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47 American J. Crim. Just. 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/acnjrlocm47 and id is 1 raw text is: American Journal of Criminal Justice (2022) 47:1-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-022-09677-6 Letter from the Editor J. Mitchell Miller' Published online: 11 April 2022 © Southern Criminal Justice Association 2022 With the new year, we welcome in a new volume of the American Journal of Crimi- nal Justice - a special volume in several respects. The volume coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Southern Criminal Justice Association which owns and man- ages the Journal. The new volume is also special as it is the first to appear since considerable positive change we've been experiencing. Building upon momentum from Immediate Past Editor Wesley Jennings, submissions broke the Journal's all- time record in 2019 and we broke that record again in June of 2021. As we near and may exceed 300 annual submissions, the manuscript flow has nearly quadrupled in the time I have served as Editor. The volume has afforded selectivity which, in turn, has increased our metrics and rankings among discipline journals. As we near top ten rankings, it would appear that the namesake initiative launched over three years ago is being realized as more of the discipline is coming to view AJCJ as a journal of first choice. Recent special issues on the COVID pandemic, the #MeToo movement, cyber- crime and forthcoming guest edited issues on the continuing drug crisis and crimi- nal justice reform augment the articles selected through our anonymous review pro- cess to provide the readership with timely policy and practice information based on rigorous research. The journal has been slowly moving away from perception-based research. While acknowledging that work in this area has been important to the field, it is difficult to refute the point that studying things directly is preferrable to study- ing what people think about the same things. Certainly not all but too much percep- tion research is based on convenience samples; AJCJ has discontinued considera- tion of manuscripts featuring convenience samples as well as student samples. This approach understandably will not be well received by everyone but the steady flow of new submissions is forcing change. With nearly a 90% rejection rate the time has come for colleagues to know that AJCJ is interested in a wide range of topics, meth- ods, and theoretical-policy orientations reflecting optimal criminology and criminal justice science. Regarding change, we also welcome Joanna Frazier to the Editorial Office as the new Graduate Managing Editor. Joanna will be with us throughout my term so stop E J. Mitchell Miller mitch.miller@unf.edu University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, USA ', Springer