Dear readers
One of the first tasks to consider when the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being started was to put together a first class Editorial Board, representing several disciplines and countries in the world. The Editorial Board should also represent the broad area of interest for the journal, i.e. multi-professional qualitative research on health and well-being. In general, the work of an Editorial Board contributes as an important guarantee for the high quality of a journal. Initially the Editorial Board of our journal included 16 distinguished scientists from five different countries in Europe and the USA, representing different professions and research approaches. During the two years the journal has been published, the members of the Editorial Board has been consulted in many distressing questions concerning, for example, adequacy of a specific topic or artful questions on a specific research approach. The possibility to discuss a problematic question with recognized experts in the field has served as an element of security to the editors. It is hoped we have not unnecessarily utilized their time and their professional knowledge. Karin Dahlberg, the co-editor, and myself would like to thank all the valued members of the Editorial Board officially, as well as all our excellent and reliable reviewers around the world, for their valuable work in supporting the journal in different ways within the first two years of publishing. Thank you so much for your valuable support!
Our intention is now to enlarge the Editorial Board and include some more members from different parts of the world. At present we are lucky to introduce six new members and probably further some more will follow in a near future. We are very proud to tell our readers that Professor Kathy Charmaz at the Sonoma State University in the USA; Professor Katie Eriksson at Åbo Akademy University in Finland; Professor Samantha Pang at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in China; Professors Fu-Jin Shih and Pei-Fan Mu at the National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan; and associate professor Stephen at the Simon Fraser University, British Columbia in Canada are now members of the Editorial Board of our journal. These six recognized scholars represent different expert areas and qualitative research approaches. Kathy Charmaz is a professor in sociology and the coordinator of the faculty-writing programme at her university. Among many other commitments, she has described the constructivist grounded theory. Charmaz’ book, Constructing grounded theory. A practical guide through qualitative analysis, has recently been reviewed by Eva Brink and her co-workers in Sweden and their comments were published 2006 in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 1(3), 188–192. Katie Eriksson is a professor in caring science and in nursing science in Finland. Her pioneering research focuses on understanding the world of the patient, the suffering human being. Peri-Fan Mu and Fu-Jin Shih are both professors at the school of nursing at their university in Taiwan and professor Samantha Pang is the head of the nursing school at her university in Hong Kong. Associate professor Stephen Smith is the director of professional programmes at the faculty of education at his university in Burnaby in Canada. It is a great honour for us to include those competent and highly experienced scholars in the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being and we wish them all a warm welcome.
The number of manuscripts submitted to the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being has been continuously increasing although most published manuscripts so far come from Scandinavia and Europe. Of course, it is important that the journal receives more manuscripts of high quality from countries outside Europe and Scandinavia—and manuscripts from varying disciplines. The commitment of the Editorial Board members includes encouraging colleagues, around the world as well as at the home front, to read and to submit manuscripts to the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. It is hoped that the enlarged Editorial Board will help us in this matter. After nearly two years of publishing, we have a refusal rate of about 30%, indicating that about two thirds of submissions concern issues relevant to the scope of the journal and hold “good-enough” quality. Although the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being is still a quite new journal to many researchers around the world, I hope that together, editors, readers, reviewers and Editorial Board members, will influence colleagues and researchers all over the world to send manuscripts to the journal and also invite their departments and/or universities to subscribe to the journal.