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HomePublicationsAmerican Journal of Orthopsychiatry (AJO)

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (AJO)

The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (AJO) is a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal published by the American Psychological Association.

Call for Papers

Leveraging Inner Transformation for Social Transformation

AJO American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

Submit a manuscript to this special issue of The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry examining the role of mindfulness and contemplative practices in supporting justice. Check out the Call for Papers.

Read the latest edition

View the table of contents for the latest edition of AJO.

Remember: Global Alliance membership gives you free access to all articles in AJO.

Meet an AJO Researcher

Get insights from the researchers behind the work in our Meet an AJO Researcher blog series.

About AJO

AJO is dedicated to informing public policy and professional practice and to the expansion of knowledge relating to mental health and human development from a multidisciplinary and inter-professional perspective.

Consistent with Global Alliance’s mission, the journal publishes articles that clarify, challenge, or reshape the prevailing understanding of factors necessary for a humane and just society.

How to submit an article

Submissions are evaluated with respect to the importance and timeliness of the topic, scholarly and methodological rigor, interdisciplinary perspective, and clarity of implications for research, behavioral health practice and administration, and social policy.

For more information about the scope of the journal, criteria, and procedures for selection of manuscripts for publication, manuscript submission instructions, and editorial policies, please review the Instructions to Authors.

We invite authors to visit the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry manuscript submission site to learn about current editorial policies for AJO and to submit manuscripts for publication.

If you have questions about a manuscript that has been submitted or that you are interested in submitting, please contact gro.e1711383613citsu1711383613jhb@O1711383613JA1711383613.

How to subscribe to AJO

Unlimited electronic access to AJO articles is included in your Global Alliance membership!

View pricing for individual or institutional print subscriptions.

How to access AJO
  1. Log in at my.apa.org.
  2. The products and benefits of your subscription (including access to AJO) are listed under the “Subscriptions” section.

Logging in for the first time?
Your APA username is the email address that you used to sign up for your Global Alliance membership. The first time logging in you will need to create a password, using the “Forgot your password or email/username?” link. This will take you to the next page in which you will enter your email address in the field under “I don’t know my password.” The system will email you a link to create your password. If your email is associated with a Google account, you may also log in using Google.

If you need assistance with APA’s electronic products, please contact gro.a1711383613pa@ec1711383613ivres1711383613remot1711383613suc1711383613.

How to get AJO notifications

Subscribe to the RSS feed for AJO

Opt-in to receive alerts from AJO:

  1. Log in at psycnet.apa.org.
  2. Click on “My PsycNET” on the far right of the blue bar at the top of the page.
  3. Click the second tab, “PsycALERTS.”
  4. Click “Add Journal Alert.”
  5. Find AJO, checkmark the box to the right of the journal, then scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Subscribe.”

What does AJO Publish?

The journal is published 6 times a year, including special issues, with theoretical, policy-analytic, and empirical articles.

Contemporary topics in AJO’s topical scope include, but are not limited to:

  • public behavioral health and prevention
  • institutional reform
  • causes and solutions to behavioral healthcare disparities
  • adaption of behavioral health methods to the needs of racial, ethnic, cultural and other minority groups
  • responses to natural and human-made disasters
  • immigrants and refugees
  • underserved behavioral health populations
  • protection of vulnerable people
  • sociocultural dimensions of behavioral health problems

Special Sections

AJO occasionally invites leading scholars to edit special sections or issues on topics of particular interest.  These issues usually contain articles solicited by the guest editor, who coordinates initial reviews of the manuscripts that are submitted in response to these invitations. If you have an idea for a special section or issue, email gro.e1711383613citsu1711383613jhb@O1711383613JA1711383613.

Social Innovations Feature

AJO includes a unique magazine-in-a-journal. This feature is called Social Innovations and is intended to promote conversation about strategies for establishing new social settings and changing social norms to create more auspicious circumstances for mental health promotion. Scholars are welcome to submit articles for Social Innovations.

