The premier issue of International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being was launched in March 2006 and the rest, as they say, is history. Professor Karin Dahlberg and I were the initiators of the journal and Taylor & Francis, the first publisher. Two years ago the journal was successfully transferred to the open access publication model and therewith to Co-Action Publishing. This change has contributed hugely to making the journal truly international. Not only is it now included in PubMed Central/PubMed and awaits its first Impact Factor but there has also been a considerable increase in the number of submissions from all over the world. This year, the journal website has so far (November 25, 2011) been visited almost 21,500 times by individuals in 137 countries, and nearly 80,000 full text articles have been downloaded. This is an incredible development—and immensely beneficial to both authors and readers. It also shows the difference open access can make.
About one year ago, Karin Dahlberg left her assignment as Co-editor of International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being because of other professional priorities. Karin and I have had a very stimulating collaboration during the years and now, when she has left the journal, I especially miss her considerable methodological competence in phenomenological lifeworld research. I would like to take the opportunity here to formally thank Karin for all the professional work she has done for the journal. Thanks, Karin!
Peter D. Ashworth was appointed Co-editor a couple of years ago, and his work has been much appreciated. Peter is a Professor of educational research at Sheffield Hallam University in Great Britain. He graduated in psychology in 1971 and gained a PhD from the University of Lancaster in 1973. His PhD thesis concerned the personal changes that students undergo in the process of teacher training. Throughout his professional life, his main interest has been the promotion of “human science”. Peter is especially active in the development of techniques based on existential-phenomenological thinking and a lifeworld perspective. He is still an active senior researcher, and his work has been published in many international scientific journals.
The working routine for Peter and me has been that most submissions have passed his critical eyes. Supplied with his comments, the manuscripts came back to me, mostly within one week, for further management and peer review. Our cooperation has always been characterized by mutual respect and confidence. Now Peter has decided to leave as Co-editor to be able to spend more time on other assignments. This is most understandable, and I would like to herewith convey my sincere gratitude to Peter for stimulating cooperation, and I wish him all the best. Thank you, Peter!
To replace both Karin Dahlberg and Peter Ashworth, Professor Carina Berterö, Professor Soly Erlandsson and Assistant Professor Bente Martinsen have been appointed Co-editors of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. I welcome these three competent colleagues as my new collaborators in the work with the journal. Below, I will give a short presentation of each of them.
Carina Berterö is Professor of nursing science at the Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden. Carina's research includes palliative care, oncology nursing, quality of life, health and well-being, nursing/caring theory and empirical nursing, concepts, women issues and genus aspects. The overall objective of all her studies is to develop and improve nursing science. There are different ways to accomplish this, for example, through identifying and clarifying the theories and empirics of nursing science, through identifying and applying the perspectives of patients, next of kin and health care professionals on, for example, symptoms/other discomforts and how disease/poor health affects a person's quality of life, life situation and well-being. Carina is familiar with several different approaches of qualitative research methods that she has also used in her research.
Soly Erlandsson is a certified psychologist and now Professor emerita. She defended her doctoral thesis at the University of Gothenburg in 1990 and became Associate Professor in 1996 at the same university. She became Professor at Sweden's University West in 2006 and is now a Visiting Professor at this university. Her research interest mainly focuses on how psychological factors impact on tinnitus—often in conjunction with different hearing disorders. Within this research, which is interdisciplinary in character (psychology, audiology, technology and medicine), she has studied psychological/emotional states, mental health and quality of life in people with tinnitus in need of psychological care. Another path of her research includes cross-cultural studies (Sweden/USA) on young people's attitudes and risk taking when exposed to loud levels of sounds. The purpose is primarily to generate more knowledge on factors that are known to cause hearing disorders and how to prevent such disorders. Soly is part of the Forum for Child and Youth Studies at University West. The overall aim of the group's activity is to spread knowledge about the conditions of children and young people and thereby strengthen their position in society.
Bente Martinsen finished her education as a nurse in 1992 and has a Master's degree in nursing science as well as a PhD in nursing (2008). Currently, she is employed as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Health, Department of Nursing Science, Aarhus University in Denmark. Inspired by her practical experiences as a nurse in neurological wards, her main research interest is the dependence on care among people with functional impairments. Her PhD thesis was a phenomenological interview study dealing with the experiences of assisted feeding among people living with high, cervical spinal cord injury in their own homes. Bente is also doing research on assisted feeding, interviewing caregivers in neurological wards. At the moment, she is involved in a new study investigating the meaning of care when robots replace caregivers. Methodologically, her competences are primarily within qualitative methods, especially phenomenology.
Hereby, I warmly welcome my three colleagues Carina Berterö, Soly Erlandsson and Bente Martinsen as the new Co-editors of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being.
Lillemor Hallberg
Editor-in-Chief