Military Psychology represents the premier journal for publishing articles related to research and practice devoted to understanding the functioning of service members, Veterans, and their family members. One attractive feature of the journal is that it welcomes perspectives from all areas of psychology, making it a comprehensive journal that showcases how multiple fields of psychology can be brought together to understand and influence the factors affecting the health and performance of military personnel and their family members. Furthermore, Military Psychology is a home not only for researchers and clinicians from the United States but for anyone whose work is relevant to the application of psychological principles to the military environment. The journal publishes research articles, reviews, communications, and case studies having military applications in the areas of Clinical and Counseling Psychology; Health, Social and Personality Psychology; Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Human Factors, and Research Methods. Timely topics of major concern to military psychology will also be covered in special journal issues.
My editorial team and I started handling article submissions on April 1, 2021. In addition to retaining strong Associate Editors for the journal, I also added four additional Associate Editors based on their prior track record of providing high-quality reviews for the journal. My current set of highly accomplished Associate Editors includes individuals from different genders and nationalities who are committed to the journal. Over the course of the next few months I plan on adding Associate Editors that will further represent the diversity that characterizes the field of military psychology. In addition, we have a growing number of Consulting Editors who have demonstrated a willingness to provide timely and constructive reviews for incoming manuscripts. During my brief time as Editor in Chief, I have been impressed by the dedication of these individuals and am confident we have the team in place to elevate the readership and reputation of the journal.
During the transition of Military Psychology to a new Editor in Chief, our team has benefited from the guidance and advice of Armando Estrada, the outgoing Editor in Chief of the journal. Armando’s leadership of the journal over the past 12 years has been instrumental to the success of the journal and he has been generous with his time in facilitating a smooth transition. In the remainder of this editorial, I discuss my vision for the journal, how my team will accomplish that vision, and plans I have for the journal’s future.
Vision for Military Psychology
My vision for Military Psychology is to strengthen its position as the flagship journal for the discipline and to elevate its reputation in the field of psychology more broadly. In order to achieve this vision, my primary goals will be to enhance the visibility and impact of the journal, enhance the review process for both authors and reviewers, and increase the reach of the journal to a more diverse audience.
Enhancing the visibility and impact of the journal
As the flagship journal for our discipline, in many ways, the visibility and impact of Military Psychology is an indicator of the strength and vitality of our discipline. Articles that are published by the journal should address important issues to the field and reflect methodologically sound research designs and best practices for reviews and clinical case study reports. The combination of important research questions with strong methodological backing will draw the attention of not only military psychologists but also researchers and clinicians who may only have a passing familiarity with the field of military psychology. Reaching out to non-US military researchers and publicizing the journal within the broader field of psychology should increase the reading and citation of articles published in the journal. In addition, and as discussed in more detail below, one way to increase the quality of journal articles is to decrease the turnaround time for submission decisions. When word gets out that the journal makes quick decisions, then it will tend to get more submissions. If the journal has a reputation of long decision times, it can drag down quality submissions.
I will be advocating additional strategies for enhancing the visibility of the journal, including greater promotion of the journal through traditional methods of technology (e.g., email), showcasing the journal at academic conferences (both military and broader psychology conferences), and through highlighting articles published in the journal in social media posts. I also intend to explore multiple components of the journal’s impact, including downloads, mentions in the news, and incorporation into public policy.
Finally, one additional way to increase the visibility and impact factor of the journal is to have special issues of the journal that address important areas of military psychology. In addition to special issues of the journal that began under the previous editor focusing on Resilience, Construct Measurement, and Criterion-Related Validation, I plan on developing additional special issues focused on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the field of Military Psychology, as well as extremism and racism within the military.
Taking over as Editor in Chief at the beginning of 2021, it is impossible to not consider the unprecedented context of not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also the attacks that occurred on the US Capitol on January 6th of this year and the continuing effects of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others. The effects of the pandemic on individuals and organizations will be examined for some years to come, and the military is not exempt from these influences. In addition, the attacks that occurred on the US Capitol have resulted in a reckoning of sorts within the US military, as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered a military stand down to consider the challenge of extremism within the force (https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2492530/austin-orders-military-stand-down-to-address-challenge-of-extremism-in-the-ranks/). This call for an examination of extremism in the military comes at a time when the military is still processing the effects of racism within the force, including a frank, impactful, and visceral account from Lt. Gen. Anthony J. Cotton on the experiences of being a Black officer in the Air Force (https://www.airforcemag.com/black-airmen-talk-race-in-the-air-force/). Special issues devoted to these issues will increase the visibility and impact of the journal by showcasing how articles published in Military Psychology contribute to both the understanding of these issues and strategies for addressing these complex problems.
