Editor Introduction: Honor, Privilege, and Imagination

Several years ago, I was purchasing a gift for a colleague as a way to thank her for her service as a member of a committee I was chairing for the National Communication Association. As many of you can relate, purchasing a gift for someone is not always an easy task, so to ensure that I would select an item that she would enjoy, I asked a few of her friends for some ideas. One idea led me to StoryPeople, an art and gift company based in Decorah, Iowa that features the work of poet and artist Brian Andreas. For years, Brian created beautiful cards for StoryPeople that contained hand-drawn art accompanied by a brief poem. As I perused the cards available on their website, one card’s poem struck me in particular: “In my dream, the angel shrugged & said, if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination & then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.” For whatever reason, this notion of imagination – and the opportunity it affords – has stuck with me.

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As I begin my tenure as the seventh editor of the Journal of Family Communication, I would like to start by echoing a statement written by the previous editor: “It is a tremendous honor and privilege to be named the next editor of the Journal of Family Communication” (Child, 2018, p. 1). Assuming the editorship of a well-respected and impactful journal such as the Journal of Family Communication is a daunting task and is not one I will approach lightly. To assist me with this task, I have recruited an enthusiastic and competent editorial assistant and assembled an editorial board of 65 members who not only are smart, articulate, and dedicated scholars, but also are committed to publishing family communication research of the highest caliber. Should I need it, I also have standing offers of assistance from several of my work colleagues and my department’s program assistant, Joy Green, who already has been instrumental in assisting me complete several administrative duties associated with the journal.

Under my editorship, I will solicit three types of manuscripts: research articles, research reports, and “setting the agenda” essays. Research articles resemble the traditional research study (i.e., an Introduction that contains a Literature Review and a study Rationale, Method, Results, and Discussion) with a twist: Each research article must contain a clearly labeled translational section as part of the Discussion that provides several practical or social contributions or implications for audiences outside academia (e.g., preK-12 instruction, counselors, social service agencies) as a way to apply the study results in “real” families or “real” family situations. Research reports are abbreviated versions of a traditional research article, with a focus on the interpretation and explication of the results. Because these reports do not require either an extensive literature review or a translational section, they are ideal for scholarship that is grounded in or based on content with which Journal of Family Communication readers are highly familiar. Both research articles and research reports will be peer-reviewed by three reviewers who possess the theoretical, methodological, or subject matter expertise necessary to provide a high-quality review. Following the timeline instituted by previous editors, it is my goal to make an editorial decision within 90 days from the article or report submission date.

“Setting the Agenda” essays represent a new feature in Journal of Family Communication, with one essay appearing in each issue. Each “Setting the Agenda” essay will (a) identify an area of family communication that either is underexplored or unexplored, (b) articulate why this area needs further/future study, and (c) pose several directed research questions that family communication researchers should consider answering in their subsequent research endeavors. In this issue, our first essay written by Gregory A. Cranmer  centers on the interface between family communication and sport communication, and challenges researchers to explore how these two subdisciplines inform one another. Unlike research articles and reports, I invite or solicit these essays. At this time, while I do have essays planned for several future issues, if you have an idea for a “Setting the Agenda” essay, send me an e-mail message and we can start a conversation.

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In an editorial appearing in Communication Monographs at the start of his editorship, Schrodt (2020) identified five qualities that distinguish good scholarship from great scholarship. Of these qualities, there is one I find particularly applicable to the Journal of Family Communication, which is the notion that “great research produces newsworthy findings” (Schrodt, 2020, p. 2). As we begin our work together for the next 3 years, I invite authors to determine the newsworthiness of their manuscripts by pondering these questions: How do your findings extend beyond what we already know about the family communication process? How will your research have an effect not only on family communication scholars but also on family communication counselors, practitioners, and advocates? How can your results help families – and family member communication – become (more) stronger, (more) functional, or (more) enjoyable? How does your study challenge theoretical and methodological ways of thinking? How can your findings be applied practically by members of the family communication community? For readers, I ask you to ponder similar questions so you, too, can determine the “newsworthiness” of these manuscripts and the relevance of the findings to your personal and professional lives.

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Another way to interpret the newsworthiness of a research project is to let it be borne from imagination. Let your imagination “‘move the ‘theoretical needle,’ introduce fresh ideas and promising conceptual innovations, [and] push analytical boundaries … “(Waisbord, 2016, p. 209). Break away from pursuing a topic that aligns with your research ontology, epistemology, or axiology. Resist conforming to the paradigm you were taught during your graduate education or relying on the same theoretical perspective to frame how families communicate. Collaborate with a colleague outside the communication discipline who studies families and their communication processes, albeit through a different lens. Remind yourself that families constitute themselves in various forms. By letting imagination inform your scholarship, you may find a newsworthiness to your research that you did not know [yet] existed.