Journal of Health Psychology
Academic journal
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- 3 chapters
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Special issue on the PACE trial
In July 2017, the journal published an entire issue devoted to the controversial PACE trial for ME/chronic fatigue syndrome. The articles were mostly critical of the PACE trial, and the journal concluded that "the results are, at best, unreliable, and at worst manipulated to produce a positive-looking outcome". However, three editorial board members of the journal, all of whom were alleged to have conflicts of interest, resigned in protest, claiming that the articles were biased and one-sided. In response, an associate editor of the journal, James C. Coyne, attacked the three resigning board members, calling one a "disgusting old fart neoliberal hypocrite", and telling another to "f*** off...you ol' sleazebag". Coyne left the editorial board as a consequence.
Following the publication of the PACE trial special issue, a debate was secured in the UK Parliament by Carol Monaghan, then MP for Glasgow North West, concerning the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's (NICE) continued promotion of the PACE trial. Monaghan stated "from the very start the PACE trial was flawed," echoing the sentiment of Dr Keith Geraghty, the author of the journal article "'PACE-Gate': When clinical trial evidence meets open data access."
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Eysenck controversy content
In 2019, the journal published a review article by Anthony J. Pelosi that delivered a significant criticism of the work of the late Hans Jürgen Eysenck, referring to it as "one of the worst scientific scandals of all time" and calling for a "long-overdue formal investigation." Much of the work that was criticized found strong associations between certain personality types and cancer development. Pelosi’s article was backed up by an editorial by the then editor-in-chief of the journal, David Marks, that argued for a "correction of the scientific record." Following Pelosi's review and then an enquiry by the late psychologist's institution, King's College London, 26 of Eysenck's articles were concluded to be "unsafe." In a later interview with The Guardian newspaper, Pelosi stated that Eysenck "seemed to relish getting involved in controversial topics" and that once he had read Eysenck's arguments on personality and cancer he was "left with a firm impression that this was fraudulent." These revelations were made more significant given that on his death Eysenck was the third most cited psychologist of all time, behind Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget.
Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in:
- CINAHL
- Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences
- EBSCO databases
- Embase
- Index Medicus/MEDLINE/PubMed
- PsycINFO
- Scopus
- Social Sciences Citation Index
According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2022 impact factor of 3.2.