Youth Justice: Looking Back & Forward
| Author | Ursula Kilkelly,Stefaan Pleysier |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14732254231163221 |
| Published date | 01 April 2023 |
| Date | 01 April 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14732254231163221
Youth Justice
2023, Vol. 23(1) 3 –5
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/14732254231163221
journals.sagepub.com/home/yjj
Youth Justice: Looking Back &
Forward
Ursula Kilkelly and Stefaan Pleysier
With this first issue of 2023, we would like to directly address our readers at Youth Justice
in this Editorial, a new feature of the journal. As editors of Youth Justice, we are proud to
be building on the work of the journal’s previous editors – Prof Barry Goldson, Prof John
Muncie and Prof Lesley McAra – and we would like to commend and thank all those who
have published in and contributed to the success of the journal over many years.
The years of the COVID-19 pandemic have been difficult ones for the journal. SAGE’s
general publisher’s report suggests that we have ‘successfully navigated’ these difficult
years, although this has only been possible with the support of the Editorial Board, the
Publishing Editors and Journal Content Manager at SAGE. We want to particularly
acknowledge the resilience and continued support of our reviewers, especially in these
times of declining reviewer availability.
This first Editorial offers us the perfect opportunity to bring our readers up to date
highlighting some of the key features of the recent past while also looking forward with
optimism to the journal’s future.
Where Are We Now. . .
The most recent Publisher’s Report by SAGE, focusing on 2020–2022, reports that not-
withstanding the pandemic, the number of manuscripts submitted to Youth Justice was
high, rising from 34 submissions in 2020, to 62 in 2021 and 44 in 2022. The acceptance
rate, based on final decisions of accept or reject, decreased inversely from 69 per cent in
2020 to 41 per cent in 2021, and in 2022, it stood at 30 per cent. It is perhaps not surprising
given this increase in submissions that authors have experienced a longer turnaround time
for manuscripts. On average, this did increase slightly, moving from an average time
between submission and the first decision of 125 days in 2020, to 135 days in 2021, to
143 days in 2022. Of course, this turnaround time also depends on the availability and will-
ingness of our reviewer community both in- and outside the Editorial Board. Many jour-
nals share the experience that it is more difficult to find willing reviewers and timely
reviews nowadays – at Youth Justice, only 3 out of 10 contacted reviewers responded posi-
tively to our request to review. Our determination to reduce the time between submission
to first decision thus depends on greater reviewer ability and more timely return of reviews.
1163221YJJ0010.1177/14732254231163221Youth JusticeKilkelly and Pleysier
editorial2023
Editorial
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