The launch of Health Psychology Open

Health Psychology Open (HPO) is a peer-review, openaccess, online-only journal in which authors/funders pay to publish, meaning that readers everywhere will read the articles for free. It is a companion journal to the wellestablished Journal of Health Psychology (JHP). The aim of HPO is to support and help shape research in health psychology from around the world using the speed and universal coverage of the Internet. In synergy with JHP, HPO provides a new platform for traditional empirical analyses as well as more qualitative and/or critically oriented approaches. It also addresses the social contexts in which psychological and health processes are embedded. HPO is an online-only journal aimed at an international and multi-specialty readership that includes researchers and professionals involved in the application of Psychology to all aspects of health, illness and health care. HPO will publish articles of interest to any reader wishing to improve knowledge about the psychological aspects of health, illness and health care. Research papers in the following categories will be included: Report, Review, Systematic Review, Intervention Study, Clinical Trial, Case Study and Commentary. HPO builds on the performance of JHP, launched in 1996, and SAGE Open, launched in 2011. The launch of HPO is an exciting opportunity to serve all those researchers seeking an open-access outlet by disseminating vital research to the broadest, international community free at the point of delivery. With no restriction on page extent for individual articles, but with no compromise in quality, HPO will provide a high-quality online-only outlet for the very best, cutting-edge health psychology publications, particularly for those authors with specific funder mandates or those who need to publish a longer, more detailed paper than the print journal will allow. The publisher SAGE has commissioned me to establish HPO as an online-only, open-access, peer-review journal for health psychology. The SAGE London office and the SAGE New Delhi production team provide a solid infrastructure for this new enterprise. I particularly thank Kerry Barner, Commissioning Editor, Social Sciences, at SAGE London who has given her heart and soul to this project with massive amounts of enthusiasm, help and support. A big Thank You, Kerry! In serving as Editor of JHP for 20 years, I have built a foundation of experience. I am supported by an incredible Editorial Board of 60 outstanding researchers who offer significant breadth and depth of expertise in health psychology internationally. I warmly thank the five long-serving Associate Editors, I Chris McManus, Michael Murray (retiring), Ken Wallston, Carla Willig and Helen Winefield (retiring) and welcome three new Associate Editors Ronán Conroy, Seth Kalichman, and Jane Ogden and many new Editorial Board members to the Joint Editorial Board of JHP and HPO listed on the journal website: http://bit.ly/ UpZahV. In addition to the wonderful Editorial Board, JHP and HPO have an unrivalled panel of more than 10,000 expert peer reviewers to consult about submissions. I thank all of the invisible, anonymous, yet invaluable reviewers for their unstinting, high-quality input, about which authors have commented so often to be the most constructive and helpful that they have experienced. Expert peer reviewers are the lifeblood of the journal, and I am beholden to them for their professional dedication to the service of their peer researchers in health psychology. HPO will operate with the same philosophy as JHP: the same Editor, Editorial Board, independent peer-review system and high quality of output. The unrivalled international outlook of JHP is evidenced by its publication of papers from more than 70 countries. The global content for JHP and HPO will be extended further in Africa, Asia and South and Central America with new Joint Editorial Board members: Cecilia G. Conaco (Phillipines), Ashraf Kagee (South Africa), Luo Lu (Taiwan), Chandra Y. Osborn (USA), Tina Rochelle (Hong Kong, China), Leslie Swartz (South Africa), Catherine S-K Tang (Singapore), Claudia UnikelSantoncini (Mexico) and Xiaofei Xie (Beijing, China), all of whom I warmly welcome to the Board. The launch of Health Psychology Open