Editor’s Comments

Editor’s Comments – Jerold D. Bozarth

The first issue of the association journal is considered to be a pilot issue in that the membership may want to change the nature of articles or add ideas for future issues. This first issue was laden with problems of establishing procedure and process with the publisher and, as well, With receiving the first submitted articles. I personally had some reservations about including articles written be several people associated with the journal (including one written by me). However, the importance of preparing a pilot issue along with positive reception by reviewers to the articles and due to the varied nature of the articles by Brodley, Stubbs, and me were reasons to push ahead with this first issue. The pilot issue was reviewed by participants and the ADPCA in San Francisco with the idea that future issues would reflect more input from members. The publishing process for this first issue included the following: (1) Calling for manuscripts and reviewers through a note in the Renaissance; (2) Determining the process with the publisher which involves the journal staff preparing the disk for printing on VVordperfect program for an IBM computer; (3) Asking at least two reviewers per manuscript for fast review. They were simply asked, “Should the article be published?” and “What suggestions do you have for change?”; (4) Asking authors to examine reviewers’ remarks and make changes which seem appropriate to the author and (5) Preparing the articles for the pilot issue. As I write this editorial comment, the estimated cost of the journal well be around $3 to $4 per copy. This includes manuscript preparation by contract and mailing by the publisher. I am personally pleased With the quality and range of type and topic of the articles. The articles include the description of a gay relationship, a quantitative study concerning cross-cultural views of counseling, a qualitative study of “freeing” in person-centered community workshops, considerations about psychodiagnostic work, some theoretical observations concerning the person-centered approach and psychic healing, commentary on the phenomena of feelings and empathic understanding, and considerations of “doing” and “being” in person-centered theory and practice. These articles were stimulating enough to induce several reviewers to react with their own dialogue among readership regarding the topics and, as well, regarding the types of articles which should be included in the journal.
The members of ADPCA attending the business meeting in San Francisco decided that future articles should be limned to those focused on the person-centered approach. General articles in this pilot issue would not meet that criteria.
I will take full responsibility for this first issue since I decided to act arbitrarily when we suddenly had enough articles to consider for publication. My view of the journal is that there will be a continuous evolution of the processes and that the membership will have in-put through association meetings, through dialogue in the Renaissance, and dialogue with the editorial staff. –J.D.B.

Editor’s Comments – Fred M. Zimring

As Jerold said in his comments, this issue of the Journal was created to enable us to learn what was wanted in a journal. From the people at the Redwood, California meeting we learned that articles in future issues should have more relevance to the person-centered approach than do some of the articles included in the present issue. Also, there was a desire to have the Journal inclusive of different kinds of material and of various viewpoints relevant to the PCA. In the present issue we have included a short typescript of a therapy interview with comments from two therapists. We hope to do this again in future issues, asking various therapists to write comments. To make the Journal inclusive of different topics, we hope to have people like Tom Gordon writing on applications and Gene Gendlin writing about experiential therapy. In addition, we may ask someone to write an article summarizing PCA relevant theory and research that has appeared in various journals in this country.
In a meeting about the Journal at the Fifth Forum in Holland, much interest in the Journal was expressed. There is interesting work relevant to the person-centered approach going on all over the world. So that we can learn what is happening, area editors will write an occasional article about work in their areas. These editors might include, among others, Alberto Segrera and John K. Wood for Mexico and Central and South America and Peter Schmid for Austria and Germany.
At present, non-English-speaking authors write their articles in their native language, translate into English and then have to work through their various revisions first in their own languages and then in English. This process could be shortened if the area editors worked with the manuscripts in the author’s native language, requiring English translation onty in the final stages.
To make the Journal more accessible to non-English-speaking readers, all articles will have a non-English abstract. Article authors whose native language is not English will supply an abstract in their own language. For those authors whose native language is English, Peter Schmid, Alberto Segrera and Francoise Ducroux-Biass have volunteered to translate the English abstract into either German, Spanish, or French. Thus, each article will have one non-English abstract.
In addition, we will have special issues of the Journal. For these we will ask special edition editors to edit an issue, or part of an issue. – F.M.Z.