Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs on beginning the fifth year of PlainViews

Looking Ahead

As we reach the end of our fourth year of e-publication, we want to take this opportunity to thank you, our readers, for your ongoing support, especially those of you who have submitted articles for consideration. We look forward to continuing to provide the pastoral care community, and those who work with us, stimulating, interesting, and provoking articles, those that stir our minds, hearts, and souls. And we look forward to receiving article submissions from those who have not yet contributed. PlainViews is only as good as those who submit articles to us. If you want to read articles from those who have a certain expertise, encourage them to submit an article. And, while you are at it, encourage yourself as well!!! DO WRITE!!!!!

Beginning with the 5th volume, we will be making some changes, based on the feedback from our reader survey. These modifications include making forwarding PV easier, one of the most prevalent suggestions, as well as modifying some of the content.

There were many requests to produce “Special Issues” – entire issues devoted to specific topics. So, I am asking that if you have an expertise in one of the following areas, please submit articles for consideration. This will only work if those with a particular expertise do submit articles on these topics. If we do not receive articles in each of the four major categories (Professional Practice, Advocacy, Education and Research, and Spiritual Development), we will not be able to offer these Special Issues. These are the topics to be included:

Allow Natural Death (vs. Do Not Resuscitate)
Charting
Cultural and Religious Diversity
Domestic Violence
Dual-Diagnosis Chaplaincy
Group Process
Hospice
Organ Transplantation
Palliative Care
Pastoral Care Management (including systems used for better managing a department)
Pediatric Chaplaincy
Prison Chaplaincy
Psychiatric Chaplaincy
Spiritual Assessment

Beginning with the February 6 issue, we will be replacing “CaseConference” with “MyPractice,” as we highlight practices of chaplains and other spiritual caregivers. Rev. Jon Overvold, Chair of the Quality Commission for the Association of Professional Chaplains, and members of his commission, will be providing the content for this section.

In response to numerous requests, you will now be able to print out a PDF (Portable Document Format) of each issue in its entirety, without having to print each article separately. Also, we will be adding the feature, “e-mail this article,” so that you can more easily forward any article you wish to a colleague or administrator. Additionally, some articles will have links directing you to additional information. Lastly, we have made a technical change: our search engine is now Google-based, so that it interfaces with the Internet as well as PlainViews’ archives.

As PlainViews continues to grow, we have been looking for underwriters to help support the costs involved in producing this publication. If you believe that your institution would like to be an underwriter and featured in PlainViews, please let us know. Our subscriber base is over 7,600 worldwide and continues to grow. In addition, our reader survey informed us that many of you print out articles and give them to administrators, colleagues, and students. We calculate that over 10,000 individuals are actually reading all or parts of each issue of PlainViews. Let us know if you think that we should approach your institution about this excellent opportunity for visibility through supporting PlainViews. Also, several subscribers asked about making a contribution to help support PV. Should you wish to make a personal donation, please let us know by e-mailing info@plainviews.org.

Thank you for your ongoing support. It is critical for us to be writing about our profession, what we do and how we provide pastoral care. We need to have a continued presence in the literature on pastoral care. I encourage you to write and to help us continue to provide meaningful, provocative, and cutting-edge issues of PlainViews.

Do you have thoughts about advocacy you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org.