TPC Journal-Vol 11-Issue-1

70 The Professional Counselor | Volume 11, Issue 1 During its first 4 years of publication, TPC produced one of the highest proportions of qualitative tradition articles seen in the family of counseling journals (53.1%), before declining significantly in 2015–2019 (30.7%). Qualitative research has consistently accounted for 30–45% of research publications in some counseling journals over the last 20 years (Alder et al., in press; Gayowsky et al., in press; MacInerney et al., 2020), but is much lower in other journals like Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development (Saks et al, 2020) and Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation (Johnson et al., 2021), which produce more quantitative, generalizable research. It will be interesting to see if the significant decline in qualitative articles continues over the next decade or stabilizes in the 30% range. The significant increases in adults and counselors or other mental health service providers as participants in TPC research studies was interesting, as these two groups comprised more than two- thirds (67.5%) of participant types in the 2015–2019 time window (see Table 3). This was accompanied by a significant decline in the use of undergraduate and graduate students. The use of adult participants in counseling research is a welcome occurrence, as adults comprise the majority of clients seen in counseling agencies and private practice. And the focus on counseling practitioners is very appropriate for a journal whose mission it is to meet the professional needs of all counselors across diverse work settings and disciplines. Although the median sample sizes did increase from 65 to 107 participants across the two time windows, that observation is expected given the increase in the proportion of quantitative compared to qualitative studies, as quantitative studies generally have higher sample sizes. Still, the overall consistency in the proportions of small, medium, large, and very large sample sizes is a sign of maturation in such a young journal. Statistical procedures appearing in TPC articles were very well balanced across categories and across the two time windows. Not surprisingly, basic approaches like descriptive analyses and thematic coding comprised about half of all procedures. Descriptive statistics are the most basic type of statistics and are often used to convey results in surveys and nonexperimental studies. MANOVA, ANOVA, and t -tests combined for a very respectable total proportion of 16.8%. TPC should strive to increase the prominence of these more sophisticated statistical tests. Among counseling journals, Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation (Johnson et al., 2021) leads the way in use of these tests of difference statistics at more than 20%, but TPC is not far behind. Finally, TPC editors have a great deal of progress to make in improving the proportions of reporting standards. In the first 9 years of publication, TPC authors reported effect size estimates in only 23.5% of articles, sample reliability estimates in only 39.2%, and sample validity estimates in 36.6% of research articles published. Reports of effect size, score reliability, and score validity are indications of study rigor and meaningfulness. For example, authors should always report on the reliability of scores of standardized dependent variables used in a study so readers know how much error variance in measurement occurred. Likewise, statistical significance is important in hypothesis testing, but effect sizes give readers an indication of how important and meaningful the results are in a grander context. These effect size and reliability reports are among the lowest rates of any counseling family journal (MacInerney et al., 2020; Milowsky et al., in press; Rippeto et al., in press; Saks et al., 2020; Siegler, in press; Sylvester et al., in press), so the TPC editorial board is encouraged to add these reporting standard aspects to review protocols and author requirements to insure inclusion in future articles.