The current year has again been a good one for the Australian Journal of Psychology (AJP). It continued to perform well with the annual bibliometric indices released in July, indicating that its 2‐year impact factor is 0.941 and the 5‐year impact factor is 1.026. While that is slightly down on the 2011 impact factor of 1.078, it is still considerably better than the figures prior 2011. The ranking of the AJP has also dropped slightly and is now 63rd out of 126 journals in the multidisciplinary category, which includes not only the top generalist journals such as the Annual Review of Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, and Psychological Review, but also top ranking specialist journals such as the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Psychosomatic Medicine, and Intelligence. The more appropriate comparison of the performance of the AJP is in relation to other national generalist journals. Its performance is commendable relative to journals such as the American Journal of Psychology (57th), British Journal of Psychology (26th), Canadian Journal of Psychology (66th), and European Psychologist (75th), all of which have a larger ‘national’ support base. What is particularly noticeable in this comparison is that all of these national generalist journals have experienced drops in their impact factors and rankings, two having a drop of more than 50% in both impact factor and ranking. While bibliometric datum does fluctuate, the consistency of this trend does raise the question of whether the emergence of an increasing number of specialised journals is beginning to impact on national generalist journals.
The first issue of 2013 was a Special Issue on innovations in undergraduate psychology education. It was edited by Jacquelyn Cranney, an international authority on this topic. As Cranney (Citation2013) indicates in her introduction to the Special Issue, it is appropriate for a scientific journal to focus on psychology education as psychology is a science, and those who teach it should be using an evidence‐based approach to teaching. The aim of the Special Issue was thus to highlight the need for a ‘scientist‐educator’ approach to teaching undergraduate psychology and to add to the relevant evidence base. The Issue begins with an invited review of evidence‐based teaching by Dunn, Saville, Baker, and Marek (Citation2013). This is followed by six empirical articles. Two of these articles report evaluations of programmes to enhance critical analysis and problem‐solving skills (Karantzas et al., Citation2013) and intercultural competencies (Knott, Mak, & Neill, Citation2013), while two others dealt with student perceptions of participating in research (Roberts & Allen, Citation2013) and the graduate attributes associated with psychological literacy (Morris, Cranney, Jeong, & Mellish, Citation2013). The final two empirical articles reported evaluations of the impact of peer mentoring on first year student learning (Chester, Burton, Xenos, & Elgar, Citation2013) and a strategy to reduce plagiarism by students (Owens & White, Citation2013). The Special Issue closes with an invited review on benchmarks that can be used in the investigation of teaching and learning (Wilson‐Doenges & Gurung, Citation2013). The preparations for the Special Issue for 2014 are progressing well. The focus of this issue will be on emotion and emotion regulation, and it will be edited by Professor Melanie Zimmer‐Gembeck of Griffith University.
In keeping with its generalist nature, the articles published in Volume 65 of the AJP cover a wide range of areas. Consistent with past trends, psychometric issues and scale development featured prominently. There were articles addressing the psychometric properties of the Eating Disorder Symptom Impact Scale (Coomber & King, Citation2013), ones reporting the development of a new profiling tool for the autism spectrum (Garnett, Attwood, Peterson, & Kelly, Citation2013) a scale for tuned‐in parenting (Priddis & Kane, Citation2013), and an article assessing the oral administration of the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (Roberton, Daffern, & Bucks, Citation2013). Three articles focussed on antisocial behaviour. Grieve and Panebianco (Citation2013) examined the role of a number of predictors on emotional manipulation while the other two focussed on aspects of the school experience on antisocial behaviour. In a longitudinal study, Hemphill et al. (Citation2013) examined the impact of school suspension on later non‐violent antisocial behaviour while Homel (Citation2013) examined whether bullying at school leads to adult aggression. Balancing the antisocial articles were two that examined the predictors of prosocial behaviour, viz volunteering behaviour in Australian student (Hyde & Knowles, Citation2013) and attitudes towards organ donation in Japanese students (Wu, Tang, & Yogo, Citation2013).
Social psychology was well represented in 2013 with articles addressing attributions regarding asylum seekers (Croston & Pedersen, Citation2013), just world beliefs and Schadenfreude (Pietraszkiewicz, Citation2013), spiritual beliefs and experiences (Schuurmans‐Stekhoven, Citation2013), and identity issues for retiring elite athletes (Cosh, Crabb, & LeCouteur, Citation2013). In the broad area of health, there was one article on anxiety (Rudaizky & MacLeod, Citation2013), one on depression (Giosan, Citation2013), and one on adolescent smoking (Carters & Byrne, Citation2013). Other areas covered were memory (Belcher & Kangas, Citation2013; Maehara & Saito, Citation2013), the relationship among self‐efficacy, employability, and career satisfaction (Dacre Pool & Qualter, Citation2013), compulsive buying behaviour (Alemis & Yap, Citation2013), and the description of a qualitative research method (Du Preez, Citation2013).
Sadly, Professor Melanie Zimmer‐Gembeck has submitted her resignation as an associate editor. I would like to thank her for her invaluable support over the past 2 years and for guest editing the 2014 Special Issue. I would also like to take the opportunity to welcome Associate Professor Allison Waters who has joined the editorial board this year.
