The Current Issue

In our first article, Guzzo, Fink, King, Tonidandel, and Landis provide recommendations for working constructively and responsibly with big data. This focal article is a bit of an experiment because it is based on work the authors did as members of an ad hoc committee recognized by the Executive Board of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), making recommendations to SIOP and its members. It was our hope that publishing an article in this forum would encourage a wider range of comments and comments in more depth than might be expected for reports of this sort, and in my opinion, the experiment was a striking success. We received 21 comment articles and published 11, dealing with topics that range from the constructs that might be represented by big data to the implications for research, graduate training, and theory of the emergence of big data in organizations.

In our second article, Hyland, Lee, and Mills examine the meaning and implications of current efforts to encourage mindfulness at work. Their article examines the meaning of the construct and the evidence regarding the effects of mindfulness innovations. Twenty-one comment articles examine topics that include the likely relationship between mindfulness and other constructs, the mechanisms that determine the effects of mindfulness interventions, the possibility that mindfulness interventions may be used for purposes inconsistent with the underlying philosophies that drive these interventions, and the potential extensions of current applications of mindfulness training.

Closing Thought on My Term as Editor

This is my last issue of Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, and thanks are due in many quarters. First, the entire Editorial Board deserves a ringing round of applause. In addition to reviewing focal article submissions, members of the Editorial Board would be asked to review as many as 10 to 12 comment article submissions at a time, working under tight deadlines. Our board is made up of eminent scholars and practitioners, all of whom took time out of their own hectic schedules to review the articles we received, and the journal would not be possible without their hard work. Second, many SIOP staff, SIOP officers, and SIOP committee members had important roles in making this journal possible. I owe a particular burden of gratitude to Jen Baker, in the SIOP office, who served as the link between SIOP and the publisher with whom we have worked. She consistently did a great job and often saved me from embarrassing mistakes.

Finally, thanks are due to the many authors who submitted focal articles and comment articles. We received exactly 500 comment articles and published just a bit over half of these. Every focal article we published inspired thoughtful commentary that extended and enriched our understanding of the topics of the various focal articles.

When this journal was originally proposed to the SIOP Executive Board, I was skeptical about its staying power. I am very glad to have been proven wrong; after 8 years, the journal is going strong, and I think it has contributed to our field in ways that go beyond the fondest hopes of SIOP when this journal was launched. It has been an honor and a privilege to edit this journal, and I am very glad to pass this journal into the capable hands of our incoming Editor, John Scott.