Editor’s Note

Our growth

At our re-launch of the journal a year ago, we celebrated CJP’s history, its partnership with UWI Press which began in 2017, and CJP’s reenergized efforts through new leadership. At that event, I mentioned that I would like to work on three key issues as we move forward: increase the quality and diversity of submissions, obtain an impact factor, and extend the reach of the journal. I am pleased to say that over the last three years, both the diversity and quality of submissions have improved. Along with manuscripts from the English-speaking Caribbean (e.g., Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago), we have received others from Suriname, Haiti, and Curacao. Likewise, submissions from within the Caribbean diaspora (Netherlands, Canada, England, and the United States) have increased as well. A newly assembled and installed Editorial Board with notable scholars from across the globe supports the robust double-blind review process. Under the auspices of the UWI Press, the journal has more extensive online exposure through EBSCO Publishing, JSTOR and ProQuest, thereby improving its reach. Abstracts of past issues are now listed on the journal’s website and subscriptions are available through BookFusion. The CJP Facebook page boasts a wide community of over 4,700 followers.

Our direction

Our growth and visibility are very encouraging. Shortly readers will have access to video clips/podcasts on different issues related to psychology and Caribbean peoples. CJP is also currently making progress towards obtaining an impact factor for the journal. Your support in submitting manuscripts to and citing work published in the CJP is critical in meeting our stated goals.

We further seek to tap into a wider range of scholarship within the social sciences, the education field, and the health sciences in other regions of the Caribbean (e.g., Guyana, Cuba, Guadeloupe and Martinique) and the growing Caribbean diaspora in North America and Europe. To further build on these aspirations, we will be broadening our focus to include the impact of disasters, clinical practices, inter-country regional migration and re-migration from the rich democratic countries, health behaviours, neuroscience, crime and violence, technology use and intellectual and social functioning, food security, and social justice. At the same time, the development of relationships with regional psychological associations would enhance the mission and increase the readership and utility of the journal beyond what it is currently able to achieve. We rely on the support of researchers from every area of the psychological sciences to realize the vision of the Caribbean Journal of Psychology as a flagship journal for psychological research in the diverse Caribbean region and the Diaspora.

We encourage proposals for special issues on any topic and would like to see more involvement from doctoral students – both in terms of submissions and the review process. Because research funding is thin in the Caribbean region, early career researchers may want to tap into large public datasets (e.g., UNICEF-MICS, World Population Datasets, within country Statistical Bureaus, among others) that routinely conduct surveys on individuals in low- and middle-income countries. These datasets permit cross-comparative analysis essential to determining intra- and inter-cultural variations in human functioning.

About the journal

CJP is jointly owned and supported by the School for Graduate Studies and Research, The University of the West Indies (UWI), and the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, UWI Mona Campus, and partners with Syracuse University. The Editorial Board supports the Editor in Chief, and consists of a distinguished group of scholars from within the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora. Marina Ramkissoon remains the Managing Editor of CJP who liaises with Nadine Buckland, the Rights & Permissions | Finance Manager at the UWI Press. Elif Dede Yildirim of Auburn University in the United States is our incoming statistical consultant.
CJP publishes both online and in print, and produces two issues a year that feature reviews of the literature, research-based articles, and papers that focus on psychology in the public interest. Its focus remains on diverse issues germane to the psychological sciences as they pertain to individuals in the Caribbean region and the Caribbean diaspora, but also publishes cross-comparative work that has relevance to Caribbean ethnic/cultural groups.

If you have any questions about Caribbean Journal of Psychology, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Jaipaul L. Roopnarine Ph.D
Editor in Chief
Pearl S. Falk Professor of Human Development
174 White Hall
Department of Human Development and Family Science
Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York
Email: [email protected]

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