This is the final issue of Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives under our editorship. This first issue of this journal appeared in 2003, and so this is the final issue in our 15th volume. Thank you to all those who have given us material and moral support during these 15 years. We hope that you, the reader, have found the format and the contents exciting and professionally valuable.
The journal has been devoted to the interdisciplinary study of measurement in the human sciences. It has featured Focus articles that have been judged by us, the editors, and our reviewers, as making important conceptual contributions to the broad field of measurement. These Focus articles and their Commentaries are examples of the best dialogue and debate across multiple perspectives. The journal’s overarching theme has been promoting the development, critique, and enrichment of the concepts and practices of measurement. Contributors have shared a common bond—the serious study of measurement—but have represented a broad range of disciplines and perspectives, including psychometrics, ethnography, social theory, psychology, economics, education, linguistics, sociology, policy studies, history, and law, to name just some. Through peer commentary and authors’ responses, Measurement has provided an opportunity for discussion that is generally unavailable to the general readership outside the specific authors and reviewers of particular manuscripts.
Focus articles have included seminal papers on important issues in the field in the form of single papers, sets of linked papers, and summaries of recently published books in one of the following genres:
a report and/or discussion of empirical research with a broader scope and/or implication than found in other measurement-associated journals
an unusually significant theoretical article that systematizes or gives new perspectives on a body of theory, research, and/or practice in measurement
a novel interpretation, synthesis, or critique of existing measurement work
A summary and commentary on a field of application of measurement that either is a significant contribution to measurement in that field or that contains an important message for measurement work in general
a rigorous, evidence-based critique of measurement theory and practices from outside the discipline
a rigorous, evidence-based critique from within measurement on theory and practices outside the discipline
The audience for Measurement has included all those who have a serious interest in the study of measurement theory, application, and criticism, including psychometricians, sociometricians, mathematical psychologists, clinical psychologists, educational curriculum developers, policy researchers, educational and psychological test developers and assessment designers, professionals and researchers in medical and public health fields, and social scientists who study the history and effects of measurement practices.
The publisher of Measurement, Taylor and Francis, has chosen to change the format of the journal to better fit with their business model and publication schedule, which does not lend itself to the flexibility needed to anchor each issue around a focal article and related commentary. Taylor and Francis will be announcing a new editor and editorial policy in the coming year. We are grateful to all our focal article authors and commentators and our wonderful band of reviewers, all of whom have made possible the production of 15 volumes of dialogue about innovative conceptual contributions to the broad field of measurement. Their collected work attests to the importance of this venture.
For readers who have become members of our community of debate and discussion that has formed around Measurement, we say, look out for follow-on activities. We are exploring alternative venues for furthering this sort of interdisciplinary dialogue about the theory and practice of measurement.
Sincerely and with gratitude,