: http://www.artshealthandwellbeing.org.uk/appg-inquiry/. We have also commissioned a special edition for 2019 that involves people with dementia sharing their own research practices and outcomes, but more about that next year.

However, outside of the return of the special edition(s), it would be remiss of us not to acknowledge the rise in the impact factor of the Dementia journal from 1.063 in 2016 to 1.768 in June 2017 placing the journal 14/32 in the worldwide Gerontology category. Thank you to everyone concerned in making that happen, especially to the submitting authors and all the peer reviewers over 2016 and 2017. Whilst the Dementia journal and its Editorial Board never purposively set out to develop and nurture an impact factor, we do acknowledge that this is an important marker for academics and others considering submitting a paper to a journal and it is very special to know that the articles published in the Dementia journal are being used and cited. As Editors of the Dementia journal, however, innovation and the promotion of seldom heard groups in dementia care/studies will remain a core activity and, in sampling terms, the power of the one is as important to us as the power of the many. On that we will not compromise for as long as we both hold this position.

Over the course of 2017, we have had a few changes on the Editorial Board. We said goodbye to Rebecca Logsdon (University of Washington, USA) and we welcomed Louise Daly (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland). Change is, of course, inevitable but we would like to formally thank Rebecca for the quality of her peer reviews and her long-standing service/commitment to the Dementia journal. We really are grateful and you will be missed. Finally, as we shared last year, for those readers who have an interest in social media, the Dementia journal’s twitter handle is: @DementiaJournal and Jo Moriarty – who edits the Innovative Practice section the journal – does a fantastic job in maintaining this part of our activity. Please follow us.