Enhancing the review process for authors and reviewers
Ensuring that authors and reviewers have positive experiences with the review process is critical to recruiting the types of manuscripts that will move our field forward and be cited by those in and outside of our discipline. Two of my strategies for ensuring authors have a positive experience with the review process are to ensure that authors receive a timely decision on their submitted manuscript and that the feedback authors receive from the action editors is constructive in developmental.
I am already instituting changes to decrease the amount of time between an article’s submission and the initial decision. One change involves increasing the number of desk rejections for submissions that are unlikely to receive sufficiently positive reviews for publication. I read every submission to the journal and make an immediate decision regarding whether the submission has a reasonable likelihood of receiving the reviews necessary for publication in the journal. Letting authors know their submission is either not consistent with the Aims and Scope of the journal or does not represent a significant enough contribution for publication allows those authors to pursue more appropriate outlets for their manuscripts. It is my experience that authors appreciate this immediate feedback, as opposed to waiting for a longer period of time to learn the outcome. A second change I am instituting for the journal involves Associate Editors having primary responsibility for writing decision letters based upon reviewer feedback and ensuring that the feedback provided to authors is constructive and developmental. Finally, I plan on developing a yearly Best Paper award for the Military Psychology article judged to have the greatest impact on the field. As Military Psychology develops a stronger reputation for providing authors timely and constructive decisions on their manuscripts, more authors will consider the journal for publishing their best work.
In order to elevate the reputation of Military Psychology, we are going to need to increase the number of experts in the field who are willing to provide constructive reviews for submitted manuscripts. One change I have already made to increase the positive experience of reviewers is to streamline the framework for providing reviews so that reviewers provide quantitative ratings of the manuscript on important dimensions and then can easily provide their primary concerns and comments to authors. A second way I plan on increasing the positivity of the reviewer experience is by acknowledging outstanding reviewers with a Best Reviewer Award for their services. Both the Best Paper award and the Best Reviewer Award would be publicized in the journal, Division 19 website, and through recognition at the APA Annual Conference.
Increasing the reach of Military Psychology
In order to enhance Military Psychology’s reach as the primary outlet for research in diverse areas of psychology, I plan on engaging in four different strategies. First, I will take actions to increase the visibility of the journal to non-US psychologists conducting research in military psychology. Prominent military psychologists can be found in Europe (including military psychologists working for NATO), as well as researchers from Asian and South American countries. As editor, I plan on performing outreach to organizations employing military psychologists, as well as enhance the resources available to authors for whom English is not their primary language, including working with the publisher to provide discounted English editing for authors prior to submission. I have also already begun increasing the representation of well-known non-US military psychologists on the Editorial Board and Associate Editor positions. These actions should increase the number of submissions and published articles by non-US authors and readership of the journal by individuals outside the United States.
A second way to increase the reach of the journal is outreach to graduate students and junior investigators in the field, to highlight the relevance of the journal to their roles and responsibilities and the importance of junior researchers and clinicians considering Military Psychology as an outlet for their scientific efforts. The field of military psychology has a thriving number of graduate students and early career psychologists who will be important in enhancing the reputation of the journal.
A third strategy for enhancing the reach of the journal is to highlight the relevance of research published in the journal to other applied areas of basic and applied psychology. The major sections of Military Psychology publish research of relevance to psychologists in Human Factors, Industrial-Organizational, Clinical and Counseling, Social and Personality, Health, and Quantitative. Enhancing the visibility of the contents of the journal to these groups should increase the readership and ultimate impact of the journal.
Finally, individuals who serve, support, and study the military come from diverse groups that vary in gender, age, ethnicity, country of residence, religious affiliation, and sexual orientation. Military Psychology should celebrate this diversity in terms of the composition of the Editorial Board, the reviewers that serve the journal, and the publication of articles on underrepresented groups and issues in the field. Showcasing the diversity within Military Psychology will hopefully also increase the submission and publication of articles from underrepresented groups, thereby increasing the reach of the journal to a diverse audience.
In closing, I am excited about implementing the initiatives described in this editorial and am confident that our team is capable furthering the reputation of Military Psychology as the premiere outlet for quality behavioral science research conducted in military environments. In addition, our goal is to publish high-quality scientific research that represents the diverse community of individuals working in the field of military psychology. Please help us achieve these goals by submitting your best work to our journal.