The forerunners and foundation of the australian journal of psychology

Abstract

When the Australian Journal of Psychology (AJP) first appeared, what constituted a “national psychology journal” was not well defined either historically or conceptually. The patterns of foundation of the earliest such overseas journals bear little resemblance to those of the much later established AJP. Although initiated with great enthusiasm in 1945 by the newly formed Australian Oversea Branch of the British Psychological Society, the first issue of die AJP materialised only in 1949 after laborious efforts to assemble papers and arrange finance. In the process, virtually no attention was given to broader matters of policy for the new publication, for example, me implications of being a national journal for the standard and content of such a journal.