Finally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed to the AJP in 2013. This includes those who have submitted manuscripts, the people who have generously given of their time to review the manuscripts, and to the associate editors of the AJP for all their assistance. I am extremely grateful for their support.
References
- Alemis, M. C., & Yap, K. (2013). The role of negative urgency impulsivity and financial management practices in compulsive buying. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(4), 224–231. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12025
- Belcher, J., & Kangas, M. (2013). Autobiographical memory specificity in response to emotion pictorial cues among non‐clinical participants. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(4), 250–257. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12027
- Carters, M. A., & Byrne, D. G. (2013). The role of stress and area‐specific self‐esteem in adolescent smoking. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(3), 180–187. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12019
- Chester, A., Burton, L. J., Xenos, S., & Elgar, K. (2013). Peer mentoring: Supporting successful transition for first year undergraduate psychology students. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(1), 30–37. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12006
- Coomber, K., & King, R. M. (2013). An investigation of the psychometric properties of the Eating Disorder Symptom Impact Scale within an Australian sample. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(2), 71–78. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1742‐9536.2012.00057.x
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- Cranney, J. (2013). Toward psychological literacy: A snapshot of evidence‐based learning and teaching. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(1), 1–4. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12013
- Croston, J., & Pedersen, A. (2013). ‘Tell me what I want to hear’: Motivated recall and attributions in media regarding asylum seekers. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(2), 124–133. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12012
- Dacre pool, L., & Qualter, P. (2013). Emotional self‐efficacy, graduate employability, and career satisfaction: Testing the associations. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(4), 214–223. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12023
- Du preez, J. (2013). Student self‐efficacy narratives: A collaborative co‐constructive method. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(2), 107–114. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12001
- Dunn, D. S., Saville, B. K., Baker, S. C., & Marek, P. (2013). Evidence‐based teaching: Tools and techniques that promote learning in the psychology classroom. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(1), 5–13. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12004
- Garnett, M. S., Attwood, T., Peterson, C., & Kelly, A. B. (2013). Autism spectrum conditions among children and adolescents: A new profiling tool. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(4), 206–213. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12022
- Giosan, C. (2013). ‘Slow’ reproductive strategy: A negative predictor of depressive symptomatology. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(3), 156–162. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12016
- Grieve, R., & Panebianco, L. (2013). Assessing the role of aggression, empathy, and self‐serving cognitive distortions in trait emotional manipulation. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(2), 79–88. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1742‐9536.2012.00059.x
- Hemphill, S. A., Kotevski, A., Herrenkohl, T. I., Smith, R., Toumbourou, J. W., & Catalano, R. F. (2013). Does school suspension affect subsequent youth non‐violent antisocial behaviour? A longitudinal study of students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(4), 236–249. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12026
- Homel, J. B. (2013). Does bullying others at school lead to adult aggression? The roles of drinking and university participation during the transition to adulthood. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(2), 98–106. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12002
- Hyde, M. K., & Knowles, S. R. (2013). What predicts Australian university students' intentions to volunteer their time for community service? Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(3), 135–145. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12014
- Karantzas, G. C., Avery, M. R., Macfarlane, S., Mussap, A., Tooley, G., Hazelwood, Z., & Fitness, J. (2013). Enhancing critical analysis and problem‐solving skills in undergraduate psychology: An evaluation of a collaborative learning and problem‐based learning approach. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(1), 38–45. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12009
- Knott, V. E., Mak, A. S., & Neill, J. T. (2013). Teaching intercultural competencies in introductory psychology via application of the Excellence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership model. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(1), 46–53. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12008
- Maehara, Y., & Saito, S. (2013). Cognitive load on working memory both encourages and discourages reasoning bias regarding the mental states of others. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(3), 163–171. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12017
- Morris, S., Cranney, J., Jeong, J. M., & Mellish, L. (2013). Developing psychological literacy: Student perceptions of graduate attributes. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(1), 54–62. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12010
- Owens, C., & White, F. A. (2013). A 5‐year systematic strategy to reduce plagiarism among first‐year psychology university students. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(1), 14–21. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12005
- Pietraszkiewicz, A. (2013). Schadenfreude and just world belief. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(3), 188–194. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12020
- Priddis, L. E., & Kane, R. (2013). The development of a scale for tuned‐in parenting. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(4), 198–205. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12021
- Roberton, T., Daffern, M., & Bucks, R. S. (2013). Oral administration of the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(3), 172–179. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12018
- Roberts, L. D., & Allen, P. J. (2013). A brief measure of student perceptions of the educational value of research participation. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(1), 22–29. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12007
- Rudaizky, D., & Macleod, C. (2013). Anxiety reactivity and anxiety perseveration represent dissociable dimensions of anxiety vulnerability: A replication and extension. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(4), 232–235. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12024
- Schuurmans‐stekhoven, J. B. (2013). Is God's call more than audible? A preliminary exploration using a two‐dimensional model of theistic/spiritual beliefs and experiences. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(3), 146–155. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12015
- Wilson‐doenges, G., & Gurung, R. A. R. (2013). Benchmarks for scholarly investigations of teaching and learning. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(1), 63–70. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12011
- Wu, A. M. S., Tang, C. S., & Yogo, M. (2013). Death anxiety, altruism, self‐efficacy, and organ donation intention among Japanese college students: A moderated mediation analysis. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(2), 115–123. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12003