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Free AccessEditorial

Trends and Challenges for Methodology … and Changes in the Editorial Team in 2018!

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-2241/a000144

In September 2017 Peter Lugtig and Charlotte Rietbergen (Utrecht University) stepped down from the editorial team. Andreas Pöge and Jost Reinecke took up their editorial responsibilities as Managing Editor and Co-Editor, respectively, trying to maintain the high standards. We as current editors wanted to thank Charlotte Rietbergen and Peter Lugtig for their work in advancing Methodology as a journal for discussing and solving methodological problems in empirical social science.

According to journal citation reports, the 2016 impact factor of 1.143 places Methodology in the top quartile for the “social sciences, mathematical methods” category. We intend to use this Editorial to lay out future plans for both the content of the journal and how we want to streamline the editorial process for authors.

As a result of our successful collaboration with Hogrefe Publishing, the online editorial system Editorial Manager® was established for Methodology in October 2017. Authors, reviewers, managing editors, and editors, as well as the production staff at Hogrefe Publishing, are now using the platform to further improve the high-quality standards of the journal. The Editorial Manager system allows the editorial process to be accelerated and submissions to Methodology to easily be tracked. We are convinced that this online editorial system is a key element for a quicker and more transparent editorial process.

As a professor of quantitative methods of empirical social research at the Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University (Germany), Jost Reinecke works mainly in multivariate techniques of longitudinal data analysis. He teaches courses in structural equation modeling, multiple imputation, and mixture models applied to criminological panel data. His current methodological research focuses on growth curve and growth mixture models and the development of techniques related to multiple imputations of missing data in complex survey designs. His current substantive research focuses on the longitudinal development of adolescents’ delinquent behavior and on the application of the situational action theory in panel designs.

As was discussed in earlier editorials (Lugtig & Balluerka, 2015; Padilla & Lugtig, 2016), there are more similarities than differences in methods and practices across the social and behavioral sciences. It will be an identity sign of the journal to publish manuscripts by researchers and professionals from different academic and professional fields who want to disseminate their methodological contributions through Methodology. We intend to continue the journal’s editorial policy outlined in the formal editorial by Padilla and Lugtig (2016). Methodology will keep welcoming articles addressing current methodological challenges from new “ecological contexts” and “new behaviors”: advances in social computing, social networks, new data collection technologies, and new methods of data analysis. The journal will publish articles that bring forward qualitative and quantitative methods for applied and basic research in social sciences. The methodological core and the quality of the articles are the only criteria we use in the editorial process. Methodology aims to advance substantive knowledge in the social sciences improving methods and practice.

We also rely on the past and future support of the European Association of Methodology (EAM) board and its members to improve access and dissemination of the published papers. Together with the EAM board, we are working on future developments for Methodology, all of them aimed at increasing the impact of the journal in social science fields. Finally, there cannot be a high-quality journal without authors, readers, and reviewers. We will do our best to improve communication with them to maintain the standards of quality reached by Methodology since its inception 14 years ago.

References

José-Luis Padilla, CIMCYC. Mind, Brain & Behavior Research Center, Department of Methodology of Behavioral Sciences, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain,
Jost Reinecke, Faculty of Sociology, University of Bielefeld, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany,