Introduction to the Issue

John Kennedy, Editor in Chief

This issue has five articles, which is another significant milestone for AJPOR. We hope to have 5-6 articles in each issue going forward. I would also like to point to another goal that we have for AJPOR – a mix of “timely” and “evergreen” articles. I consider timely articles to address current issues in public opinion. Evergreen articles might be timely, but more importantly, they build on extensive prior research and will likely contribute to further development of the topic. No bright line can be found between the two types and every article can contain some timely and evergreen information.

An example of an evergreen article is the “grit” article by Jihye Choi. Grit and its companion, “resilience,” have been extensively researched over the past 10 years. The article builds on the prior research and will contribute to further research on the topic. Researchers have examined grit in a number of populations and this article adds another population, further demonstrating the utility of the concept.

The “fake news” articles are more timely (unfortunately). Over the past four years, more researchers in more countries have intensively examined the effects of fake news on public opinion. Personally, I hope that fake news research fades away because fake news stops. But, what we learn from fake news research, such as the evolving methods to research the topic, can be used for subsequent research.

The point of my essay is to say that we envision that AJPOR will have a mix of timely and evergreen articles. We have invited scholars who are researching the COVID-19 pandemic to contribute to the August issue of AJPOR (timely articles) but we will also have articles on new public opinion research methods that will be more evergreen. I invite you to submit both types of articles for the next issue.