This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement (CJA/RCV). This is a significant achievement, and to celebrate this milestone we have adopted a new cover page. In addition, the journal will be publishing a special issue that pays tribute to past research as represented by another landmark in Canadian gerontological research: the Butterworth series.This will appear in our Fall 2011 issue.
As incoming editor-in-chief, my goal will be to build on the solid foundation established by the previous editor and those who came before him. As social science section editor for the journal over the past four years, I have been impressed by the dedication and the sustained efforts of the previous editor, Mark Rosenberg, as well as those of the associate editor and each of the other section editors, to deliver the best possible product while pursuing the changes considered necessary to enhance the journal’s quality and growth. It is important that the journal continue to build on past and recent successes, to identify and address extant challenges, and to respond to the implications of emergent changes in gerontological research.
In 2009, the CJA/RCV began working with a new publisher, Cambridge University Press. This resulted in a number of improvements to the journal, including the introduction of an online submission process. As of March 1, 2011, all manuscripts must be submitted online. Although not seen as a positive change in everyone’s eyes, this and other changes have the potential to streamline the review process. It should also contribute to internationalizing the journal in three key ways: (a) by increasing exposure to the work of Canadian researchers by the international research community in aging, (b) by encouraging more submissions from researchers located outside Canada, and (c) by involving more international researchers in the journal’s review process.
The CJA/RCV has long served as an important venue for the publication of Canadian research on aging, including work submitted by emerging and newly established scholars seeking a national forum for their work. Yet, Canadian scholars are also expected to establish an international reputation for their research. In my view, it is important that the journal continue to welcome, from emerging as well as established researchers, submissions that reflect the richness and diversity of scholarship in aging (i.e., discipline-based and interdisciplinary; theoretical and applied; quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods) that are evident in the Canadian context. It is also essential, I believe, that the journal do its best to communicate this scholarship, in English and in French, to other Canadian researchers, decision makers, and practitioners. However, it is also important to reach out to and interact with the international research community particularly at a time when cross-national comparisons and collaborations are growing and when globalization and other processes assume an increasingly important role in shaping the aging experience. This interaction can only enhance the quality of the journal and, in conjunction with this, the strength and international reputations of Canadian and other scholars.
Ensuring diversity of scholarship includes the need to publish works on varying topics as well as to present contrasting perspectives and approaches. Research topics will necessarily change in conjunction with ongoing theoretical and empirical advancements. For example, just as increasing interest in in-depth qualitative and mixed-methods studies has been accompanied by considerable attention to the meanings of aging-related experiences, access to longitudinal data (for example, through the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging) can be expected to spawn increasing attention to the many changes that occur over the middle and later stages of the life course, and greater access to data on genetics and biomarkers can be expected to generate efforts to integrate biological with social sciences. Undoubtedly, health and health care issues will continue as major foci of publication within the journal. However, this also leads to questions (e.g., by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and others) as to whether research and publications on aging should be considered synonymous with health research. This is so despite the fact that gerontologists have long been critical of perceived societal tendencies to medicalize and thereby equate aging, and later adulthood in particular, with illness and disease.
In order to meet this and other challenges and to ensure that the journal fully achieves its mandate as a now-mature journal – “promoting excellence in research … to the benefit of Canadian and international scholarly communities as well as older adults in Canada and around the world” – it will require input from all sectors. With this in mind, I invite you to contribute your very best ideas and suggestions as well as your best scholarly work to the CJA/RCV.
