School psychology publishing contributions to the advancement of knowledge, science, and its application: an introduction to the themed issue

This introductory article briefly reviews the studies and commentaries making up this themed issue on the process and products of professional publications in school psychology. Each article highlights important considerations for advancing scholarly scientific publishing in the field of school psychology. A case is made that enhancing the quality of scientific publications, as well as accumulating scholarly findings over time, serve as the primary mechanisms for improving practice for children, families, and school professionals. This article highlights features of the studies and commentaries directly related to advancing knowledge, science, and its application in school psychology.     

Prominent publications in cognitive psychology

This article identifies the 50 publications in cognitive psychology that were most frequently cited in the professional literature between 1979 and early 1982. The characteristics of these publications are discussed, and comparisons are made with other relevant findings.     

Programmers, Professors, and Parasites: Credit and Co-Authorship in Computer Science

This article presents an in-depth analysis of past and present publishing practices in academic computer science to suggest the establishment of a more consistent publishing standard. Historical precedent for academic publishing in computer science is established through the study of anecdotes as well as statistics collected from databases of published computer science papers. After examining these facts alongside information about analogous publishing situations and standards in other scientific fields, the article concludes with a list of basic principles that should be adopted in any computer science publishing standard. These principles would contribute to the reliability and scientific nature of academic publications in computer science and would allow for more straightforward discourse in future publications.     

Publish or Perish

Funds and positions in philosophy should be awarded through systems that are reliable, objective, and efficient. One question usually taken to be relevant is how many publications people have in a group of well‐respected journals. In the context of significant competition for jobs and funding, however, relying on quantity of publications creates a serious downside: the oft‐lamented demand that we publish or perish. This article offers a systematic review of the problems involved in contemporary academic philosophy, and argues that the resulting situation is bad not just for individual philosophers but also for philosophy itself: we are not working as a discipline to as high a standard as we might. The article then suggests some potential solutions, including some more detailed considerations around what seems a particularly promising option: a professional code of conduct for philosophers.     

Performance of british university psychology departments as measured by number of publications in BPS journals

The aim of this investigation was to gauge the comparative research performance of university departments of psychology in Britain. The performance indicator was the number of publications per departmental staff member in the journals of the British Psychological Society (BPS) during the seven-year period 1983–1989. The contents of these journals were thoroughly searched, and articles written by members of university psychology departments in Britain were counted. The number of publications of each psychology department was divided by the size of the department in the corresponding year and the resulting annual figures were summed to determine the number of publications in BPS journals per departmental staff member over the seven-year period. These research performance figures correlated significantly with an earlier measure of departmental research performance based on publications in the seven European psychological journals with the highest citations per published article and with recent performance indicators based on other criteria     

Performance of british university psychology departments as measured by number of publications in BPS journals

The aim of this investigation was to gauge the comparative research performance of university departments of psychology in Britain. The performance indicator was the number of publications per departmental staff member in the journals of the British Psychological Society (BPS) during the seven-year period 1983–1989. The contents of these journals were thoroughly searched, and articles written by members of university psychology departments in Britain were counted. The number of publications of each psychology department was divided by the size of the department in the corresponding year and the resulting annual figures were summed to determine the number of publications in BPS journals per departmental staff member over the seven-year period. These research performance figures correlated significantly with an earlier measure of departmental research performance based on publications in the seven European psychological journals with the highest citations per published article and with recent performance indicators based on other criteria     

Publishing Action Research in Counseling Journals

The increased use of action research in counseling training and professional publications provides an opportunity to bridge the research‐practitioner gap that has plagued the profession for decades. In this article, action research is defined, and special considerations that counselor researchers need to address when designing, conducting, and reporting action research are presented. Suggestions are included throughout the article to assist counseling action researchers in publishing their studies in American Counseling Association journals.     

The Effect of Religious Beliefs on the Publication Productivity of Countries in Circumcision: A Comprehensive Bibliometric View

Circumcision is one of the most common surgical operations in newborns, babies, and children due to cultural, religious, and medical reasons. Religious beliefs are known to have an important role in circumcision. Although bibliometric analyses have been performed about several topics with a lot of publications in literature, no studies in the literature were found to focus on male circumcision. This study aims to make a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of circumcision and investigate the relationship between publication productivity and religious beliefs of the countries. Web of Science was utilized to obtain the documents needed for bibliometric analyses. “Circumcision” keyword was used for search. The search included studies published between 1980 and 2018. The literature review indicated that there were 3694 publications about circumcision published between 1980 and 2018. Of these publications, 1770 (47.9%) were articles. This study provided a bibliometric summary of 1770 articles. The top five active countries about circumcision were the USA, England, South Africa, Turkey, and Kenya. The present study found that the religious beliefs of a country were directly related to publication productivity about circumcision. The top-cited study was the article entitled “Male circumcision for HIV prevention in young men in Kisumu, Kenya: a randomized controlled trial” written by Bailey et al. and published in the journal of Lancet. The keyword analysis results showed that HIV was the top keyword used in all articles about circumcision. This study is believed to help researchers interested in circumcision topic to access a summary of the literature, see contemporary and more important topics, and discover new ideas about the issue.

     

Virginia Prince: Transgender Pioneer

SUMMARY

This article gives an overview of the life and work of Virginia Prince. It provides a synopsis of her major publications, situates her work in the context of its time and assesses her contribution as a major pioneer of transgendering.     

The prohibited Nietzsche: anti-Nitzscheanism in Soviet Russia

This article discusses the reception of Nietzsche’s philosophy within the USSR. It covers the four phases of Soviet Nietzscheanism between 1920 and 1980, paying specific attention to the Soviet Nietzsche studies of the Stalin epoch. By making use of publications and archive materials, this article reconstructs the historical and logical formation of Nietzsche’s negative image in post-revolutionary Russia that characterized him as an ideologist of imperialism and National Socialism. In addition to this, this article examines the facts impeding the process of Nietzsche’s de-nazification in Russia.     

