Studies in Outdoor Recreation: Search and Research for Satisfaction

Appendix B: Notes on Sources: A Guide to the Social Science Literature in Outdoor Recreation

382 Appendix B Notes on Sources: A Guide to the Social Science Literature in Outdoor Recreation As noted at the beginning of this book, the field of outdoor recreation is inherently diverse and multidisciplinary. The scientific literature on outdoor recreation reflects this diversity. Within the social sciences, outdoor recreation may be studied from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, psychology, geography, political science, anthropology, and economics. Moreover, outdoor recreation has evolved into an applied field of study supporting specialized journals, conferences, government documents, books, and other publications. The resulting scientific literature is spread widely across the academic and scholarly landscape. As research has matured, a relatively large scientific and professional literature has emerged. This literature is found primarily in scholarly and professional journals, conference and symposium proceedings, government documents, books, and on the World Wide Web. A brief description of this literature may be useful to readers who wish to follow up on issues described in this book. In keeping with the emphasis of the book, this description focuses primarily on published, peer-reviewed literature thatisgenerallyavailablethroughacademiclibraries,andwhichhasbeentheprimary source material for this book. Journals The most important source of scientific information on outdoor recreation is scholarly and academic journals. Most such journals use a double-blind peer-review process designed to ensure the quality and validity of published papers. Very early papers on outdoor recreation were published primarily in disciplinary journals. Examples include American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Rural Sociology, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Land Economics, and Professional Geographer. These and other discipline-based journals still publish periodic papers on outdoor recreation. Several new journals devoted specifically to outdoor recreation, leisure, tourism, and related issues have appeared over the past thirty years, and these journals now NOTES ON SOURCES: A GUIDE TO THE SOCIAL SCIENCE LITERATURE 383 constitute the most important source of scholarly work on outdoor recreation. The Journal of Leisure Research was founded in 1969. The purposes of the journal were “to define in multidisciplinary terms the challenges of leisure facing us today and in the future, to stimulate appropriate solutions for these challenges through serious scientific investigation, to disseminate these research findings, and to describe the practical application and testing of research results.” A second journal, Leisure Sciences, was created in 1977 to stimulate and accommodate a growing number of “scholarlyandsubstantivearticlesinthefieldsofleisure,recreation,naturalresources, and related environments.” The Journal of Park and Recreation Administration began publication in 1983 as “a practitioner-oriented, research journal for the park and recreation field.” All three of these journals are published quarterly, and constitute the major scholarly journals in the field of outdoor recreation. Papers published in these journals are the most frequently cited materials in this book. A variety of other outdoor recreation-related academic and professional journals are also important sources of information on parks, outdoor recreation, and related matters. These include Leisure Studies, World Leisure Journal, Loisir/Leisure, Managing Leisure, Schole, Loisir & Socaeto/Society and Leisure, Annals of Leisure Research, LARNET: The Cyberjournal of Applied Leisure & Recreation Research, Parks & Recreation, Australasia Leisure Management, Park Science, PARKS: The International Journal for Protected Areas, The George Wright Forum, Journal of Interpretation Research and Parks and Leisure. A related group of journals focus on travel, tourism, hospitality, and related matters. Unfortunately, there is often a dichotomy between scientists/professionals interested in outdoor recreation, who tend to focus on recreation and leisure in the context of public parks and related management agencies, and scientists/ professionals in tourism, who tend to address business, economics, and the private sector. Nevertheless, tourists to parks and related areas are also recreation visitors. Tourism-related journals include Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Management, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, e-Review of Tourism Research, Journal of Tourism Studies, and Tourism Recreation Research. Papers on outdoor recreation are occasionally published in a variety of other journals, most of which address traditional environmental and natural resourcesrelated fields of study and interdisciplinary issues. These include Environmental Management, Society and Natural Resources, Environment and Behavior, Journal of Environmental Management, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, International Journal of Wilderness, Journal of Environmental Education, Natural Resources Journal, Journal of Forestry, Forest Science, Human Ecology Review, Journal of Environmental Systems, Environmental Ethics, Human Dimensions of Wildlife, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Western Journal of Applied Forestry, Northern Journal of Applied Forestry, 384 STUDIES IN OUTDOOR RECREATION Wildlife Society Bulletin, Journal of Wildlife Management, North American Journal of Fisheries Management...