Celebrating diversity in music therapy practice and research.

Baker, Felicity

This year, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of The Australian Journal of Music Therapy with the first volume published in 1990 and edited by Sandra Curtis. Coincidentally, of the six articles published in that volume, two of the articles were authored by Assoc Professor Denise Grocke and Dr Alison Short who also have contributions in this volume. Twenty years on, these two incredible music therapists/researchers continue to support our journal. Later this year, The Australian Journal of Music Therapy will publish a special anniversary issue of the journal featuring contributions by a small number of Australian authors who have featured in the Australian journal throughout the past 20 years. We should indeed celebrate this milestone and reflect upon its developments to date. I anticipate this special issue arriving on members doorsteps later in the year.

It is also important that I announce that the Australia Research Council recently released its rankings of journal according to their assessment of quality as part of its new assessment process. The Australian Journal of Music Therapy ranked high with the same ranking as the Journal of Music Therapy and ranked higher than the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy and Music Therapy Perspectives. The more international editorial board and commentaries written by international authors have already raised the journal's profile. Recent citation analysis indicates that the journal has 2.63 citations per paper and a h-index of 5. In the past 12 months the journal has been allowing authors to upload their contributions on-line and I hope this open access of our journal will result in further increases in citations over the coming years.

This volume comprises four very different articles highlighting the diversity in music therapy practice and research in Australia. The population focus of the articles stretches across the lifespan from paediatric patients (Bower & Shoemark), special education (Langan), adults in hospital (Short & Ahern), and aged care (Baker & Grocke). Similarly, the clinical focus ranges from assessment (Langan), listening to music via headphones (Short), interactive approaches (Bower & Shoemark) to culturally sensitive approaches (Baker & Grocke). The international commentaries accompanying each of these articles are authored by Dr Lars Ole Bonde (Denmark), Dr Ken Aigen (USA), Dr Nechama Yehuda (Israel), and Stine Jacobsen (Denmark).

Felicity Baker, Editor

Australian Journal of Music Therapy

The University of Queensland