The European Journal of Psychotraumatology

Miranda, please could you introduce yourself?

I am a professor in psychotraumatology working at the Amsterdam UMC Psychiatry department of the University of Amsterdam and director of research at ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre. 

With a background in stress research and neurobiology I now have a passion for global collaboration on traumatic stress where we aim to work on a wide range of topics of global importance and coordinate activities that benefit survivors of trauma or stressful events around the world.

What is and has been your main goal as Editor-in-Chief of the journal?

To better understand trauma and its consequences, how to prevent negative outcomes of trauma, or how to best treat disorders that may arise. We focus on more than PTSD.

We like to reach a wide audience with our articles, not only researchers but also clinicians, policy makers, patients, teachers, etc.  by having all articles available for free being an Open Access journal from the start.

We stand for high scientific quality while at the same time we are open to innovative, unconventional, or inspirational contributions that move the field forward.

What would your advice be to early career researchers?

I personally have always been passionate about finding answers to research questions I was interested in, even thought they were sometimes ahead of my time (as in psychoneuroendocrinology). So follow your passion. I have also much enjoyed international collaboration already as a PhD student.

I have learned so much from researchers around the world with regard to research methods, cross-cultural aspects, etc. I would advise young people to do that to, ideally spend a few months in another lab, but now that it is so easy to work together online join for instance the Global collaboration on traumatic stress. It is not only a lot of fun to work with people from around the world but also shows how much progress we can make when working together, eg in data collection or joining data sets.

What are some of the most innovative papers that have recently been published in The European Journal of Psychotraumatology?

We have a very interesting special issue in the making on Complementary and integrative interventions for PTSD

From un update on treatment guidelines (Bisson & Olff, 2021) several highly cited papers were published in the journal (eg Lewis et al) but we also found that several complementary and alternative approaches showed emerging evidence.

This was the reason for a call for papers that has resulted in a series of very interesting papers. Rather than a narrow focus on symptom reduction, we see a more holistic approach that includes outcomes such as distress management, a sense of wellbeing, or ability to pursue valued life goals.

Are there any tips you can give authors and researchers who are hoping to submit to and publish in your journal?

Do it now! We are open to publications from around the world, with a large range of topics – from neurobiological to global interventions, and we are open to a range of methodologies.

Furthermore, with the format free submission authors do not need to worry about the style of the references or any other layout details.

Finally, what are some of your favorite and most notable articles published within the journal recently?

Find Miranda’s pick of the 7 top articles below. These are comprised articles that are highly cited and read, are relevant to the clinical aspects of the journal or are innovative in the field and you can read these all free of charge now: