Publishing in Peer-Reviewed Journals: An Opportunity for Professional Counselors

Publish or perish is a common edict strongly established in higher education. Faculty are expected to engage in scholarly activity such as presenting at conferences, conducting research, and publishing in peer-reviewed journals to ascend in rank and achieve tenure. Thus, publishing is often discussed as an endeavor of academics. However, publishing is not relegated to the ivory tower or to those employed in higher education settings. Authoring a manuscript and publishing can be a meaningful process for counselors and supervisors as well.

A few authors have provided reasons why clinicians should publish (cf., Chookrakuttil, 2018; Marusic, 2003; Schein et al., 2000). Though these manuscripts were written and published for a medical readership, I see the content as applicable to professional counselors. In this editorial, I aim to provide a brief overview of reasons to publish for a readership of professional counselors.

Contributing to the knowledge base of professional counseling is one reason a counselor may pursue publication. This contribution can be a manuscript that captures practice-based evidence or a uniquely integrated therapeutic approach with a particular client population. A counselor can also author a manuscript that challenges, critiques, compares, and assimilates knowledge which can lead to improvements in clinical care (Chookrakuttil, 2018). Second, a counselor could consider publishing as a meaningful form of communication within the counseling profession. Marusic (2003) contended knowledge connects by methods of communication and the greatest part of communication takes place with journals. In this form of professional communication, it is important to consider which voices are represented and not represented. Because editors can only publish from manuscripts submitted to a journal, published manuscripts become voices represented and heard through publication. The voices of those who have not authored or submitted manuscripts are indirectly excluded and absent from this form of communication. The voices of counselors and supervisors should be a part of this form of professional communication, but this does not occur if clinicians do not submit manuscripts for publication. Third, those in clinical practice have a responsibility (Chookrakuttil, 2018) and moral obligation (Schein et al., 2000) to share their knowledge with their peers. This responsibility also comes with recognition that each counselor has a uniquely lived professional experience that may benefit other counselors as well as clients. Counselors can carry out this obligation by disseminating knowledge to peers within a shared specialization such as school counselors publishing in a school counseling journal for a readership of other school counselors. This sharing of knowledge can also include a school counselor publishing in a mental health journal for their counseling peers in other clinical practice settings. Another reason a counselor may consider publishing is to participate in a learning process. Learning may be about the content of the manuscript adding depth and width of understanding or from contents provided by the reviewers in the peer review process (Schein et al., 2000). Lastly, Chookrakuttil (2018) identified other reasons to publish including intellectual pleasure, the feel-good factor of having published, or furthering or improving a counselor’s reputation as an expert. The reasons listed above or not exhaustive and counselors may have other inspiring or compelling reasons to submit a manuscript for publication.

I conclude with an encouraging invitation for counselors across specializations and clinical settings to see themselves as writers and authors of manuscripts suitable for publication in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Professional Counseling: Practice, Theory and Research.