About the Journal

Aims and Scope

The International Journal of Reminiscence and Life Review (IJRLR) publishes original work exploring the nature, function, and application of remembering the personal past within a wide range of research contexts and practice settings. Examples of fields incorporating memory for personal history as central to their focus include, but are not limited to, autobiographical memory, reminiscence, life review, oral history, and narrative studies.

Type of articles

The journal welcomes submissions in the following categories:
   • Research Articles make an original contribution to the empirical literature on reminiscence and life review. Research articles should (a) provide a compelling justification for important and well-defined research questions, (b) present a clear, comprehensive description of the quantitative and/or qualitative methods used for data collection and analysis, (c) provide a clear, comprehensive description of results addressing the stated research questions, and (d) communicate effectively the implications of these results, situating them within the field as a whole.
   • Practice Articles describe (a) reminiscence-based activities conducted in community settings, and (b) technological or methodological innovations for aiding the work of persons in the field of reminiscence and life review. Examples of activities conducted in community settings include arts- and theater-based programs, where the content of products is based on reminiscences by participants. An example of a technological innovation is a description of a technique for using voice recognition software to produce written transcriptions of spoken reminiscences. Practice articles should be sufficiently detailed to enable readers to adopt these activities or methods for their own use. The Editorial Board feels strongly that practice decisions should be guided by evidence addressing a technique’s effectiveness. Therefore, whenever appropriate, practice articles should provide evaluative information regarding the efficacy of the contribution described.
   • Theoretical and Review Articles advance the field by proposing new explanatory frameworks for advancing the field or by providing comprehensive overviews of the literature in areas of research and/or practice within the field of reminiscence and life review. A theoretical article should demonstrate a solid command of the empirical literature(s) relevant to the area addressed and provide a clear description of, and justification for, points of departure from competing theoretical positions. Review articles not only describe the work conducted in that area to date, but synthesize findings across studies to provide a critical appraisal of the current state of knowledge in the area and promising directions for future research.
   • Book Reviews and Other Materials. Reviews of recently published materials (books, films, etc.) of interest to readers provide detailed descriptions of the contents of these works and detailed critiques of their strengths and weaknesses.
   • Shared Reminiscence. Because recollected episodes of one’s personal history are the fundamental unit linking together researchers and practitioners in the field of reminiscence and life review, each issue will provide an opportunity for individuals to provide, in either written or audio format, a description of an incident, situation, or person of key importance in their life. These submissions may be provided by the narrators themselves or by a person who has worked directly with the story teller (e.g., a Personal Historian). For materials not already in the public domain, written permission must be obtained from both copyright holders and narrators, if they are not the same person, before the work can be considered for publication.

Copyright

Authors retain the copyright for materials published in the IJRLR. First Publication Rights for these materials are granted to the IJRLR by the authors. In any subsequent use of all or part of the work, authors must cite the original publication of the work in the IJRLR.

Review and Selection of Manuscripts

   • All manuscripts making original contributions (Research, Practice and Application, Review and Theoretical articles) will undergo peer review by at least two reviewers selected by the Editor. Reviewers will have expertise sufficient to evaluate critically the value of the submission to the field.
   • The identity of authors will be masked to reviewers. Authors will be asked to remove obvious self-identifying information from the version of the manuscript that will undergo review.
   • The identity of reviewers will not be provided to authors, unless at the specific request of a reviewer.
   • Reviewers will be asked to provide a set of written comments that outline the strengths and weaknesses of the paper. Reviewers are encouraged to comment on any additional aspects of the manuscript they would like.
   • Reviewers will be asked to make one of four recommendations:
      o Reject with no invitation to re-submit the manuscript
      o Major revision. Do not accept, but invite the author to re-submit after revising the manuscript according to recommendations made by reviewers and the Editor. Manuscript will be sent out for re-review.
      o Minor revision. Do not accept the article, but invite the author to resubmit after specified revisions have been successfully completed. Editor will make a decision without sending the manuscript out for re-review.
      o Accept the manuscript as submitted.
   • Whenever possible, as part of their written comments, reviewers are asked to make suggestions for improving the manuscript.
   • The final decision regarding the acceptance of manuscripts will be made by the Editor, based on the written reviews and, as necessary, in consultation with the reviewers. In cases where there is no clear consensus among the initial set of reviewers, the Editor will have the option of soliciting the opinion of one or more additional reviewers.

Privacy Statement

Names and contact information of persons using the website for the journal will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the IJRLR and will not be made available to any third party.

Distribution

Readers may download materials published in the International Journal of Reminiscence and Life Review free of charge. Donations in support of the journal can be made by selecting the “Donate” link on the home page of the journal.