https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7472-674X
Recently, the Society for Reproductive and Infant Psychology (SRIP) and its journal, the Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology (JRIP), have seen some transitions as both the Chair of SRIP (September 2022) and the Editor-in-Chief of JRIP (January 2022) have changed. We, Antje Horsch and Susan Garthus-Niegel, in our roles as new Chair and Editor-in-Chief, would like to take this as an opportunity to take a brief look back, but also to share our vision for the coming years.
Regarding SRIP, we thank Prof. Susan Ayers for all her work as Chair of our society, which she so skilfully and enthusiastically spearheaded for the last few years. Thanks to her leadership and all the hard work of our committee members, SRIP has gone from strength to strength, increasing and internationalising its membership. We also thank our Deputy-Chair, Dr. Zoe Darwin, for all her work and support, and we are grateful that she has agreed to stay in this role for another year in order to support this transition period.
I, Antje Horsch, am honoured to take on this new leadership role in an international society I have been supporting as a member for a long time and as a SRIP Committee Core Officer since 2016. Thank you to all the members of this wonderful society for their confidence and trust; I will, of course, do my best to foster the mission of our society.
In SRIP, we believe in the key importance of psychological, biological, socio-cultural, and political aspects of reproduction, birth, and infancy. Recent years have seen separate advances in our understanding of key psychosocial and biological mechanisms of reproductive health, with a frequent focus on the mother-infant dyad. We believe that the mission of this multidisciplinary society is to both generate and disseminate research integrating all aforementioned aspects whilst acknowledging the importance of all family members. As new Chair of SRIP – together with the Editor-in-Chief and the other Committee members of SRIP – we aim to build on the important work carried out so far, further increasing the international membership, also from low- and middle-income countries, as well as better networking with other relevant societies. Furthermore, we aim to continue strengthening the links we have been constructing with the Early Career Researchers’ network and to strengthen the collaboration with other important stakeholders, such as service users and policymakers.
Regarding JRIP, we would like to gratefully acknowledge all the important work that was carried out by former Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Fiona Alderdice. Thanks to her, as well as the Editorial board, the journal has seen a significant rise in its impact factor (currently 3.207), which is a fantastic achievement.
I, Susan Garthus-Niegel, feel privileged and humbled to take on this new position as Editor-in-Chief of JRIP, a role I have already enjoyed filling throughout the past year. Several colleagues have called JRIP their favourite journal, and I can only agree.
As Editor-in-Chief, I will be closely collaborating with the new Chair as well as the other Committee Members of SRIP. Together, we will maintain and promote the high scientific quality of the research our journal publishes and showcase the work of our society for academics, practitioners, and policymakers internationally. Indeed, our journal is becoming increasingly popular, as reflected in the ever-increasing numbers of article downloads and submissions. As part of our internationalisation process, as well as a measure to address the high manuscript submission rates, we are currently undergoing a renewal process to further expand and internationalise our Editorial Board.
As Chair and Editor-in-Chief, we look forward to working closely with the Committee and all our valued SRIP members, the editors, as well as all the authors and contributors to our fantastic journal, and to advancing our field of reproductive and infant psychology.
Finally, we look forward to hosting the next SRIP conference from 7 to 8 September 2023 at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, which will be our first in-person conference since 2019 and hope to welcome as many participants as possible!