General Description of the Journal 

 

Idiographic Science is the area of general knowledge construction through qualitative and quantitative investigation of single cases. These cases are treated as systems, and analyzed from the viewpoint of their temporal order.  The joint focus on systemic organization of the single cases and time makes Idiographic Science to focus on the functional history of systems. 

 

Idiographic Science deals with biological, psychological, sociological, and anthropological systems.   As any science its aim is to create generalized knowledge that is applicable to other – not yet known — cases when the conditions of such application are appropriate. Hence the emphasis in Idiographic Science is on the conditional-genetic analyses of the dynamic processes of open systems.

 

 The need for Idiographic Science grows out of the traditions of system theories, and constitutes an alternative model of general scientific inference to work based on the axiomatic acceptance of the “law of large numbers”. Since idiographic science emphasizes the organized uniqueness of single case phenomena, it is based on the axiom of “systemic continuity” instead—general knowledge is obtained in the study of the continuous functioning of a single system over time in varied contexts for its operation.  Idiographic Science is both developmental  and ecological in its scope.

 

 

The International Journal of Idiographic Science is a result of an international collaboration of scholars from both qualitative and quantitative basic scientific orientations [LINK TO Editors’ First Letter]. The Journal covers the whole realm of the social sciences where its single case focus is relevant—psychology, anthropology, sociology—and is open to different origins of the contributions—education, medicine, political science, etc.  In IJIS, the single-case based qualitative and quantitative analytic strategies are given equal value. The scope of the journal is twofold:

 

à Elaborate  presentation of single case evidence in terms of  looking at it as a functioning, self-adapting system--  that has value for general  scientific knowledge

 

à Explicit generalizations by the authors and commentators  based on that evidence, leading to the building of general theories based on idiographic data .

 

Aside from primarily empirical contributions, the Journal will also publish theoretical work as far as it addresses the idiographic approach.  We will organize thematic issues—as contributions of particular thematic cluster accumulate—groups of published papers are brought back for substantive concurrent discussion by commentators as to their implications for new knowledge.  We will include a special series of contributions aimed to introduce or improve data acquisition techniques for idiographic applications, and new logical and statistical (time-series) analytic procedures.

 

The Journal will include

 

(a)         regular submitted papers that, after editorial review process and acceptance, are uploaded immediately to the volume of the Journal’s current year publication, and a discussion option is opened for all readers in conjunction with the paper;

(b)         invited Special Issues on pertinent topics;

(c)         rubric of New Techniques for Single Case Analysis;

(d)         rubric Concerns from the Field: Application issues;

(e)         rubric From the History of Single Case Research.  

 

By our emphasis on these special rubrics we will be in a position to move the practices of individual case studies further – rather than merely respond to what has already been happening in the field. Since psychology has taken the lead in creating new single-cased based methodologies, the Journal’s coverage is mostly located within psychology.  Yet the goal of the Editors is to reach out to those areas of knowledge where idiographic analyses and applications are most crucial—medicine, economics, and political sciences.

 

The Editorial Board includes expert members in these areas to guarantee high quality.  All papers published in the journal must be relevant for science in general. The journal is not a repository of richly described case studies of no generalization value. Each contribution to the Journal has to specify in which ways the empirical findings from the case described would contribute to our general knowledge in science.

 

The Review Process.   IJIS is a peer-review journal. All submissions will be electronic, and will be forwarded to reviewers—after quick screening by the Editorial Team – within 24 hours after arrival. The reviews are expected within 10 days, with the likely positive results (usually “revise and re-submit”) communicated to authors 2 weeks after submission. Similarly, rejections will be communicated either within 48 hours (if the Editorial Team screens the manuscript “out” for further consideration) or after 2 weeks (negative result of reviewing).  In case of acceptance for publication, the authors are expected to provide the final version of the paper and all supporting materials for immediate uploading. The publication date of the paper is the date of uploading from the Editorial Office.

 

In line with the editorial philosophy of intellectual openness, instead of the regular "blind” peer review used by most journals, IJIS uses a semi-open peer review/commentary system.  The identity of both the author(s) to the reviewers, and of the reviewers to the authors, may be made known — unless the specific author or reviewer indicates otherwise. The reviewers will be encouraged to communicate directly with the author(s) about specific issues concerning the manuscript during the reviewing process, if that helps to clarify unclear aspects of the manuscript.

 

The reviewers will have to evaluate each submission by the following criteria:

 

1.      What are the general theoretical bases of the submitted manuscript?  How well are these expressed in the analysis of the empirical case?

2.      What general value for science can this case analysis produce?

3.      Is the case (main manuscript and support materials) described in sufficient detail?

4.      Are the references in the manuscript adequate for the theoretical claims and empirical analyses? [Note: IJIS does not endorse the inclusion of loosely structured “literature reviews” or proliferation of reference lists. Each reference should carry substantive weight in the authors’ basic argument that is being made from the evidence]

5.      Is the Conclusions (Discussion) part of the manuscript sufficiently developed?

6.      Would the materials in the manuscript lead to constructive intellectual discussions of the issues by the international scientific community?

 

In technical details, IJIS follows the simplified APA format  (e.g. as used in Culture & Psychology).  Each publication will include the authors’ Biographical Sketch, e-mail contact addresses, and (if desired) links to their personal web pages.