Acad Psychiatry 29:237-239, August 2005 2005
doi: 10.1176/appi.ap.29.3.237
© 2005 Academic Psychiatry
Academic Psychiatry: Coming of Age
Laura Weiss Roberts, M.D., M.A.,
John Coverdale, M.D., M.Ed., F.R.A.N.Z.C.P.,
Alan Louie, M.D. and
Eugene V. Beresin, M.D.
In our sixteenth season as Academic Psychiatry, this issue of our journal marks a rather remarkable milestone: we are moving to bimonthly publication! Our ability to make this transition reflects the confluence of many positive developments for the field of academic psychiatry and for the journal. The move to bimonthly publication has only become possible because of the collaborative efforts of all those involved with the journal—our readers, reviewers, authors, editorial staff and publishers. We are grateful to our sponsoring organizations, the Association for Academic Psychiatry (AAP) and the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT), the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry (ADMSEP) and, most recently, the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry (AACDP). We are also indebted to our publisher, American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. (APPI), for their outstanding collective support in enabling this to happen.
Bimonthly publication of Academic Psychiatry is possible because of the quality of submissions we receive, reflecting the diversity and richness of the field. The number of submissions has increased more than six-fold since 1998. Factors that may have contributed to this surge in papers include incorporation of the journal into MEDLINE in 2001, the introduction of electronic submissions in 2003 with an associated reduction in the time taken to review and to provide editorial responses to authors, and an emphasis on calls for papers for special theme issues. This continues a trend begun in 1996 (1) of publishing a body of research and scholarly contributions in order to advance the field in areas of special importance to psychiatric education, to professional development in academic psychiatry, and psychiatric leadership in academic medicine.
The journal became Academic Psychiatry in 1989 when the Journal of Psychiatric Education was revamped and renamed. In that year, AAP joined AADPRT in sponsorship of the Journal. Dr. Zebulon Taintor, as one of the two founding editors, passed the editorship to Drs. Jonathan Borus and William Sledge, and APPI took over the publishing role from Human Sciences Press (2, 3). The journal has continued to evolve over time under the exceptional leadership of all former editors (4) while retaining the core missions to promote original research and to advance the scholarship and methods of psychiatric education. In 2002, with the new Editor-in-Chief, the scope of the journal expanded beyond innovative psychiatric education to encompass professional development in academic psychiatry and psychiatric leadership in academic medicine. In June 2003, ADMSEP became a sponsoring organization for the journal, followed in May 2005, by AACDP. The journal now represents a coalition of vigorous, vibrant societies that are committed to advancing the profession of psychiatry through academic excellence.
Sixteen years onward, academic psychiatry is flourishing as a scientific discipline. As a consequence, our students and residents are required to demonstrate increasing knowledge and skills in wider areas of expertise including neuroscience, genetics and biological sciences; psychological theories and methods; social sciences, cultural diversity and anthropology; administration and management; ethics; evidence-based practices; and integration of psychiatry with other medical specialties. This requires a greater degree of attention as to how we can effectively integrate these diverse topic areas into our educational programs. It takes a team—a community of scholars, researchers, teachers and clinicians—to do this well.
Academic Psychiatry intends to support the creation of such a community of scholars and its leadership. This community should foster active collaboration among colleagues and between centers of excellence. To this end, we hope to publish manuscripts that encourage our readership as they create new experiments in education and in professional development for academic psychiatrists and as they lead the field of academic medicine. We hope to foster dialogue among clinical educators, between educators and students, and across the field of psychiatry.
