National Library of Australia

Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

ISSN 1837-1361

The Australian Journal of Adoption is an online journal solely focused on the subject of adoption in Australia and New Zealand. The journal aims to provide a quality, independent and open access forum for people involved in adoption.

The journal is neither pro- nor anti-adoption. Its intention is to provide quality research findings and information about adoption as past and current adoption practices continue to have a profound affect on the people involved.

The Australian Journal of Adoption aims to facilitate understanding about adoption and its associated issues to improve policies to encourage better practices, foster healing and provide support for those working in the field or affected by adoption.

The journal welcomes multi- or interdisciplinary submissions on adoption, written in English, with a distinctive Australian or New Zealand flavour.

The journal acknowledges that some terms, for example adoptee, birth or natural mother, birth or natural father may be perceived as offensive to some readers. These terms are not intentionally aimed at offending, alienating or polarizing our readers; there are simply descriptors to differentiate between sets of parents involved in the adoption triangle. The journal apologizes to anyone who may be offended by the use of these terms.

Please note the journal is not a search facility for finding birth records or information to trace individuals affected by adoption. These matters are dealt with by the relevant states and territories.


The Structure of the Journal

The Australian Journal of Adoption contains the following features:


  1. An editorial to introduce each edition, papers, or series of papers, including thematic discussions and where appropriate guest editors may be invited to provide comment.

  2. Original peer-reviewed articles up to 7,000 words in length, exclusive of references and graphics.

  3. Book, movie, blog or website reviews, up to 5,000 words, with adoption or adoption related themes, from around the world with preference given to books, blogs and websites that have a particular Australian or New Zealand flavour.

  4. Shorter case studies of between 2,000 and 3,000 words in length, exclusive of references and graphics.

  5. A policy section to provide a mechanism for evaluating or summarizing current adoption policies or programs through peer reviewed papers of between 3,000 and 7,000 words, exclusive of references and graphics.

  6. Completed university theses or theses being researched with an Australian / New Zealand adoption or related theme.

  7. Papers from Australian adoption conference or workshops. The length of papers to be determined by conference/workshop organisers but not to exceed a maximum of 5,000 words, exclusive of references and graphics.

  8. Organisers of national, state or local adoption conferences, workshops or seminars are encouraged to notify the Journal Manager of their events in advance so that the title, dates, location, nature of event and contact details of the organisers can be listed on the journal. These notifications can be sent directly by email to the Journal Manager.

  9. Original artwork for the homepage, ideally created by people within the adoption triangle, to introduce each edition.


Potential Journal Content May Include:


  • Ethical and moral issues about adoption and adoption practices

  • Inter-country adoption policy and practices in Australia

  • Research related to sending countries to Australia e.g. China, Korea, India, South American and African countries

  • Adoption healing

  • Matters affecting the adoption triad or quadrangle

  • Legal issues about adoption

  • History of adoption in Australia or New Zealand

  • Indigenous people and adoption

  • Assisted reproductive technologies

  • Development of parent-child relationships

  • Child welfare & child protection

  • Mental health as it relates to adoption

  • Separation, reunion, reconciliation

  • Fostering & adoption

  • Therapeutic studies of adopted children

  • Identity construction in adoptees and adoptive parents

  • Inter-cultural and inter-racial considerations in adoption

 

Section Policies

Editorial

Unchecked Open Submissions Unchecked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Upcoming Events/Conference/Seminar/ Workshop Announcements

Unchecked Open Submissions Unchecked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Current Research Projects

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Exhibitions and Events

Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Original Peer Reviewed Papers

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Book and Movie Reviews

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Research Reports / Case Studies

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Adoption Fiction

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Masters Theses

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Policy or Program Changes (including Evaluation)

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Doctoral Theses

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Conference, Workshop or Forum Papers (Canberra Forum)

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Honours Theses

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Image for Homepage

Checked Open Submissions Unchecked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Support Groups

Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

General Articles

Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed
 

Peer Review Process

Papers submitted to the Australian Journal of Adoption in the following categories are peer reviewed:


  • Original papers

  • Case studies

  • Policy/Program evaluations


Editorials, book, movie, blog and/or website reviews, theses, conference announcements and images for the homepage are not subject to peer review.

Papers submitted to the Australian Journal of Adoption are examined by the Journal Manager and at least two referees drawn from the journal's review panel.

Reviewers are experienced adoption practitioners at Australian universities, government agencies, in private practice and/or relevant non-profit organisations.

A closed review process is normally followed, however, an open review process could be followed should an author(s) and reviewers agree to do so.

Reviews are generally completed within 6 weeks.

 

Publication Frequency

Generally, individual papers or reviews will be published as soon as the peer review and online administration processes are completed.

Completed papers, reviews or thesis abstract will then be added to the Journal's Table of Contents.

On occasions papers may be published collectively, as part of a special themed issue or as a group of conference or workshop papers, with their own Table of Contents.

The intention is to publish appropriate new material as frequently as it comes to light.

 

Open Access Policy

The Australian Journal of Adoption provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making information and research about adoption freely available supports greater knowledge and understanding. Open access is associated with increased readership and citation levels.

The Australian Journal of Adoption uses open source software, developed by the Public Knowledge Project to help make open access economically viable, and to improve the scholarly and public quality of the research.

Authors are not paid for their submissions.

 

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More...

 

Review Panel

The team of reviewers are experienced adoption practitioners at Australian universities, government agencies, in private practice and/or relevant non-profit organizations.

