Greetings from the New Executive Editor


Amanda Baskwill, RMT, PhD, Executive Editor/Editor-in-Chief, IJTMB
Loyalist College, Belleville, ON, Canada.

This editorial marks a change in the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork. The new Executive Editor/Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Amanda Baskwill, shares her gratitude for the outgoing journal leadership, announces new Editorial Board staff, and identifies two initiatives for 2023.

Since its inaugural issue in 2008, the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (IJTMB) has been supporting access to high-quality scholarly manuscripts for practitioners, students, educators, advocates, and the public. I consider myself fortunate to have been involved with the IJTMB when it was just an aspiration. Now, all these years later, I have the distinct privilege to assume the role of Executive Editor.

As a brief introduction, I have been a massage therapist since 2003, having graduated from Centennial College in Ontario, Canada. I had many opportunities early in my career, including becoming a clinician, educator, academic, researcher, advocate, and administrator. The three threads that have been woven through all these experiences are research, practice, and education, which are also the three pillars of the IJTMB. I have been the Practice and Education Section Editor for about four years and am excited to contribute to the Journal in a new way.

I am grateful to outgoing Executive Editor and Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Ann Blair Kennedy, for her leadership and dedication over the past seven years. Dr. Kennedy is very generous with her time to share her insight and experience, which has been instrumental in ensuring a smooth transition. As Dr. Kennedy mentioned in her farewell editorial,(1) Dr. Albert Moraska also stepped away from the IJTMB at the end of 2022 to pursue other scholarly and professional endeavours. Dr. Moraska has been a steadfast mentor and advisor on many editorial issues and has supported numerous publications in the Research Section over the years. Both Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Moraska have made extraordinary contributions to the therapeutic massage and bodywork profession. On behalf of the IJTMB and the Massage Therapy Foundation (MTF), we thank them both.

As a result of these departures, new members have joined the editorial staff. We are pleased to welcome Dr. Luann Fortune and Dr. Sarah Fogarty as new Associate Editors. Moving forward, our editorial team will suspend section distinctions and adopt a holistic organization as we collaborate on research, practice, and education content. This change reflects the collaborative nature of integrative health and wellness, and recognizes that these threads of professionalization are intertwined. We will review this decision from time to time, to evaluate the success of this change.

As I contemplate the coming year, there are a few initiatives that the editorial team will undertake in the ongoing development of the IJTMB. First, we plan to continue to enhance the peer-review process. IJTMB is dedicated to enlisting and applying reviewer expertise to specific content in submissions, to make the review process more meaningful for both authors and reviewers. To better support this, we plan to enhance our database to ensure that reviewers are well-matched to articles that are aligned with their expertise and interests.

Our second initiative is to grow the number of submissions to our Practice and Education sections. We will expand upon Dr. Kennedy’s(2) call to action to encourage clinicians and educators to tell their stories. We have so much variation in massage therapy education and practice across the world that we forget that, what seems common for us, may be novel to others. We look forward to expanding these aspects of the Journal.

As the new Editorial Board finds its rhythm, there will be other enhancements or initiatives we undertake. If you aren’t already, I invite you to follow us on social media (Twitter @IJTMB_org) and sign up for alerts from the website (www.ijtmb.org). These will keep you “in the know”.

REFERENCES

1 Kennedy AB. “So long and thanks for the fish”: an editor’s farewell [editorial]. Int J Therapeut Massage Bodywork. 2022;15(4):1–2.
cross-ref  

2 Kennedy AB. Trends of publication in the Education and Practice Sections of the IJTMB: a call to action [editorial]. Int J Therapeut Massage Bodywork. 2021;14(2):1–4. https://doi.org/10.3822/ijtmb.v14i2.657
cross-ref  


Corresponding author: Amanda Baskwill, RMT, PhD, School of Health, Human and Justice Studies, Loyalist College, 376 Hallbridge Loyalist Rd., Belleville, ON, Canada K8N 5B9, E-mail: ExecEditor@IJTMB.org

(Return to Top)


COPYRIGHT

Published under the CreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.


INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE AND BODYWORK, VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1, MARCH 2023