Our mission not only includes catalyzing a discussion and providing a forum for related research but the development of a faculty that has within its grasp both the knowledge base and empirically validated methods for successful teaching. Traditionally, the enterprise of medical education has largely derived from models based upon precedent, personal experience and the opinions of its leaders. While the personal and collective experience of seasoned teachers continues to support fertile soil for learning, there is growing attention in undergraduate and graduate teaching toward increased rigor, clearly defined goals, objectives, and methodology, and scrutiny of outcomes (5). The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) have focused on the delineation and assessment of competencies, and our educational methods have required the field to refine and improve our educational systems. Academic Psychiatry, in turn, has kept apace with this movement in the effort to bring our institutions a crisp understanding of what we teach, how we teach, by what means we measure efficacy, and by attention to outcomes.
Moreover, we realize that our academic systems depend on a prosperous faculty. Our work must recognize the pressures and rewards that we and our academic colleagues face in our educational and leadership roles. We should be cognizant not only of the social and political forces that shape the life of faculty and their students but also of the contexts in which teaching, learning, treatment, and research occur. To this extent our attention focuses on the life of faculty and learners alike, including the many social, personal, and institutional factors impinging on our work. In addition, we are embedded in a culture and a wide range of social forces that deeply affect our lives and the lives of our patients, and upon which our focus should be sustained. This entails an appreciation of the context of healthcare delivery and research in neurosciences and psychiatry.
We are committed to Academic Psychiatry as a vehicle for advancing our field and as a venue for professional development in support of the extraordinary talent demonstrated by our colleagues, nationally and internationally. We are pleased to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the principal organizations dedicated to academic psychiatry—AAP, AADPRT, ADMSEP, and now AACDP—in accomplishing these goals. We invite your work to the journal, and we are committed to helping authors develop excellent scholarship (6, 7). We emphasize the importance of collegiality in relationships between all involved in this process. To that end, Academic Psychiatry seeks to fulfill an important aim in mentorship. Manuscripts from those relatively new to writing and research, including residents and early career psychiatrists, are especially welcome. Readers are also encouraged to get started in educational research (8).
During this very remarkable sixteenth season of Academic Psychiatry, our aspiration as editors is to improve all that we do so that we may promote the journal to new levels of achievement. In coming years, we hope to facilitate the creation of more diverse and progressively more rigorous educational research. We will support the generation of innovative, effective professional development and leadership initiatives involving faculty and trainees in departments of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. We will take on new approaches to supporting the academic development of clinician educator faculty in psychiatry as well as related disciplines. We hope to serve increasingly as a vehicle for dialogue on the important issues for our field, bringing more attention to administrative and policy issues affecting academic medicine. As always, we remain committed to helping our early career colleagues find their way on the path of publishing their scholarly work. Finally, we hope to continue to improve the infrastructure of the journal so that we may move timely and valuable work from our authors more quickly into the hands of our readers.
In these efforts, as always, we depend on the wonderful counsel of all readers, authors, reviewers, guest editors, and supporters. Thank you, Dear Reader, for this opportunity for a new start on the occasion of Academic Psychiatry’s coming of age. We truly appreciate your continued support and look forward with great enthusiasm to the exciting future ahead.
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REFERENCES
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- Keith S, Mohl P: Education of psychiatric residents in ethics. Acad Psychiatry 1996; 20:125–126[Free Full Text]
- Taintor Z: Beginning and continuing. Acad Psychiatry 1989; 13: 1–2
- Borus JF, Sledge WH: Looking back, moving ahead. Acad Psychiatry 1989; 13:59–60
- Roberts LW: Your journal, our journal. Acad Psychiatry 2002; 26: 1–3
- Roberts LW, Coverdale J, Louie A: Evidence, methods and psychiatry education. Acad Psychiatry 2003; 27:227–228[Free Full Text]
- Roberts LW: On the centrality of peer review. Acad Psychiatry 2002; 26:221–222[Free Full Text]
- Roberts LW, Coverdale J, Edenharder K, et al: How to review a manuscript: a "down to earth" approach. Acad Psychiatry 2004; 28: 81–87
- Coverdale J, Louie A, Roberts LW: Getting started in educational research. Acad Psychiatry 2005; 29:14–18[Free Full Text]
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