Plus Ça change

‘I give it two issues!’ said one reviewer dismissing our original proposal for PPP. Now, 20 years and some 80 issues on, we have much to celebrate: a wide variety of articles by both established and up-and-coming authors, a much valued article/commentary/response format, and a growing revenue especially since the introduction of JHUP’s Project Muse for on-line sales.

PPP has also contributed to philosophy and psychiatry more widely: it has inspired many new journals, some in English but also in a range of other languages; also many books and book series, including Oxford University Press’s highly successful IPPP (International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry) and its recent off-shoot, the Oxford Handbooks; and it has provided a key resource for the many teaching and research programs that have sprung up around the world over the last two decades. Two issues? Some two issues!

There are, however, four continuing challenges that together demand change: 1) regularity of our production schedule, 2) achieving a wider range of citation listings, 3) extending the diversity of our offering (both editorially and in submissions), and 4) infrastructure and resources.

Clearly these are linked. From the earliest days we have been resource poor. Our huge thanks go to Linda Muncy in John’s office and Jan Trott in Bill’s for taking on roles way beyond the call of duty to keep the presses rolling. But it has not been enough to maintain regular production of issues; this in turn has been a barrier to gaining those all-important citation listings; and the pressure of just keeping up has left little time to grow and extend the diversity of the PPP’s offering. Nor do we have the option of continuing as we are. Jan sadly died a relatively young woman just 3 years ago. Linda has put down a marker that she will be retiring in summer 2016. The current editors are 20 years older and counting.

The final trigger for change came when Baroness Warnock wrote to Bill earlier this year saying that, now in her 90s, she would regretfully have to stand down as Chair of our Advisory Board. We would like to take this opportunity on behalf of everyone involved with PPP—readers, contributors, editors, and publishers alike—to thank her for her wonderful support and encouragement over the last 20 years. Baroness Warnock has been an inspiration at so many levels, from quiet but always wise guidance on academic issues, through seminal contributions (e.g., to our Special Issue on Psychiatric Euthanasia), to that key Editorial Board meeting she so generously convened in the House of Lords in the early days of PPP. We thank her for all she has done and wish her well in her retirement.

So, where do we go from here? There is still much to be done but we have made a start with a number of key structural changes: 1) John is taking on the role of Editor-in-Chief in a new ScholarOne online environment, 2) Bill remains Founding Editor, but has taken over as Chair of the Advisory Board, and, crucially, 3) we are building a team of Senior Editors from among our younger colleagues active in philosophy and psychiatry and with a proven track record as robust editors.

We are delighted to have recruited thus far Mona Gupta (Canada), Gerrit Glas (The Netherlands), Tim Thornton (UK), and Werdie van Staden (South Africa). Between them they represent already a resource for growing the journal in new areas and we hope to extend the diversity of the team further in coming months. As to infrastructure, JHUP have kindly offered to review our financial arrangements; and Mona has had wonderful success in persuading her department to offer financial support at least for an initial period in transferring our managing editorial base to the University of Montreal.

We are exploring together options for building a more resilient PPP for the future. One idea is to make our appointments time limited. Thus after say 5 years, John could take over as Chair of the Advisory Board with one...