The International Journal of Research and Practice celebrates 20 years.
Autism journal was born to share global research that truly helps autistic people.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Mandell et al. (2016) wrote a birthday story. The journal Autism turned 20. The authors looked back at why the journal started. They told how it wanted to welcome research from every country. They also told how it promised to stay useful to autistic people and families.
What they found
The journal began because European scientists had little voice in U.S. journals. Autism gave them a home. The editors kept one rule: publish work that helps real life, not just lab scores.
How this fits with other research
Laties (2008) told a similar birthday story for JEAB at 50. Both papers track how a field grows. JEAB saw more women and more countries join. Autism saw the same trend.
Dawson (2008) shows the next step. Her letter launched a second autism journal, Autism Research. It aimed to mix biology with behavior science. Mandell et al. (2016) do not clash with this goal. They simply remind us to keep the autistic person in the center.
Dinishak et al. (2023) push the idea further. They ask researchers to read autistic life stories before picking targets. The 2016 piece nods to the same idea: science must serve the people it studies.
Why it matters
You can borrow the journal’s rule for your own work. Before you write a goal, ask: “Would an autistic teen or parent say this matters?” If the answer is no, pick a new target. The birthday story is a quick read that keeps your mission clear.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This year marks the 20th anniversary since the publication of the first issue of Autism. The journal was the product of several years of discussion among researchers and advocates in the United Kingdom. Although there were other high-quality journals devoted to autism and other developmental disabilities, many European researchers thought that existing journals focussed on research conducted in the United States, that it was often quite difficult for authors from countries outside the United States to get their papers published in these journals and, more importantly, that papers on autism published in other parts of the world frequently failed to be cited in US journals. There was a certain irony to these challenges, given that some of the most important pioneers in the field of autism research, such as Lorna Wing and Michael Rutter, were based in the United Kingdom. Moreover, with research on autism growing both in quantity and quality year by year, there was clearly room for another journal with a specific focus on autism. The recently appointed chief executive of the UK National Autistic Society at that time, Geraldine Peacock, was also eager to raise the profile of autism research in the United Kingdom, and together with Simon Baron-Cohen, Rita Jordan and Richard Mills, we approached the publisher, SAGE, to discuss the possibility of producing a new journal. SAGE saw that the time was ripe for such a development. The fact that the journal was to be published in association with the National Autistic Society was viewed as a major advantage, in that it anchored the journal and its mission in the needs and hopes of people with autism and those who care for them.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2016 · doi:n/a