The Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therpy (SJOT) was established in 1994 and thus celebrates fifteen years in 2009. It took eight years of intensive planning before the first volume was printed.
The board as well as the congress of the Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists (FSA) had to make decisions to go ahead with the project. There were numerous contacts with different scientific journals to acquire the necessary knowledge. Then the associations of the Nordic countries, Denmark, Finnland, Iceland and Norway, were invited to take part in the forming of a joint non-profit foundation to be the responsible publisher of the Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy. Agreements had to be made concerning the economic responsibility for the journal.
We had to find a qualified editor-in-chief and form an editorial board of high quality. Birgitta Lundgren-Lindquist – the first occupational therapists to become a doctor of medicin in Sweden – accepted the exciting and difficult role as the first editor-in-chief. Birgitta decided to put the bar on a high level, when she chose what articles to publish although there – at that time – was a limited number to choose from. The three editors-in-chief after Birgitta have kept that high level.
Sometimes I have asked myself if it was wise to go through with the rather complicated idea of introducing the Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therpy. But today it has since long proved to be an important step in the development of occupational therapy. The road has not always been surrounded by red roses. We have not always been in the good situation we experience today. In order to publish a scientific journal you need authors who want to be published. Institutions as well as individuals have to be interested in subscribing. Our choice to publish a journal with a Scandinavian profile was good but also a limitation.
Today the journal is not considered as a Nordic but rather as a scientific journal of high quality publishing research in occupational therapy. Now SJOT can be found in all data bases of importance. From 2009 it has an impact factor which is true only for very few journals in occupational therapy. This proves the standing that SJOT has acquired in the world of science. A fantastic result showing the high quality that the four editors-in-chief and all the authors who have been published have had in their work.
The popularity that SJOT has with the authors, who want to have their articles published, can be measured through the high flow of material. Although around 50 per cent of the articles we get are refused, there still are so many to be published that SJOT from 2010 will expand to 82 pages per volume.
We have many challenges to handle in the near future. I will mention three. First – the quality of the articles we publish must meet the high quality we have now. Second – the journal must be spread much more broadly. Third – occupational therapists must be stimulated to more actively than today take part in and use the new knowledge that is produced in our field.
All three areas are most important for our subject area and for our profession. All three require active work. Those who work in research must keep the high quality. The editor-in-chief must be very competent and have good support from the Nordic editors. The Nordic associations must be more active in creating an even more lively discussion among their members concerning how important it is that the professional work is based on the scientific results that are at hand. This means that all have a responsibility to keep up-dated with the results from research.
The Swedish occupational therapists receive SJOT as part of their membership in FSA. I consider that very important. It is necessary for them to be capable of a scientic approach which today is expected by the authorities in health and care. It is also an important help to finance the SJOT.
The other Nordic countries must be very active in marketing the SJOT to their members. It is important for the members in their professional work and for the development of knowledge in the respective countries.
Remember that to be professional means; to have a basis for the work you do; to truly understand what you do; to be able to evaluate the result of what you do; to be able to combine practical work with scientific understanding. In other words this means that you as an occupational therapist must use the best methods and do it in the right way. It is important that occupational therapists in their work always try to use scientific proof as a basis for the intervention they use in treatment of patients.
In thinking of what the next important step in the future development of the SJOT could be, I think it might be considered to widen the group of editors. This means to invite more countries in Europe to take part in the work. Why not create a board of associated editors from interested associations in Europe.
When I now leave after fifteen years as president of the board of the non-profit foundation for the Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy I feel pride and satisfaction for what we together have established, an all over the world highly respected scientific journal in occupational therapy. I am confident that the SJOT will have a bright future, even though it always will require hard work, creativity, cooperation and decisiveness. The best of luck for the future.