<<

EDITORIAL AVAILABLE ONLINE Journal of Tropical Psychology Volume 1 | p. 1

A New Journal for the Torrid Zone

If you want something you never had before, you must do something you have never done before. African Proverb, per Nathan Hare (2002). Aims and Scope A peer-reviewed premium quality e-journal, the Journal of south. All the rest lie either entirely, or at least partly, in the Tropical Psychology has this rationale: While there continues tropics. While no European countries are tropical countries, to be argument as to how much change is due to the Middle East has four tropical countries: Yemen, which is human or corporate events, there is no disagreement that the entirely in the tropics, and parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, is becoming warmer, leading to a climate with more and United Arab Emirates. India, in southern Asia, lies moisture in the air, stronger , flooding, and a great mostly in the tropics, and all countries of Southeast Asia are change for all the inhabitants of the earth. To understand the tropical countries. Australia, Micronesia, the Marshall psychology of our planetary future, we may access the psy- , Kiribati, and most of the other nations of chologists of tropical who are already successful in in the South Pacific are tropical countries, as well.’ their adaptation to a daily life in an environment we may all (Answers.com, 2010). share eventually. To provide a vehicle for these psychologists Climates: In addition to the geographical limits of past des- can be a valuable service, particularly since psychological ignated tropical countries, the rapidly expanding ‘Torrid journal articles originating in Europe or the United States Zone’ (Harding, 2009) increasingly includes additional have long provided the bulk of scientific and professional countries and neighboring areas where people experience publications. Yet there is very substantial psychological work the same tropical climate. These will also be considered. being done in tropical zone countries and regions. A few journals, such as Australia’s Psychological Science, or the Summary objectives for this journal: regional online Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, are exam- • To disseminate progress in adaptation to the global ples. The Journal of Tropical Psychology is specifically expansion tropical climates. circum-global and unites the rapidly growing torrid climate- • To share the full range of psychological progress in the related nations around the earth in the development and growing tropical climate regions. sharing of their psychological discoveries. • To develop an international network of psychologists Countries: ‘Tropical countries are those that lie within the working in these regions. region that we call the tropics. The tropics is the zone between the , the parallel of at 23º Acknowledgments North, and the , the parallel of latitude Special recognition in the formation of this journal should at 23º South. Everywhere in the tropics is struck by the ’s go to Vice-Chancellor and President Sandra Harding (our perpendicular rays at noon on a minimum of one day in journal’s Muse) of Australia’s James Cook University for her each . At the very centre of the tropics lies the , a vision; to JCU Singapore leadership, particularly Det Fischer spot equidistant from the north and south poles. Many (our journal’s Godfather), for financial impetus; to Stephen people associate tropical countries with a few islands and May (our journal’s Publisher) and his staff at Australian palm trees but in fact a large section of the world lies within Academic Press; to Associate Editor Ed Helmes and the vol- the tropics. In the Western Hemisphere, tropical countries unteer experts on the Editorial Board, supported by include Mexico, all of Central America, all of the Managing Editor Natasha Riard and Journal Intern Sarah Li islands from just south of Nassau in the Bahamas, and the Wai Suen. top half of , including Colombia, Ecuador, Robert F. Morgan, Editor Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, , French Guiana, as well as the northern portions of , Argentina, Paraguay, and . In , the only nations Reference that cannot be called tropical countries are Morocco and Harding, S. (2009). Introduction, Torrid Zone Symposium, Tunisia in the north and Lesotho and Swaziland in the United Nations Youth Conference, Brisbane.

Morgan, R.F. (2011). A new journal for the torrid zone. Journal of Tropical Psychology, 1, 1, 1. DOI 10.1375/jtp.1.1.1 1

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 02 Oct 2021 at 07:20:03, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1375/jtp.1.1.1