Reply to Cameron et al.: Mistakes Were Made. Can They Be Corrected?

How Have Other Journals Compared to “The Top Seven” Journals in Family Social Science with Respect to LGBT-Related Research and Reviews? A Comment on “A Content Analysis of LGBT Research in Top Family Journals 2000–2015”? An Editorial Analysis

“…Between 2000 and 2009, MFR featured publication of 306 articles, excluding biographies and brief editorials, with one article published that contained information on same-sex marriage in Canada (Schlesinger, 2007). Between 2010 and 2017, MFR featured several reviews of LGBT-related literature or commentaries on such reviews, with reviews focusing on family interventions (Rosik, 2014;Whitton & Buzzella, 2012), research literature (Allen, 2015;Cameron & Cameron, 2012;Cameron, Cameron, & Proctor, 2017;Kulik, 2011;Schumm, 2010Schumm, , 2012a, and commentary on research literature (Schumm, Crawford, Childs, Ateeq, Koochel, & Alshalan, 2017) as well as five empirical articles (Bong, 2011;Edwards, 2011;Negy, Pearte, & Lacefield, 2013;Sutphin, 2010), of which one concerned family life education program evaluation (Skogrand, Mendez, & Higginbotham, 2013) out of 250 published articles. The difference in rates between the early and later periods of MFR was statistically significant, with an odds ratio = 18.1 (95% CI, 2.36 to 138.6, p = .005), despite the small number of LGBT-related articles published in either time frame.…”

“…Furthermore, another limitation to some may be that the MFR editor tried to provide a diversity of opinion on LGBT issues as part of a larger belief in the value of scholarly discussion and debate (Knapp, 2009). Some editors might not allow publication of critiques of themselves (i.e., the editors) in contrast to our editorial policy, whereby we can "take it" (Cameron & Cameron, 2012;Cameron et al, 2017) and "dish it out" in return (Schumm et al, 2017). Our sample size, of course, is small compared to the totals for the seven other journals, making many of the comparisons of questionable value in terms of statistical testing.…”