Power and Action in Critical Theory Across Disciplines: Implications for Critical Community Psychology

Although critical scholarship and community psychology share similar aspirations, the links between them remain unexplored and under-theorized. In this article we explore the implications of critical scholarship in various specialties for the field of community psychology. To understand the contributions of critical scholarship to a theory of power and action for social change, we conducted a systematic analysis of a ten-year period of publications in seven journals associated with the critical scholarship tradition. We created precise criteria for the concepts of power and action and applied them to the publications. Results indicate an interesting paradox at play. Whereas community psychology is more action oriented than critical scholarship, its actions fall short of challenging institutionalized power structures and the status quo; and whereas critical scholarship is more challenging of the status quo than community psychology in theory, it has failed to produce viable actions that challenge the status quo. We discuss the implications of this state of affairs for the development of a more critical community psychology.     

Potter's notion of bioethics

In 1970 Van Rensselaer Potter was the first to use the term "bioethics" in a publication to advocate the development of a new discipline to address the basic problems of human flourishing. This article analyzes Potter's notion of bioethics in order to understand its origins, sources, and substance. In early publications, Potter conceptualized bioethics as a bridge: between present and future, nature and culture, science and values, and finally between humankind and nature. In later publications, disappointed by a predominant focus on individual and medical issues, and with a wish to underscore the need for a broader perspective, Potter introduced the new term "global bioethics," meant to transcend ethics specialties and integrate them into a new interdisciplinary endeavor to address global problems. A growing interest in global bioethics today means that Potter's original insights are more timely than ever.     

50 years on: the Shap working party on world religions in education and its publications

The Shap Working Party on World Religions in Education celebrates its 50th anniversary in April 2019. In marking this event, the present article offers a summary of the history of the Shap Working Party in relation to its publications. The overview includes material published by the Shap Working Party itself and material published by members of the Shap Working Party which reflects Shap’s general approach and values. Many Shap publications and articles about Shap are available with open access, on the Shap website – http://www.shapworkingparty.org.uk/ – and more will appear in celebration of the Working Party’s 50th Anniversary. The present article is dedicated to the memory of Professor John Hinnells who had a key role in establishing the Shap Working Party and who died in 2018.     

Now you see it, now you don't: feminist training in family therapy

This article describes the state of feminist training in family therapy. Methods of assessment include questionnaires to all programs accredited by COAMFTE in universities and institutes and to leading institutes not accredited; interviews with editors of the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy; interviews with many who pioneered the feminist critique in family therapy; inspection of two major national conferences; and a search of publications. Although most program directors describe their programs as feminist and judge their training to be sufficient, their report contrasts with the perspectives of many of the journal editors and pioneers, with the small amount of training in gender issues at national conferences, and with the small number of publications. The authors offer discussion of the findings and recommendations.     

Family Therapy in the Forbidden City: A Review of Chinese Journals From 1978 to 2006

This article provides a glimpse into the development of family therapy in China, by reviewing family therapy articles written in Chinese and published in journals in China that are not, therefore, readily accessible to the international community. A content analysis of journals published between 1978 and 2006 revealed 199 family therapy articles in 109 Chinese journals. Most of the studies were conducted by psychiatry or medical professionals, and were based on general systems theory or a systemic family therapy model. The articles focused on the promotion of family therapy theories and interventions in China, but did not specify the application of theory to specific clientele or symptoms. After the year 2000, a threefold increase in the number of family therapy publications was noted. These papers included the introduction of additional theories, but did not include critical assessment of the applicability of Western family therapy models to Chinese families. The researchers noted an absence of articles that identified Chinese approaches to family therapy, and a paucity of papers on gender, professional reflection, and the therapy process. The article concludes that there is room for improvement in the quality of family therapy publications in China, and that gains may be made by interdisciplinary collaboration among academics and practitioners.     

Publishing Outside the Box: Unforeseen Dividends of Talking to Strangers

This article describes publishing outside behavior analysis, letters to editors, and columns, as well as communicating outside the box with editors, authors, and journalists. Publishing can occur in a wide range of journals (e.g., Consciousness and Cognition), in-house publications of professional associations (e.g., Association for Psychological Science’s Observer), general science publications (e.g., American Scientist, The Scientist), publications in service to professions (e.g., The Chronicle of Higher Education), general interest and specialized magazines (e.g., Atlantic Monthly, Skeptical Inquirer), and newspapers (e.g., Los Angeles Times). Communicating with editors, authors, and journalists includes, for instance, formal correspondence with editors and personal correspondence with authors and journalists outside the box about misunderstandings, commonalities, and complementarities of their work with respect to ours. The consequences of publishing and communicating are often unforeseen and fortuitous, many of which can never occur by remaining in the box.     

African American Spirituals

ABSTRACT

This article endeavors to explore the following aspects of African American Spirituals: the African Legacy; the creation and evolution in the North American environment; basic content and purpose of texts, musical elements, the influence of the Spirituals, published collections and significant publications.     

Five points and a lament about Range and Cotton's "Reports of assent and permission in research with children: illustrations and suggestions

This comment responds to an article by Range and Cotton (1995) on reporting of parental permission and child assent procedures in published articles for 4 psychology journals. Issue is taken with the assumptions, methodology, interpretations, and implications of listing researchers in the Range and Cotton article. There is no evidence researchers failed in their ethical obligations or that children were put at risk. Reporting permission/assent in publications is not an ethical requirement. Listing researchers as "failing" to do something not part of an ethical code is lamentable. Too many unfortunate implications and problems can be derived from Range and Cotton's analysis and conclusions.