About This Journal
A Historical Narrative of The Journal of Faith Integration in Counseling
In 2019, a small faculty committee at a CACREP accredited counseling program in a faith based institution of higher education realized that there were limited avenues for publishing manuscripts that mentioned religion and faith in the counseling profession. Our committee was focused on providing manuscript review assistance to other faculty and we envisioned a journal that focused on the integration of religion and faith in counseling and related fields. This idea stemmed from the difficulty we individually experienced finding journals dedicated to research and discussions of religion and faith in mental health approaches or journals open to publishing research addressing these topics. We developed this journal as one option for authors and readers to research and explore the integration of a faith based value system when working with clients who want to integrate their faith beliefs in counseling.
As educators, we developed our editorial process from a teaching perspective, focusing on creating a learning environment. Our intention is to approach authors and their papers using Standford's (1962) Challenge and Support Theory. In order for professional growth to occur, the authors need to experience a balance of support and challenge. We aim to provide feedback to papers in a way that provides encouragement for authors to keep trying and respectful recommendations for improvement. The editorial team is dedicated to mentoring and working collaboratively with authors to grow their ideas and bring out the best in their work. Our goal for this process is to help authors produce papers of scholarly excellence and to prepare their papers for eventual publication.
To do this we have developed guidelines specific to each type of manuscript submitted. We discovered that a one size fits all to the review process does not do justice to the unique characteristics of each type. For example, the outline and page limits of a manuscript reporting quantitative study results does not allow for the rich and thick descriptions required of some qualitative methodologies.
To facilitate this process, each author will be assigned to a manuscript development team headed by one of the journal's Associate Editors, who along with the Reviewers, will work closely with the author as manuscript consultants in pursuit of developing the manuscript for publication. The manuscript development group will also focus on helping the author develop as a writer and researcher. We are dedicated to creating a context in which all participants in the editorial development process can grow as authors and mentors. As a team, they can successfully work together to improve the manuscript for potential publication in the Journal of Faith Integration in Counseling.
Organizing the editorial review as a learning community will also benefit the Editors and Reviewers. Each encounter with the authors will be an opportunity for the members of the team to reflect on the reviewing process and to gain great insight into the ways papers can be improved and authors can grow. Reviewers as manuscript consultants will receive feedback on their reviews and commentary from the authors and Editors. The goal is for all members of the manuscript development team to learn from the experience of working together.