Welcome to this edition of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice. This is our first edition as co-editors in chief and we are delighted to be able to bring an interesting and thought-provoking range of papers to your attention.
Professor Christian van Nieuwerburgh has now stepped down as editor in chief for the journal, having spent three years in this role. During his time at the helm he led significant changes and improvements. The journal became more popular with authors and readers alike, with the number of submissions rising significantly and the quality of the published articles shown by the increased number of downloads. Christian set up a formal relationship with the Institute of Coaching, offering access to journal articles for practitioners in the US, mirroring the relationship already established with the Association for Coaching in the US.
The academic world is built on double blind peer reviews. This is a vital principle to ensure quality and meritocracy in academic publishing. Articles would not get to publication without the efforts of the reviews, yet the reviewers are inevitably uncredited and their work is unrewarded. We would like to extend our thanks to colleagues who share their expertise and wisdom, and whose efforts make a huge difference to the quality of the academic papers which are published. Your time and generosity are sincerely appreciated.
Whilst Christian managed the role on his own, we have decided to work as co-editors in chief. Our hope is that this collaboration can strengthen the contribution we bring to the journal, offering two sets of expertise and networks. We would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves.
Julia Yates is a senior lecturer at City, University of London. She runs the MSc in Organisational Psychology, teaching modules on career development, coaching psychology and qualitative research methods. Alongside her academic role, Julia continues her private practice as a career coach, and spends time working with career coaches, bridging the gap between research and practice. Her research interests are the application of coaching approaches to career practice, the career paths of women and career decision making. She has previously acted as an associate editor for Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice.
Ioanna Iordanou is a senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes Business School and a member of the Oxford Brookes International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies. She teaches modules on Transformative Learning and adult development, qualitative research methods, management and organisational behaviour. Ioanna is passionate about coaching research and rendering it accessible to coaching practitioners. She is the co-author of Values and Ethics in Coaching (Sage, 2017) and works closely with professional coaching associations to raise awareness about the significance of ethical coaching practice. She has previously acted as an associate editor for Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice.
Our hope as we take on this new role is to build on the progress that Christian has made. We are keen to welcome submissions from academics, practitioners and students, which explore all aspects of coaching and coaching psychology. We will work with the authors and reviewers to ensure academic rigour and to highlight innovative ideas. We would like to encourage practitioners to engage with research and will ensure that articles are accessible to practitioners, both in terms of online access – offering the most relevant articles open-access where we can, and the content and style of the papers themselves. For all these reasons, we are keen to expand the editorial team and we will keep our readers posted about progress.
It is an exciting time to be involved in coaching research. The volume and quality of studies which are being conducted all over the world is growing and the links between practice and research remain strong. We are thrilled to be playing our part in the community and look forward to our tenure with the journal.