Editorial

Twenty years ago, Psychology and Health was launched to provide a forum for the new and rapidly growing field of health psychology. In his editorial, John Weinman (1987) described health psychology as an applied area of psychology drawing upon the full range of models and approaches that have been developed within mainstream psychology. Weinman also argued that there is a crucial need to develop explanatory models that can do justice to health-related behaviors, and referred to a seminal article by Marteau and Johnston (1987) who noted a relative neglect of psychological models and paradigms in the field of health psychology. Marteau and Johnston emphasized the need to derive good theories to accompany the burgeoning amount of empirical findings. This need has not abated over the past twenty years (see, e.g., Michie, Rothman, & Sheeran, 2007).

In 2005, the Publications Committee of the European Health Psychology Society decided it was time to launch a new journal in our field. The growth and success of Psychology and Health as a journal of empirical research led to the conviction that the time was right to launch a companion journal featuring theoretical, conceptual and review articles.

The decision to launch this new journal was based on several beliefs, the most important being that the field needs good theories to accompany and guide empirical research. There is a limited number of publication outlets for theoretical and conceptual pieces in the area of health psychology, and too often good theoretical papers do not get published at all, or are published as chapters in edited volumes that have a relatively limited readership. A journal featuring theoretical and review articles should help to initiate new lines of research or provide a coherent framework for past and existing programs of research.

We are convinced that the field will benefit from a journal featuring theoretical and review articles. A journal of this type is also likely to encourage new conceptual work. The latter is crucial to the advancement of the discipline of health psychology, and is also likely to strengthen old and foster new connections between health psychology and related disciplines, as well as other areas within psychology. We are pleased to serve as the inaugural editorial team for Health Psychology Review. The editorial office opened late 2005, and the publisher provided an electronic submission system for both Health Psychology Review and its sister journal Psychology and Health. A very impressive international board of consulting editors will help us to turn this venture into a success.

The general focus of Health Psychology Review will be on papers presenting theoretical and conceptual work, as well as evaluative and integrative reviews and interpretations of substantive issues in the general domain of health psychology. Health Psychology Review does not specify appropriate topics, but rather seeks to publish significant work reflecting the entire breadth of the field of health psychology. Generally, the articles will have some empirical base. The latter can be based on a review of past research including one or more meta-analyses and/or initial empirical tests of the proposed theory or framework. Original research is thus reported in summary form and only for illustrative purposes. The journal particularly favors theory-based reviews of empirical contributions that afford integrative theoretical formulations of work in a given area of health psychology, and reviews that develop connections between areas of research within the general domain of health psychology as well as with other disciplines (ranging from biology to policy-oriented research domains). Papers that consider the cross-cultural and cross-national relevance and appropriateness of theories and key concepts are also welcomed. Articles focusing on methodological issues and problems of design and measurement will be considered if they make a direct and substantial contribution to theory. Brief commentaries addressing progress in specific sub-fields of health psychology, comments that apply to existing theoretical models and approaches, and discussions about previously published articles, can also be considered.

We belief this first issue provides excellent examples of the depth and breadth of articles that will appear in Health Psychology Review. Peter Hall and Geoffrey Fong present an interesting article on self-regulation, Henk Aarts addresses the relevance of research on goal-directed behavior for health psychology, and Ryan Howell, Margaret Kern, and Sonja Lyubomirsky present a meta-analysis of the impact of well-being on health. We would like to thank these authors as well as those of forthcoming issues for submitting their work to a yet unknown entity. Their willingness to take this risk gave us a good range of material with which to work. We hope that the selection of articles in this and forthcoming issues will stimulate new research, and lead to new ideas and further innovative contributions.

We are committed to this venture, and the enthusiasm of editorial consultants, reviewers and authors indicates that many others share our commitment. We hope the journal will provide an appropriate, international forum for theoretical work in the general area of health psychology.