Pursuing the journal mission

The mission of The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, as articulated in its Instructions for Authors, is to be a forum for the exchange of multidisciplinary ideas and thoughtful and respectful scholarly analyses related to the theory and practice of forensic psychiatry. Recent refinements of The Journal's structure and policy can be understood as an effort to articulate a vision for emphasizing vibrant exchange of diverse scholarly activities and ideas expressing the highest levels of professionalism and concern for the ethics of forensic psychiatry and publishing. In this article, we explore the challenges encountered in realizing that vision, including managing the tone and level of discourse, creating structure without inhibiting creativity, demonstrating respect for persons in the use of case report material, expanding and guiding the utilization of peer review, promoting the new voices of authors with less writing experience, defining conflicts of interest for publishing purposes, and maintaining editorial independence in the context of serving organizational needs. We illustrate these challenges with recent experiences, explicating the decisions of the senior editors in an effort to be transparent about The Journal's processes and to encourage feedback from our readers about the adequacy of these practices.