About the Journal

The concept of pluralism refers to a philosophical position that, in relation to significant aspects of human existence, there are no single truths or certainties. Instead, productive and sustainable ways of living are characterised by an ongoing dialogue between different perspectives.

The field of pluralistic practice is concerned with the implications and challenges arising from adopting a pluralistic stance within both everyday life and professional contexts. The Pluralistic Practice journal aims to provide an arena for exploring such issues, and sharing learning, in respect of supportive and helping relationships and activities associated with efforts to overcome adversity and problems in living. The central focus of the journal is on developing critical understanding and effective practice around the relevance and value of a pluralistic approach to counselling, psychotherapy, recovery, peer self-help, life coaching, careers guidance, and other forms of emotional support. The journal also welcomes contributions that discuss pluralistic practice in education, health and social care, faith communities, creative arts, leisure, criminal justice, socio-political activism, and any other professions, disciplines, occupations or areas of work where it might have relevance. A key aim of the journal is to facilitate collaboration, dialogue and learning between and across different professional contexts. Pluralistic practice is regarded as encompassing research and knowledge creation, policy-making and administration, as well as the direct delivery of services.

The Pluralistic Practice journal invites submissions within the following categories:

Research

Studies that provide evidence relating to the operation of pluralistic skills and strategies, and the outcomes afforded by these activities. Research papers may be based on the application of any recognised methodology: quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, participatory/co-produced, indigenous, action research, case study, ethnography, autoethnography, collective autoethnography, secondary analysis, historical, cultural. Research reviews, and articles that present examples of methodological innovation are also included in this category. Article length will normally be 5000-6000 words, with a maximum of 10,000 words. Brief research reports of less that 2,000 words are welcome.

Theory

Articles that critically analyse key concepts, explore the relevance for pluralistic practice of philosophical ideas and traditions, or engage with the contribution to pluralistic practice of social, psychological and psychotherapeutic theory. Article length will normally be 5000-6000 words, with a maximum of 10,000 words.

Practice reflection 

First-person writing that enables individuals or groups to articulate and share their experience and learning around any aspect of pluralistic practice. Practice reflection pieces are invited from clients, service users, carers, and members of the public as well as from professional practitioners and researchers. Contributors are welcome – but not required -  to make use of creative and visual modes of communication, where relevant to the purpose of the article. The Practice Reflection section includes articles that reflect on the relevance for practice of books, and research articles (or programmes of research) published in other journals. Article length will normally be between 2,000 and 5,000 words.

All articles undergo a process of open peer review in which at least one reviewer will be a practitioner or service user.

Retrospectives

Academic publishing rarely affords writers with an opportunity to reflect publicly on their research and its subsequent impact following publication. Research impact may be profound, but because it cannot reflexively influence the originally published work, that work may usually be regarded as a monological statement.

This journal envisages knowledge-creation as a reflexive, dialogical practice, both inter- and intra-personally. We invite authors to create new work that responds to and develops their existing published research, speaking to its reception and impact in the wider fields of research and / or professional practice. We term these retrospectives. Retrospective articles would not replicate existing work, but would offer a meta-perspective on the work. Written for a general research and practice readership, such articles will generally be shorter than a standard submission.

Amongst many other possible approaches, retrospective submissions might develop, extend, appraise, or update previously published research. Writers may offer a personal reflection on the research process or make interdisciplinary or theoretical associations that were not expedient to make in the published article. They might offer practice-focused illustrations of the research or reflections on the impact and effects of the work’s publication and dissemination. We encourage writers to present their reflection in the light of pluralistic values or frameworks. We also welcome co-produced, collaborative and / or interdisciplinary submissions by co-authors seeking to elaborate theoretical or practical synergies between their respective projects and interests.

Retrospectives offer writers an open access platform to respond to their own work, increase its impact, and invite further commentary and dialogue from the wider pluralistic community of readers and writers. These articles may be suitable for submission into any section of the journal, being empirically, conceptually, or reflectively grounded.

If you would like to submit new writing that responds to your own published research, and would like to discuss your proposed submission, we welcome enquiries to the Core Editorial Team. Such submissions must include a hyperlink to the existing publication.

Commentaries

Published articles will be accompanied by two commentaries of up to 2000 words in length. Commentaries will be written by members of the Core Editorial Team, the wider International Editorial Board, and / or other members of the pluralistic community. The Pluralistic Practice Journal recognises that pluralistic knowledge-creation is collaborative. Research participates in a broad conversation with existing and future knowledge, as well as with individual researchers, readers, practitioners, and stakeholders. Knowledge-creation is therefore always co-creative. Commentaries will offer responses that promote pluralistic values such as openness, collegiality, and collaboration in this mutual creative process. The journal also recognises that knowledge-creation is embodied as well as theoretical, practical as well as hypothetical, and personal as well as general. So, published commentaries will be responses ‘from the heart’ of readers who have been touched or impacted by the published work. Responses may therefore come a practice-based, research, trans-disciplinary or a personal perspective. Commentaries are intended to prompt further discussion and dialogue, to generate meaningful links across professional communities and disciplines, and to be useful both to the published author(s) and to the wider community of readers.

Authors are invited (but not required) to respond to commentaries. Following publication, further on-going moderated discussion of articles is available within a Dialogue Forum within pluralisticpractice.com 

Pluralistic Practice is published online. Articles are made available as soon as they are ready to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in getting content publicly available.

Collections of articles on a specific theme are welcomed. Proposals for themed collections should be sent in the first instance to the Editors. Theme collection articles will be published as received, with an indication that they belong to a theme. Once all the articles in a theme collection have been published, they will be curated to allow readers to access them as a set.

Open Access

The Pluralistic Practice journal is committed to open access publishing, making research freely available to all, in accordance with creative commons licensing. We do not ask for fees either to publish articles, or to read them. Open access publishing can offer authors improved reach, wider impact, exposure to a non-academic practitioner and public readership, and increased citation rates.

Open access to knowledge is a cornerstone of equality, transparency, and epistemic justice in society. It counters rising publication costs to individuals and institutions, and broadens the reach of research to individuals, organisations, communities, and countries that would not usually be able to access the work. It also offers a platform for new or aspiring writers, writers who are traditionally silenced or disadvantaged in society, practitioner-authors, and service beneficiary-authors. This journal actively supports such writers, and we welcome your enquiries to the Core Editorial Team.

Authors, readers and institutions wishing to make a financial donation to support the running costs of the journal are welcome to do so.

Pluralistic Practice is published on behalf of the Pluralistic Practice Network, a registered charitable trust.

To ensure the permanency of all publications, articles in Pluralistic Practice are archived.

Pluralistic Practice complies with the requirements of all major indexing systems.

Pluralistic Practice does not carry advertising.

Complaints or allegations of misconduct of any kind, by anyone involved in the Pluralistic Practice journal (reviewers, editors or authors) are handled by an independent adjudicator.