AJO Editors

Co-Editors

Kendell L. Coker, PhD, JD

Assistant Professor, Connecticut College

Read Bio

Kendell Coker, PhD, JD is an assistant professor at Connecticut College in New London, CT. He previously was an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Department of Allied Health at University of New Haven. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Forensic Psychology from Nova Southeastern University. He received his clinical postdoctoral training through Northwestern University at the Cook County Juvenile Court Clinic, where he conducted sentencing evaluations on youth involved with the Department of Probation. He then received his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he graduated with cum laude honors and was an entering Health Law scholarship recipient and also served as the Editor-in-Chief for the law school’s Health Law and Policy Review, Annals of Health Law. He served as a council member on the Juvenile Defense Resource Institute at Northwestern University School of Law, which was a project designed to strategize ways to reduce recidivism and improve legal representation of juveniles involved in the criminal justice system. Dr. Coker also was a NIDA T-32 postdoctoral fellow at Yale University Department of Psychiatry’s Forensic Drug Diversion Program (FORDD).

Ryan Kilmer

Ryan P. Kilmer, PhD

Professor of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Read Bio

Ryan Kilmer, PhD is a Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Rochester. He identifies as a clinical-community psychologist, with primary professional interests in children and families. Specifically, his interests focus on the development of children at-risk and their adjustment to trauma, as well as the use of evaluative research to guide system change, program refinement, service delivery, and policy. A former President of the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice and an AJO Editorial Board member since 2011, he is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association’s Division 27 (Society for Community Research and Action) and of APA. He is also former Director of the Social Aspects of Health Initiative for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UNC Charlotte, and was the inaugural Senior Faculty Fellow for Faculty Engagement at the University’s Office of Urban Research and Community Engagement.


Read APA’s conversation with the former editors of AJO, Jill D. McLeigh and William Spaulding.

Editorial Board

Netta Achdut, PhD
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Lydia HaRim Ahn, PhD
Arizona State University

Majdouline (Maggie) Aziz, PhD 
University of South Carolina Union

Sara L. Buckingham, PhD
University of Alaska Anchorage

Cyleste C. Collins, PhD 
Cleveland State University

Maria Crouch, PhD, MS 
Yale University

Christopher F. Drescher, PhD 
Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University

Amy L. Dworsky, PhD 
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

Usama El-Awad, PhD
Bielefeld University

Eric A. Evans, PhD 
Disability Rights Nebraska   

Michael Fitzgerald, PhD
Oklahoma State University Stillwater

Ryan E. Flinn, PhD
University of North Dakota

Larry M. Gant, PhD
University of Michigan

V. Gil-Rivas, PhD
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Derrick Gordon, PhD
Yale University

Evan Harrington, PhD 
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

Evan Holloway, PhD 
University of California San Francisco

Debra A. Hope, PhD
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Noelle Hurd, PhD
University of Virginia

Iheoma U. Iruka, PhD  
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Trinidad Jackson, PhD
University of Louisville

Mimi M. Kim, PhD
Duke University

Ibrahim Aref Kira, PhD
Center for Cumulative Trauma Studies

Justin Lavner, PhD
University of Georgia

Roger J.R. Levesque, JD, PhD
Indiana University

Terri Lewis, PhD 
University of Colorado

Nancy H. Liu, PhD 
University of California, Berkeley

Bob Lonne, PhD
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Kathryn Marley Magruder, PhD 
Medical University of South Carolina


Rosemarie Lillie Macias, PhD
University of New Haven

Julie Nagoshi, PhD
Arizona State University

Kim Oates, MD, Dsc
The University of Sydney, Australia

Darlene Perry, PhD
P & S Evolutions, LLC

Gilbert Reyes 
National Child Traumatic Stress Network

Benjamin Shepherd, MEd, MS
Nova Southeastern University

Michelle Silva, PsyD
Yale University

Victor C. Strasburger, MD 
University of New Mexico

Dijonee Talley, MS
Temple University

Tony Xing Tan, EdD 
University of South Florida

Elizabeth C. Thomas, PhD
Temple University

Martie P. Thompson, PhD 
Appalachian State University

Emily Treichler, PhD
University of California San Diego

Luis A. Vargas, PhD 
University of New Mexico

Weijun Wang, PhD
The State University of New York at Buffalo

The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry is published by the American Psychological Association (APA), effective with the 2014 volume.

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