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Curating Captivating Collections: Mastering the Art of Editing Special Issues in Research
Special Issues are a collection of scholarly articles focussing on a topic of special interest within a subject discipline area and are organized and led by an Editor who has subject expertise. Back in the 1980s, when I was an early career researcher, I used Special Issues as a key source of contemporary knowledge about pain. In those days, Special Issues were hard copy printed books held in university libraries. Sometimes I could only access a special issue through an-inter-library loan, waiting many weeks before the printed Special Issue arrived, slowing the progress of my research. Nowadays, special issues are instantly available as PDFs at a click of a mouse. Recently, I have Edited three Special Issues.
My Special Issue Chronic Pain Management contains 19 articles that provide a rich tapestry of contemporary research and scholarship. Topic areas range from the genetics to empathy and include contributions about pharmacogenetic testing, CYP2D6 polymorphism and codeine, local body vibration with built-in vibroacoustic sound and eye-gaze patterns. One of my contributions is a narrative review that maps the landscape of chronic pain.
I edited the Special Issue Non-biomedical Perspectives on Pain and its Prevention and Management with James Woodall (Leeds Beckett), Emmanouil Georgiadis (University of Suffolk, UK) and Antonio Bonacaro (University of Parma, Italy), and Isobel Jacobs (Leeds Beckett) acting as Topic Coordinator. The aim of this Special Issue was to broaden and deepen our conceptual understanding of pain through articles from non-biomedical disciplines and we published 18 articles that ‘go beyond’ the biomedical paradigm. The contributions position pain at the intersect of tissue and the ‘outside world’ exploring relationships between individuals, society, and the environment. The article by James Woodall and myself titled A Healthy Settings Approach to Addressing Painogenic Environments: New Perspectives from Health Promotion proposes a socio-ecological model for pain that we are using to advocate upstream ‘Health Promotion’ solutions to alleviate the burden of chronic pain in society.
I edited the Special Issue Pain Education Research: Advances, Innovations, and Challenges with Libby Bradshaw (Tufts University, US), Scott Fishman (University of California, US) and Judy Watt-Watson (University of Toronto, Canada), and Kate Thompson (Leeds Beckett) acting as Topic Coordinator. This Special Issue contains 12 articles addressing barriers to pain education for health care professionals and includes a qualitative study exploring person-focused evidence-based pain education concepts in pre-registration physiotherapy training, led by Kate Thompson. We have been using the findings of this qualitative study to develop a virtual patient simulation called ‘Virtual Paul’, in partnership with David Spark (Digital Learning, Leeds Beckett), and watch this space for further details in a future blog.
Editing a Special Issue is a fantastic way to dive into the latest research and, for me as an Editor, to spark lively exchanges that open up fresh ideas and new research paths.
Professor Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson is Professor of Pain and Analgesia. Mark is an international expert on the science of pain and its management and the world leader on transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). He has published over 300 peer reviewed articles.
