AJPOR is planning a special issue on climate change.
AJPOR previously had a special topic issue in August 2020 that had eight articles related to COVID-19. Besides those articles, AJPOR has continued to publish articles related to the topic. AJPOR was and remains a vehicle for publishing COVID-19 articles because of the importance of the topic. However, the marginal gains from each article become less, and we may be reaching a point where COVID-19 research is not unique but simply a common research topic. I don’t know how much the special issue contributed to the amount of COVID-19 research, but it allowed Asian researchers to contribute to the world-wide understanding of the challenging behavioral aspects related to COVID-19. This contribution is important because continuing attention to COVID-19 may yield insights that can be used to understand the human dynamics of future pandemics.
Based on the strong response to the prior special issue, we expect many good quality articles on public opinion and climate change. Decreasing the impact of climate change requires that we know more about how much people know, what they think, and their behaviors related to the challenges of reducing the human impact on climate. Just as with COVID-19 research, our understanding of how climate change is perceived and acted on in Asia is incredibly important to the overall global need for climate action.
I hope many of you will submit articles for the special issue. The deadline for articles is February 28, 2023. We will publish the special issue soon after the articles are reviewed. AJPOR also welcomes volunteers to help edit and review the articles. If you are interested, please contact me – kennedyj@indiana.edu.