Publication of Research in Sex Roles on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Issues

Abstract

In 2009, Michael Parent, one of the co-editors of this special issue, organized a symposium at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association on Publishing LGBT Research. We presented data at that session about how Sex Roles had treated this general issue from our initial publication in 1975 through 2008. We present some of this information here, and have expanded our analysis to include publications in 2009 through 2012. As our mission statement now reads:Sex Roles: A Journal of Research is an interdisciplinary behavioral science journal offering a feminist perspective. It publishes original research reports and review articles that illuminate the underlying processes and consequences of gender role socialization, gendered perceptions and behaviors, and gender stereotypes. The range of topics is broad, extending to gender issues in employment and work environments; interpersonal relationships; sexual orientation and identity; body image; violence against women, or intimate partners; gender role socialization; the influences of media, schools, peers and community on stereotypes; the acquisition, maintenance, and impact of stereotypes; the cultural, economic, legal and political effects of contemporary social change; or methodological issues in gender research. All papers consider the possibility of study participant gender differences in the initial statement of hypotheses and the analysis of data.Although this has changed over the last 38 years, these general ideas have always been part of our mission.Probably the biggest change in the journal over its history has been the increase in published pages. Sex Roles was initially a quarterly journal with four issues a year. In 1977, it was published 6 times a year. In 1981, it was published monthly. In 2012, we published a total of 1,524 journal pages. This included 86 regular journal articles, 19 Feminist Forum articles, 10 articles in special issues, and 32 book and media reviews. Thus, we are a high volume journal. We received a total of 642 new submissions in 2012, as well as 486 revised submissions. This includes all original research reports, Feminist Forum papers (reviews of empirical literature arguing for a particular point of view), special issue articles, and book and media reviews. We received manuscripts last year from 46 different countries. The current acceptance rate is 14 % and the rejection rate is 86 %.In order to examine the publication of papers relating to LGBTQ issues in Sex Roles, in 2009 we conducted a Google Scholar search using search terms of homosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, and queer. We then checked to make sure each of the resulting articles did address these topics. Google Scholar returned all articles published in Sex Roles containing any of the above search terms, and we omitted some of the articles which used these terms only in the reference list. We also omitted articles where the only use of the word "gay" was a surname in a citation with no other search terms found.The first paper we i...

Thirty Years and Counting

“…Other key identifiers such as ethnicity, class, sexuality, dis/ability, geographical location and so on are also significant to life experiences and life chances, including, of course, my own. The concept of intersectionality (multiple interlocking identities) is used by feminists, and gender-sensitive others, to theorise the relationship between different social categories to identify how interlocking systems of power impact complex patterns of inequality (Yuval Davis 2006;Valentine 2007;Hanson Frieze and Dittrich 2013). The development of and debates surrounding feminist methodology has taken place during a period of increasing inequality for many worldwide, and feminists insist that 'in order to transform unjust gender relations, more than gender must change' (Ramazanoglu with Holland 2002: 68).…”