gms | German Medical Science

Dear readers,

Welcome to GMS Journal of Arts Therapies (JAT), a peer reviewed international open access journal in the vibrating field of creative arts therapies. JAT publishes scientific articles across the disciplines of art-, music-, dance-, drama-, and poetry-therapy and is the official organ of the German Scientific Association for Creative Arts Therapies (Wissenschaftliche Fachgesellschaft für Künstlerische Therapien e.V., WFKT), founded in 2017. The journal strongly supports the principles of international diversity, which becomes visible in a widespread editorial board of experts in various fields of creative arts therapies. Thus, we invite and encourage authors to submit research articles, review articles, project reports, short communications, as well as discussion papers and comments on creative arts therapies from all around the globe.

The launch of the journal has several important backgrounds:

Firstly and most importantly, JAT contributes to the scientific visibility and progress in the field of creative arts therapies. In order to gather, strengthen, and disseminate evidence-based research in the field of creative arts therapies, JAT understands its role in providing a publishing organ to make scientific results accessible for a modern and open society, which demands for unrestricted visibility of science. JAT as such further is a core element in the process of entering the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Wissenschaftlichen Medizinischen Fachgesellschaften, AWMF), which advises the German government on all topics of scientific medicine and works on advancing the medical treatment guidelines in Germany. Although creative arts therapies are a recommended treatment in several medical guidelines, their systematic integration into related decision making processes, on the formal side, depends on the existence of a scientific association with regular scientific conferences and a scientific journal as an official organ. Arts therapies in Germany have started to follow this purpose with the foundation of the WFKT in 2017 in Hamburg. The launch of GMS Journal of Arts Therapies is the next important milestone in this process. Alongside this process, annual conferences with a focus on the state of evidence-based research in creative arts therapies have been initiated since 2015, and feature active factors and therapeutic working mechanisms of creative arts therapies on this year’s conference, September 20^th, 2019, at SRH University in Heidelberg, Germany.

Secondly, while JAT is Europe-based and – among other aims – wants to support early researchers in German speaking countries in their initial publishing phase, internationalization has become increasingly important. The field of creative arts therapies needs to think globally and unite the international research forces. It has always been an advantage for the creative arts therapies to go together in terms of professional policies and in terms of evidence-based research. Jointly we are strong: global sharing is a necessity to the development of our fields.

Thirdly, JAT contributes to the journal scene of creative arts therapies by complementing the field with an open access format focusing on creative arts therapies and their multi-methodological work in all health-related areas. Open access publishing is becoming increasingly important and alongside the open science movement is the model to democratize research and distribute knowledge not only in scientific communities but also to the public. Especially for the creative arts, this is an invaluable advantage: Additional creative material can be uploaded with the articles and can thus make the sensory experience of the arts therapies modalities more accessible. This is not limited to visual material, but includes other possibilities of digital media. Guarding and supporting the sensual component of the experience for the reader may help generate a deeper understanding of therapeutic mechanisms of the creative arts therapies in healthcare.

We hope readers will enjoy JAT and will feel encouraged to submit their own research to the journal. JAT aims to provide a quick and professional turnover of the articles. At this point, we would like to thank the GMS editorial office for their support in the implementation of the project. We wish for a thriving development of GMS Journal of Arts Therapies within the prospering field of creative arts therapies.

Sabine C. Koch, Jörg Oster, Thomas Ostermann

Editors-in-chief