For the last few years I have been an associate editor of the Action Research Journal. With the commissioning editor and other associate editor colleagues, we shape the direction of action research through the Journal. This includes agreeing on special issues of the Journal on important subjects, such as artfulness in organizational practice that I worked on (Warwick et al., 2022), or deciding the criteria for good quality transformative research that we will include in the Journal (Bradbury et al., 2019). This stuff that gets headlines and profile, but it is not what I enjoy most about being an associate editor.
What I enjoy is working with authors to make their research the best it can be. Being an academic journal, each paper is sent to anonymous reviewers who make comments on its quality, suitability for the Journal and how it can be improved. When the comments come back it is my job to see if we can carry on working with the authors or to say that it would be better elsewhere. If the paper goes ahead I work with authors to interpret what the reviewers are getting at in the context of what the Journal sees as being important. This can take months or years, but it needs to be good.
In focusing on methodology aimed at making transformative improvements to the world (AR+, 2022) our topics are broad, not just related to organization development which is my main interest. The most recent paper I supported (Ghetti et al., 2023) was an incredibly moving account of helping a person through bereavement when his son took his own life. This person was Jeremy, who through the process of working with the authors over several years wanted to become a recognized co-author of the paper by waiving his anonymity. For Jeremy, this was important for him and his son. It was a process of ethical thought and negotiation in recognizing the voice of those being researched, something that we do not pay enough attention to. For me, it was a privilege to be part of Jeremy’s story. It also says something else that I think is important, that of ethically pushing the norms and practice of research methodology and organizational life more generally.
You can view a conversation with the authors here.
You can get more details of the Journal article and AR+ here.
References
AR+. (2022). Action Research +. https://actionresearchplus.com/
Bradbury, H., Glenzer, K., Ku, B., Columbia, D., Kjellstr€, S., Arag, A. O., Warwick, R., Traeger, J., Apgar, M., Friedman, V., Chuan Hsia, H., Lifvergren, S., & Gray, P. (2019). What is good action research: Quality choice points with a refreshed urgency. Action Research, 17(1), 14–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750319835607
Ghetti, C. M., Schreck, B., & Bennett, J. (2023). Heartbeat recordings in music therapy bereavement care following suicide: Action research single case study of amplified cardiopulmonary recordings for continuity of care. Action Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/14767503231207993
Warwick, R., Khandekar, S., Traeger, J., & Riestra, M. S. (2022). Artfulness in the organisational playground: Actions and choices. Action Research, 20(1), 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/14767503221080238
Metis 