Terrorism Research
Journal of the international Society for Terrorism Research

Paid members of STR will have immediate, free access to the journal's articles as they are finalized, before the semi-annual issues are published.

For non-members, semi-annual issues of the journal will be available on a paid subscription basis for individuals (US $150) and institutions (US $250)

Mission

Our goal is to produce a professional-quality journal that should (a) become a central reference tool in the field, (b) serve as source material in graduate courses, and (c) openly engage controversial issues.

Rationale and Aims

Terrorism as a tactic has been used by political and ideological groups for thousands of years. Recently there has been a worldwide increase in the use of terrorist tactics, and a corresponding increase in interest in achieving greater understanding of several critically important questions.

All these questions can be effectively addressed by behavioural science. Behavioural science here is intended as a broad category including biological, evolutionary, developmental, ecological, personality, social, military, and neuroscience approaches to psychology, as well as anthropology, economics, history, political science, nonlinear dynamic systems, and sociology.

While disparate efforts are underway to answer these questions, no single behavioural science forum specifically devoted to these issues and questions presently exists. This has led to duplication of effort and to lack of dialogue that might resolve contradictory perspectives. It has also resulted in government officials, military leaders, and others involved in national, regional, and local security efforts being forced to go to multiple resources to obtain the latest behavioural research that might be helpful to them.

Adding to problems in the field, emotional responses to terrorism and its effects have made it difficult to have a dispassionate and scientific dialogue. Terrorism Research seeks to remedy this. Since terrorism is a complex issue, interdisciplinary efforts must integrate theory, fundamental principles based on past research, current empirical research, and contemporary model building. We encourage this type of effort through collaborative projects.

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Purpose

The purpose of the journal, then, is to provide a timely, consistently scientifically and theoretically sound, set of papers addressing terrorism from an interdisciplinary, integrative, behavioural science perspective. Papers will be accepted only if they reflect one or more of the following:

• Empirical research
  
  
• Systematic theory-based model building
  
  
• Applications of classic and contemporary theory

Content

Articles will address issues of complex causation of terrorism and terrorist activity and the effects of such activity. Complex causation of terrorism may include individuals, groups, social and political dynamics, ideologies, governments, societies, and subcultures. Effects of terrorist activity may include the same categories; that is, individuals, groups, social and political dynamics, ideologies, governments, societies, and subcultures. Effects include but are not restricted to responses to terrorism and terrorist activity, and may include complex dynamic processes.

The journal will not include papers that are highly driven by opinion, that are primarily policy or strategy analysis oriented, that provide authoritative prescriptions, and/or that do not have a systematic behavioural science theoretical or research base. All papers will be required to use respectful language. Letters to the editor and book reviews will be included. News items and commentary will be excluded or kept to a bare minimum in the journal itself, as those are the purposes of the Society’s list serve.

Many of the papers for this journal are expected to come from authors in the same behavioural sciences from which Society membership is drawn (anthropology, biological psychology, economics, developmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, history, military psychology, neuropsychology, nonlinear dynamic systems, political psychology, political science, social psychology, and sociology.)

Terrorism Research will be an online journal so that time-sensitive analyses and perspectives will be available as soon as possible. We want researchers and professionals working on terrorism or counter-terrorism to have early access to research findings.

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Differences between Terrorism Research and Complementary Journals

• Its sole focus is on terrorism, viewed as a complex, dynamic area.
  
  
• It is a behavioural science journal, not limited to social sciences.
  
  
• Its papers are limited to empirical research and science theory-driven papers.
  
  
• The journal will be the primary resource for those seeking developments in behavioural science research and models relevant to terrorism.
  
  
• It will not include papers that are primarily policy or strategy analysis oriented, or provide authoritative prescriptions that do not have a systematic behavioural sciences theoretical or research base. Other journals publishing papers on terrorism tend to include policy papers.
  
  
• It will not include case studies unless there is generalization to the field as a whole and the cases are a basis for predictions.