About the Publications Committee: Oversight for the Health of SRCD’s Journals and their Processes
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This article concludes a series highlighting the initiatives of SRCD’s 14 active standing and operational committees, their dedicated members, and how each contributes to a more vibrant Society and to advancing child development research. Each committee has its own charge from SRCD’s Governing Council and generates its own activities. Spotlights on the Ethnic and Racial Issues Committee, the Interdisciplinary Committee, the Teaching Committee, the Science and Social Policy Committee, 2019 Biennial Meeting Program Committee, the Student and Early Career Council (SECC), the Equity and Justice Committee, and the International Affairs Committee have been published. We conclude the series with a closer look at the activities conducted by the Publications Committee. Marc H. Bornstein, Past President and Laura L. Namy, Executive Director |
About the Committee
The Publications Committee takes its charge from the following mission statement:
The Publications Committee is tasked to review existing publications, to evaluate proposals for major modifications in publications and for establishing new publications, and make appropriate recommendations to Governing Council including recommendations concerning new editors as terms of editors expire.
Key Accomplishments
Staying true to its mission, the committee’s recent key accomplishments have included overseeing SRCD’s publications, holding in-person discussions, and coordinating leadership transitions.
Specific activities include:
- Tracking and operational functions of SRCD’s publications: Child Development, Child Development Perspectives, Monographs, and the Social Policy Report.
- Organizing SRCD’s Task Force on Scientific Integrity and Openness:
The Task Force was charged with exploring the range of issues related to integrity policies and practices with a focus on the unique needs and characteristics of the child development research community. The Task Force was initially chaired by Lisa Gennetian, subsequently by Rick Gilmore, and included Pamela Cole, Catherine Tamis-LeMonda, Carol Worthman, Judith Smetana, Suman Verma, and Marcel van Aken.- In March 2019, SRCD released its Policy on Scientific Integrity, Transparency and Openness.
- Also in March 2019 at the Society’s Biennial Meeting in Baltimore, MD, USA, SRCD’s Director for Science, Dr. Chuck Kalish led a conversation hour on “What SRCD is Doing to Address Open Science” in which task force members discussed SRCD’s new policies for research and for publication in SRCD journals.
- Finally, the Publications Committee welcomes Dr. Glenn I. Roisman as the incoming editor of Child Development, SRCD’s premier scholarly publication.
- Dr. Roisman began handling review of new manuscripts as Incoming Editor on July 1, 2019. His term as Editor-in-Chief will commence on January 1, 2021. He will be supported by an illustrious team of Associate Editors.
Current Members
Note: Committee members and terms changed following SRCD’s Biennial Meeting in March 2019.
| Deborah Rivas-Drake, University of Michigan (Chair) | 2017-2021 |
| Christine Ohannessian, University of Connecticut School of Medicine | 2017-2021 |
| Nora Newcombe, Temple University | 2019-2023 |
| John Colombo, The University of Kansas | 2019-2023 |
| Tina Malti, University of Toronto, Mississauga | 2019-2023 |
| Martin Ruck, The City University of New York-The Graduate Center | 2019-2023 |
| Dawn Witherspoon, The Pennsylvania State University | 2019-2023 |
| Tiffany Yip, Fordham University | 2019-2023 |
| Lorah Dorn, The Pennsylvania State University (Governing Council Representative) | 2019-2021 |
| Natasha Cabrera, University of Maryland (Governing Council Representative) | 2019-2021 |
| Steven O. Roberts, Stanford University (SECC Representative) | 2019-2021 |
| Lynn S. Liben, The Pennsylvania State University (Ex Officio) | 2017-2023 |
| Judith G. Smetana, University of Rochester (Ex Officio) | 2017-2023 |
| Cynthia García Coll, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine (Ex Officio) | 2013-2020 |
| Ellen Wartella, Northwestern University (Ex Officio) | 2015-2021 |
| Laura Namy, Society for Research in Child Development (Ex Officio) | 2017- |
Looking Ahead
As trends in academic publishing continue to evolve, SRCD’s Publications Committee is at the helm to ensure that SRCD’s peer-reviewed journals are providing the highest-caliber content for its audiences. SRCD regards scientific integrity, transparency, and openness as essential for the conduct and reporting of research. The Publications Committee will continue to focus on ways to incorporate more open science practices into the Society’s journals, while recognizing the unique and complex conditions of interdisciplinary developmental research. Some of the issues the committee is working on include clarifying the distinction between preprints and published versions of work, standards for reporting of conflicts of interest, and continuing to monitor changes in open access publication standards.
“SRCD’s journals highlight some of the most important pieces of child developmental research,” said the new Publications Committee Chair, Dr. Deborah Rivas-Drake. “It’s an honor to work with our highly skilled editors and committee members to continue to move this work forward. In addition, the committee is working to solidify the expansion of the sociocultural policy to help authors report demographic and other important contextual information in works published across the Society’s journals.”