Embracing a Multi-Disciplinary Reality: A Preview of the Journal’s New Contributing Editor Community
Norman E. Taylor
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being
In a few weeks, we will recognize and celebrate the 5-year anniversary of our launch as a unique entry among the global array of scholarly, peer-reviewed publications that serve the multiple sectors that contribute to individual, family and community safety and well-being, everywhere. While not entirely unique in itself, our completely open-access publication model was certainly one worthy distinction. But, it was our overt commitment to a multi-disciplinary scope that we hoped would come to define our brand and shape our impact. From the outset, our deliberate mission has remained focused on research and innovative practice characterized by meaningful collaborations across and among such diverse disciplines as health, mental health, public health, child development and education, social services and employment, substance usage and addictions, all aspects of the criminal justice system including policing, prosecutions and corrections; an emphasis on victim-centred, trauma informed, restorative, inclusive and socially equitable practices; and, ongoing attention to the well-being needs of service providers themselves.
At the time, we were questioned by many about the risks of reaching so widely, of potentially diluting our impact upon each or any of those distinct sectors in the human services. Five years later, the need to act collectively, to learn collectively, and most of all, to innovate and reform ‘the system’ collectively, has become so globally self-evident as to render such early questions obsolete. In just the past year, our queue of high-quality submissions has tripled in depth, and our global reach in both readership and authorship continues to grow.
Initially modeling our editorial structure on many other peer-reviewed journals seemed to make sense as a place to start in 2016, and ever since, we have been well-served by a dedicated team of Section Editors, even adjusting those section definitions three years ago. What has become more recently evident to us is that a conventional model might not be the best option for guiding the continuing editorial voice of an unconventional publication. The nature of our Journal, and the characteristics of our growing sources of Original Research, Social Innovation Narratives, Commentaries and Review papers have not been as well served by our editorial structure. Not surprisingly, given the emphasis on multi-disciplinary collaboration, most papers we select do not fall easily into sections, as might be the case with more single-discipline journals. We continue to stand by the four pillars we established in 2018 … Trust, Strengths, Services and Justice … but in practice, almost every paper we receive touches on several if not all of these pillars with equivalent effect.
As a result of our growing confidence in our own editorial posture as reflected in these increasingly positive submission trends, I am pleased to announce our decision to modify our editorial structure. In place of Section Editors, we will soon introduce a Contributing Editorial Community (CEC). This more open structure will enable us to build on the strengths and demonstrated commitment of our current editorial team as we set out to include a wider, more global, and more diverse range of suitable Editors. In turn, the CEC structure will offer a more flexible structure to attract contributing Authors and their works that will shape each Journal issue, and to recognize and tap into a worldwide network of qualified Reviewers to ensure the continuing excellence of our published selections.
I look forward to introducing our readers to this incredible slate of Contributing Editors in my opening editorial in our upcoming Issue 6 (2) of the Journal, scheduled for release in mid-June. Many of them are already underway in guiding papers through our review and publication processes for upcoming issues. Each of them brings an impressive depth of knowledge, experience and accomplishments to their role.
Collectively, all of them bring the unique mission of our publication into a clear and lasting focus.
