Abstracts and IndexThe Journal may be found in these libraries
Web Editor's Note: The Life of a Lucky Abstract
An Abstract, usually born in the mind of an author, sometimes with a little help from an editor, is designed to accurately describe the contents of an article. Hopefully, this can be done in about 100 words, a standard requirement in psychological literature. Ironically, if an Abstract is well done, it may quickly signal some readers that the article need not be read at all--a real time saver--but to others it is a "must read" and might possibly become a life-changing experience.
The public life of an Abstract begins with first publication. For many, it can mean the beginning and the end, if they fail to excite, alarm, revolt, or inspire. For others life goes on, and on. This is the fate of the Abstracts shared here. But it was not by accident. The Abstracts which began life in a single issue of our Journal have lived to serve another day because of two editors, Jenny Wade and Bobbi Jo Lyman. In her own words, Dr. Wade, wrote in volume 16 (1) in the Fall of 2001, about the importance of these Abstracts.
"The amount and scope of material published since the Journal's inception in 1986 has been impressive and varied. As we enter the new millennium and are still struggling for greater recognition and acceptance in an increasingly beleaguered mainstream healthcare and social policy environment, we want to make every effort to increase access to the wealth of information and theory the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health has at its disposal. With that goal in mind, we have created this double issue as a comprehensive reference manual for the scientific material published in the Journal to date (1986-2001)."This reference guide is in two sections comprising all of the material of substantive scientific content in the Journal to date: empirical and qualitative research, case studies, anthropological and cross-cultural investigations, theoretical frameworks and opinion pieces by seminal thinkers, and key-note addresses given at major conferences on the state of the field. The first section, given in chronological order starting with the first issue, contains full abstracts of each article in the order they appeared in that issue. The second section is an alphabetical index to all the articles with listings by subject (most articles have multiple subject listings) and the first author's last name, making it easy to locate desired abstracts in the first section."
Thus came the resurrection of 15 years of Journal Abstracts through the labor of Associate Editor Jenny Wade and support to APPPAH from the Van Strum Foundation. Subsequently, these lucky Abstracts took a quantum leap from print to electronic form, instantly available to thousands of eyes combing the website of birthpsychology.com for known and unknown gems from our publication. A further quantum leap soon followed from the APPPAH archives to the PsycINFO archives--the largest archives of psychological literature--available in libraries across the world.
Fortunately for everyone interested in birth psychology, the Abstracts of our Journal from 2001 to date have fallen into great hands, the hands of Editor-in-Chief Bobbi Jo Lyman. Dr. Lyman has continued to keep the whole body of Abstracts alive and up-to-date with each new issue, along with updating other Journal features found in this section of the website. B.J. is a full-time professor at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute and Chair of Prenatal Psychology. Because of her leadership and the generous stewardship of the entire Journal Team, consisting of Associate Editor Jeanne Rhodes, Managing Editor Maureen Wolfe, and Review Editor Donna Worden, the Journal continues to appear each quarter with new and inspiring articles.
The Abstracts, of course, have a life of their own, flying continually to the far corners of the world from the archives of birthpsychology.com and the archives of PsycINFO. What the Abstracts do not yet know is that they have carved out a path to be followed soon by full articles from the Journal, in electronic form, from this website. Stay tuned!
David Chamberlain, Ph.D
To obtain back issues of the Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health please write to the Association at P.O. Box 1398, Forestville, California 95436, or email APPPAH.