School psychology journals: Relationships with related journals and external and internal quality indices

Abstract

The study investigated publications in the Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, and School Psychology Review to determine the characteristics of the journals and editorial board influence on publications. With regard to these journals, the following conclusions appear justified: (1) The traditional psychometric role of school psychologists is still the primary area of publication in school psychology journals; (2)editorial board members, though few compared with the total number of contributors, are likely to have a greater influence on the publication of articles that they authored or coauthored than other authors have; (3) being an editorial board member of a given school psychology journal may have an effect on the later publication of one's articles in the journal, and publishing articles in a given school psychology journal may affect the matter of one's later editorial board appointment to the journal; (4) the dimensions that underlie citation frequencies in the school psychology journal network are “educational versus noneducational services” and “direct versus indirect impacts to the client”; and (5) the average statistical power of analyses used in the school psychology journals sampled (for the year 1985) is unacceptably low.