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Personal Relationships Journals

Journals are the primary means of publicizing research in science and serve three broad purposes: to communicate the findings of a particular study to other researchers, teachers, and students; to archive research findings for future scholars; and, by virtue of a journal's reputation, to certify the importance and validity of a particular study. Most scholars would agree that journals are the lifeblood of a discipline. This entry provides an overview of the journals that publish research about personal relationships.

What Do Journals Publish?

Most journals in relationship science emphasize empirical articles; that is, papers that report the results of research studies. A large majority of these papers describe quantitative research, although some also include qualitative studies. Some, but not all, journals also publish theoretical reviews, commentaries on studies published in the present or past issues, and book reviews. Manuscripts are selected for publication through a process known as peer review. When a paper is submitted, the editor chooses reviewers to recommend whether the paper is suitable for publication in that journal, and, more important, to raise questions and offer suggestions for improvement. These reviewers are scholars in the field who often have published in that journal and who have expertise about some aspect of the research under consideration. Some journals use “blind review,” in which the authors' identities are masked. The reviewers are almost always anonymous to facilitate open and honest comments. Typically, anywhere between two and four outside reviewers are chosen. Virtually all papers that are published go through one or more rounds of revision, some of which can be extensive, in which the authors respond to questions raised during the review process.

Journals vary greatly in the percentage of papers that are accepted or declined; the latter is referred to as the rejection rate. A high rejection rate is considered a sign of journal quality. The best journals typically have rejection rates of around 80 to 90 percent. Rejection rates in lesser quality journals tend to be lower.

Interdisciplinary Journals in Relationship Science

Relationships are investigated in nearly all social science and many natural science disciplines, including Psychology, Sociology, Family Studies, Communication, Anthropology, Demography, Economics, Gerontology, Political Science, Biology, Zoology, and Medicine. This means that relationship research is often published in the various journals of each of these disciplines. The advantage of publishing in these journals is that other scholars in one's discipline who do not necessarily study relationships will be apprised of whatever new advances in knowledge a given study has generated. However, because there are so many outlets that publish research relevant to relationships—certainly hundreds and perhaps more—no individual scholar can hope to keep up with new findings being reported in such a vast array of journals. Indeed, because relationship science is an intrinsically multidisciplinary field, new journals have been established to represent this particular niche. Publishing in these journals has the advantage of exposing one's work to scholars from diverse home disciplines who nevertheless identify as relationship researchers. The disadvantage, of course, is that nonrelationship scholars from one's home discipline are less likely to notice this work. Thus, relationship researchers, like all interdisciplinary scientists, must decide which audience is of higher priority.

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