Objectives of the Journal

The journal Human Systems welcomes reports of original research and creative or critical review articles which make an original contribution. Articles should not have been submitted for publication elsewhere.

In the last decade systemic consultation has continued to consolidate and develop its theoretical base while extending its applications to increasingly diverse fields. As systems consultants progressively widen their scope to consult to all kinds of organisations and to subsystems within larger state, professional, commercial and industrial businesses, there is need for a forum in which knowledge can be fostered and coordinated. Human Systems was created to fill this need.

The objectives of the Journal are:

To create a forum for exchanging and developing ideas and practices which are in the process of being tried and tested.

To investigate and rigorously discuss emerging concepts in terms of their applicability to effective clinical and organisational practice.

To review, report, extend, and critically assess the use of systemic and constructive thinking in a variety of fields and their different contexts, including work with individuals, couples, families, groups, organisations and institutions.

To provide a specialist field with a journal that includes theoretical papers which focus on systemic and constructionist ideas.

To discuss the application of systemic and constructionist ideas to consultation in the commercial and business worlds.

To ensure very rapid publication.

We intend that Human Systems should provide a forum for ideas, experiences, and rigorous study at the leading edge of developments in systemic consultation, and thereby play a role in fostering, coordinating and disseminating those developments. We have no plans for the journal to become a passive repository of information; it will become a fully interactive part of the system, exemplifying in its operation the principles it supports through interactions with authors, commentaries, replies etc.

We are particularly keen to publish work which extends the range of application of systemic consultation, and research studies. The former may take the form of case reports; accounts of particular forms of practice; systemic analyses of aspects of management, or of the work of management consultants; illustration of the application of principles derived from other areas of systemic consultation; accounts of the particular requirements of specific kinds of system; issues raised by cross-national operation and so on. They may range from full-scale descriptions of practice to very brief vignettes or simple discoveries.

We hope that readers will want to join with us in this unique form of conversation.