JPP Editorial Column

Updates from the Journal of Pediatric Psychology

Editor-in-Chief: Avani Modi, Ph.D.

 

I hope everyone had a great summer! We are excited to provide updates on JPP.

Impact Factor

As many of you may know, our JPP Impact Factor changed this year to 2.7. As the premier journal for our field, JPP continues to be an excellent source of scholarly work that advances the science and practice of pediatric psychology. While it is disappointing that our impact factor has declined, there are several reasons for this change. The primary two reasons are related to how Clarivate has been changing their Impact factor calculations and the effect of COVID-19 content. The new Clarivate algorithm includes advance access publications and not just issue-based publications. The calculation is based on the number of citations our articles received divided by the number of citable items from the past two years. Many of our highly published COVID articles are now moving out of the two-year window. Our publishers have noted a drop for many of their journals due to these types of COVID papers and the new calculations. Notably, our impact factor is closer to what we had pre-pandemic. We continue to make active efforts to publish high caliber science, including a number of special issues noted below.

 

Special Issues

We will continue with our Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Pediatric Psychology special section within each issue of the journal.  

We have a number of special issues/sections that will be published in the coming year, including:

1) Improving Digital Health Implementation in Pediatric Populations: From Design to Sustainment being managed by Drs. Alexandra Psihogios and Colleen Stiles-Shields.

2) Contemporary and Cross-Cutting Evidence-Based Interventions in Pediatric Psychology edited by Drs. Emily Law and Katelynn Boerner.

3) A special section focused on international approaches to addressing pediatric pain highlighting science from the 2023 European Pediatric Psychology Conference edited by Drs. Rocio de la Vega and Christine Sieberg

4) A special section from the 2023 SPP Fall Conference focused on Innovative Research Methods to Improve the Reach of Pediatric Psychology, edited by Drs. Emily Law and Chad Jensen

5) A special issue focused on Advancing Caregiver Wellbeing edited by Drs. Dana Bakula, Christina Sharkey, and Chrissy Salley, with a submission due date of December 1, 2024. Please see https://academic.oup.com/jpepsy/pages/advancing-caregiver-wellbeing for details.

 

JPP Student Academy (formerly) Student Journal Club

Our JPP Student Journal Club is wrapping up this month and we are modifying our approach to the group moving forward. Instead of monthly student journal clubs, we will have ~4 focused webinars this year focused on learning about the manuscript review process. In addition, twelve of our student academy members will be invited to write a commentary for a featured article. Learn more at https://academic.oup.com/jpepsy/pages/journal_club.

 

Fun Facts

1) Don’t miss out on receiving new JPP content

• Register to receive table of contents email alerts as soon as new issues of Journal of Pediatric Psychologyare published online: https://academic.oup.com/sign-in?returnUrl=https%3a%2f%2facademic.oup.com%2fmy-account%2femail-alerts

 

2) Our two most highly cited papers from 2023 thus far are:

• Child Emotion Regulation Capacity Moderates the Association Between Parent Behaviors and Child Distress During Pediatric Venipuncture Kaytlin L Constantin and others, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Volume 48, Issue 2, February 2023, Pages 108–119, https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsac035
• Behavior Problems, Self-Esteem, and Prosocial Behavior in Siblings of Children With Chronic Physical Health Conditions: An Updated Meta-Analysis Martin Pinquart, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Volume 48, Issue 1, January 2023, Pages 77–90, https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsac066

 

3) We are "recovering" from a drop in submissions since the pandemic years (which was itself a hiccup!). We are trending almost 20 more submissions than last year

 

Support Team

A big thank you to our editorial assistant, Susan Wood, who truly helps to keep the journal running, as well as our Associate Editors (Marisa Hilliard, Chad Jensen, Cecelia Valrie, Katie Devine, Kurt Freeman, and Emily Law), Outgoing SPP Student Journal Club Co-Chairs (Karen Dimentstein and Caroline Roberts), Outgoing Social Media Chair (Alex Monzon), and Outgoing Transparent Reporting Editors (Andrea Fidler and Kelly Rea). We will be announcing our new leaders sometime in September. Also, a big thank you to our reviewers and Editorial Board members for taking the time to review manuscripts and ensure we publish high caliber science within JPP.