The panel is updated annually and currently includes:

Dr Patricia Farrar, University of Technology, Sydney

Dr Patricia Farrar is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Health at the University of Technology, Sydney. Patricia is the mother of two children lost to adoption in 1965 and 1971. Her story can be found in Libby Harkness's book, "Looking for Lisa". From 1989 to 1994, she was a member of the NSW Committee on Adoption and completed her doctoral thesis, "Relinquishment and abjection: A semanalysis of the meaning of losing a baby to adoption" in 1999. She has presented at numerous adoption conferences in Australia and the USA, and her papers have been published in the conference proceedings. Patricia has had reunions with her lost children but these have not been sustained.

Dr Susan Gair, James Cook University

Dr Susan Gair is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work and Community Welfare at James Cook University, Queensland. Her academic interests focus on postnatal conditions, motherhood and Indigenous issues and her research work on adoption, violence in the workplace, suicide and inclusive curriculum. Her PhD looked at a different road to mothering by exploring the experiences of adoptive mothers raising adopted children in Queensland.

In more recent, separate, retrospective studies she has looked at the care of birth mothers by social workers, and by midwives, during the decades 1960-1990; the decades spanning the high years and heralding the dramatic decrease in adoptions in Queensland. In her most recent research she has collected narratives from participants who believed there were links between adoption and suicidal thoughts and behaviours. All of her research findings have been published in Australian and international journals.


Dr Kim Gray, University of Newcastle

Dr Kim Gray has been conducting sociological research on intercountry adoption for over a decade. Her research interests include issues of race, culture, identity and community in relation to intercountry adoptees, adoptive families and other transnational groups in Australia. Her doctorate considered the life histories of a group of Australian intercountry adoptees, placing their experiences within broader socio-political, historical and cultural contexts. Dr Gray contributed a chapter on Vietnamese and Korean adoptee experiences to the multi-disciplinary United States book project ‘International Korean Adoption’ (2007). Her interest in intercountry adoption continues to be fueled by her role as adoptive parent to two Korean-Australian children.

Dr Trevor Jordan, President of Jigsaw Queensland

Dr Trevor Jordan is President of Jigsaw Queensland, a non-profit, member-based organisation whose trained volunteer helpers provide a range of services to all those affected by adoption. He was formally Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics at the Queensland University of Technology. His specialist teaching and research interests include ethics and adoption and adoption reform issues.

Dr Catherine Lynch, Graduate Law Student, University of Sydney

Dr Lynch interests focus on the history of Australia's closed records adoption system, its links with the Stolen Generations and its representations in contemporary Australian Literature. A closed-records adoptee herself caught up in the reunion processes sparked by the 1990 changes to the Adoption Act, her critical reading of contemporary Australian literature in her University of Sydney PhD developed into the invention of the Adopted Body, the Subject Adoptee and a new way of seeing: ado/aptive reading and writing.

Catherine has published her theoretical/biographical account of what it was like to grow up as an adoptee in a closed adoption system, while advancing the thesis that adoptees see things differently. She hopes to participate in the development of a field of ado/aptive theory in which the stolen generations, inter-country and closed records adoptees, and similarly linked groups, can re-invent themselves, develop their identities and create a genre of academic theory unique to Australia.

Dr Cas O'Neill, Melbourne University

Dr Cas O'Neill is a research fellow at the faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She has over three decades of social work experience with community service and government organisations in areas of child and family welfare, bereavement, disability and community development. Her work has included direct practice, supervision, policy and program development, evaluation and research. She has had research contact with a number of permanent care/adoptive/foster families for twelve years and has a keen interest in consumer-oriented research.

Dr Nola Passmore, University of Southern Queensland

Dr Nola Passmore is a Senior Lecturer of Psychology in the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Southern Queensland where she has taught for more than two decades. Her teaching interests are in social psychology, and the application of psychological theory to current issues. Her research interests cover adoption, family issues, social psychology, positive psychology and Christian values. She and her husband live in Toowoomba.

Dr Pam Sharpe, School of History and Classics, University of Tasmania

Pam Sharpe is Professor of History in the School of History and Classics, University of Tasmania based in Hobart. She has research interests in the history of children's care outside of the biological family and has considered this in the context of the social and economic history of Britain since the seventeenth century. More recently she has been researching Australian history. She is currently developing research projects about fostering in Sweden in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in conjunction with the Demographic Database at Umea University and a separate project about the Orphan Schools and site in Hobart since 1828. She is also the mother of an eight year old daughter adopted from South Korea as well as a five year old biological daughter.

Satnam Singh, ACT department of Disability Housing and Community Services

Senior Manager within the ACT department of Disability Housing and Community Services and responsible for adoption services. Previously worked in the United Kingdom initially for Barnardos Family Placement Services where he developed and established an adoption and fostering service for Black and Minority Ethnic Children. He has also worked as a consultant the British Association for Adoption and Fostering.

With over 10 years of experience as a University lecturer with Open University where he taught on the Social Work programme, he has published a variety of journal papers and chapters in edited collections. Satnam has a strong interest in contemporary adoption practice and is keen in helping develop a body of knowledge in this area.

Dr Lyndall Steed, Curtin University of Technology

Dr Lyndall Steed is senior lecturer at the School of Psychology at Curtin University of Technology, Perth. Her teaching and research areas include adoption, grief and loss, health and positive psychology and spirituality.

 

Journal Manager

The Australian Journal of Adoption was conceived and designed by Thomas Graham, an adoptee within a closed adoption process, who has embarked on his own journey of self discovery and reunions.

 

Reader Comments

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