One of the responsibilities of an academic discipline is to critically scrutinize its own body of knowledge and the scientific evidence for chosen interventions, assessments and evaluation methods. Do we as occupational therapist live up to this responsibility? Are discussions ongoing in your speciality and your department? Occupational therapists working in different fields and in various health care settings and organisations are increasingly becoming more and more specialized. The body of knowledge of our profession is growing and we can steadily base our occupational therapy interventions on evidence and good quality research. New knowledge with relevance for the occupational therapy field is continuously being published, not only in occupational therapy journals, but also in journals covering fields such as medicine, health care as well as behavioural and social sciences. Practitioners’ clinical experiences are extremely valuable and should have a central position in our professional discussions.
We now invite you to take the opportunity to discuss issues of importance for the occupational therapy profession. We need a critical discussion on central issues related to for example clinical problems, treatment programs, research issues and theoretical questions. Contribute to the development of an open discussion! We welcome clinically important issues discussed in relation to relevant knowledge in the field, as well as theoretical issues of central interest to occupational therapy. Do you have opinions, based on knowledge or experience, regarding published articles? Are there special topics that you would like the journal to cover? Since the journal was started in 1994, it has been possible for readers to communicate their opinions in a section named Letters to the editor. There is also a section for preliminary reports on ongoing research activities called Short Communications. These sections are not used by our readers.
There is a lack of up-to-date review articles presenting international knowledge and state of the art in various fields of interest for occupational therapy and we welcome colleagues who are well read in a certain area to submit reviews for publication in Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy.
During 2005 19 articles have been published; eight on elderly people, three on children and eight on adults. Seven articles reported instrument developments. One third of the articles collected information about clients’ own perception of their situation. Thus, the journal seems to represent the most common areas in occupational therapy. From 2006 each issue of Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy will have an increased number of pages and we will be able to publish a greater number of articles in each issue which means that the authors will have their contributions published more quickly. As from 2005 our publisher Taylor & Francis has arranged to have all accepted and edited manuscripts published on the journal website while waiting print publication. This means that authors can find their articles published online as ‘Preview articles’ and they can also read the abstracts of all other articles waiting for print publication.
This first issue of volume 13, 2006 offers articles covering a wide range of knowledge. Four of these articles deal with instrument development; two evaluate a perceptual screening test on people after stroke, one is a modified interest checklist for elderly people and one article evaluates two instruments assessing satisfaction with daily occupations and quality of life, both tested in women with scleroderma. One article reports results of treatment of teenagers with cerebral palsy, where the dominant hand is restricted in order to increase function in the hemiplegic hand. Lastly, this issue features an article comparing the conditions of the housing environment for people with and without asthma.
Chris Henriksson