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A Plea to University Researchers

According to its mission statement, the Journal of Trauma & Dissociation (JTD) is “dedicated to publishing peer-reviewed scientific literature on dissociation, the dissociative disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, psychological trauma and its sequelae, and on aspects of memory associated with psychological trauma and dissociation.” The journal seeks to publish the best science and scholarship in the field. This includes a variety of types of articles, although without question the mainstay has been and is likely to continue to be empirical reports. In this editorial I discuss a crucial issue of science for our field: threats to the external validity of empirical studies due to self-selection in university human subject pools (HSPs). I make two pleas to university researchers (and JTD authors): (a) Be clear and thorough about the recruitment process so that self-selection bias can be evaluated, and (b) try to find ways to help your institution reduce self-selection bias so that the research conducted will be of more value and so that the participants will learn good science. In the last section of this editorial I change topic and provide my annual report on the state of JTD.