I was unsure how to write this page. I asked myself how I could give a vivid portrait of the innovative Psychologia project. Upon reflection, I came to realise that the editorial that we (the 2001 Unisa Psychologia editorial team) have compiled, is sufficient! The team included first year Research - and and second year Clinical - Psychology MA students. Please note that as presented below, the editorial is still provisional. Just before you go through the editorial, again note that the running of the project could have been difficult, if not impossible, without Prof Vasi van Deventer. He is a Psychology staff member at Unisa and the executive editor of the Unisa Psychologia - the in-house publication of the Department of Psychology. The Editorial
In the past Unisa Psychologia functioned mainly as a means of publishing the activities of the Unisa psychology department. Last year it provided a platform for entry level publications for Unisa students and this year we have also included an article from international students and a published author. In the future it is planned to include students' articles from other South African universities.
The aims of the Psychologia continue to encourage an interest in ongoing scientific research at honours student level. This process also provides an opportunity for students to critically evaluate the work of their peers and strive for a higher level of excellence in their own academic writing. Psychologia continues to provide professional training for Unisa psychology students at masters level, as they are responsible for all aspects of this evaluation process. Initially a large number of articles are reviewed and selected, until fifteen high calibre articles remain for eventual publication.
With the exception of two (one from a published author and the other from American authors) all articles were written by Unisa honours students in the research and social psychology courses. Most probably as a result of the high level of academic standard of the authors, the articles reflected valuable insight into the processes of executing and writing up of research.
The articles that are published in this year's Psychologia include examples of qualitative and quantitative approaches. There is a variety of methods used in that some articles utilized only one approach whereas other combined both approaches. Often a combination of these two approaches resulted in interesting and insightful information.
The selection procedure included screening articles for publication, evaluating them based on a previously established rating scale, liaising with authors and then editing the final product. Difficulties emerged in the use of the rating scale and the need to create a new evaluation schedule became apparent.
Some of the difficulties included shortcomings in terms of ethics, reliability, validity, the appropriateness of measuring instruments, critical thinking and researcher bias. The aim of the new schedule was to address these shortcomings; improve it and add clear guidelines for future editors and evaluators.
The criteria for the final publication of articles included the rating of (1) the overall structure of the article, (2) the description, contextualization and approach to the research problem (3) data analysis (4) the discussion and description of results (5) quality of the title and abstract and (6) the overall impressions such as writing style, tone and technical management.
This year, for the first time, in line with a more multi cultural approach, more than one language medium has been accommodated. Future recommendations include making allowance for language diversity and opening the possibility of publication to a broader range of authors. In the past, the sourcing of articles was limited to mainly Honours students at Unisa.
As the editorial committee, we would like to commend all the authors on the interesting range of topics presented and acknowledge their skill, hard work and enthusiasm in this endeavor. We would also like to acknowledge their openness to feedback and their willingness to be part of this process leading to publication.
To the reader, we trust that you will find this edition of Psychologia ( still being processed) interesting, stimulating, and a source of great inspiration. As in the previous edition, we invite all potential authors to start submitting their work for possible inclusion in the next edition!
The editorial committee
Please note that the edition of this project (Psychologia 2001) is currently being processed for publication. The journal can be ordered at R4,00 per copy or R8,00 per year (VAT included) from: The Business Section: Unisa Press, PO Box 392, Pretoria 0003 - once it is in stock for ordering. The publication is however, sent free of charge to all Unisa Psychology students
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