Psychology; what does that word actually mean? When you ask people what psychology is, it usually takes them some time to come to a clear conclusion and words like “mind, brain, behavior, analysis, crazy and thought” come up repeatedly. The Oxford dictionary describes psychology as being ‘the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.’

Originally psychology was born out of biology and philosophy and was being discussed as far back as the ancient Greek era by Aristotle and Socrates. However, it only became known as an independent field when a German-born scientist, Wilhelm Wundt, founded the very first experimental psychology laboratory in 1879. Since then the field of psychology has not only grown tremendously but also flourished. With this expansion in knowledge and research comes a greater understanding and learning of how the human mind actually works. The BMC series has recognized the need to keep the community up to date with the latest research in psychology and is therefore very proud to welcome their newest journal, BMC Psychology, to their expanding family.

I am sure that most people will agree that there is a great demand for an open access journal within the field of psychology and with this goal in mind we have decided to launch BMC Psychology.

So what makes BMC Psychology different from the already existing journals, I hear you ask? We will be one of the very few journals that covers all aspects of psychology under one umbrella. We know that there are individual sub-specialist journals in existence, however, BMC Psychology will be the one-stop point to reading about all things psychology based! So whether you are interested in clinical psychology or social, evolutionary psychology or personality disorders – our journal will encompass it all. We welcome submissions via our online system. So whether you are an author, a scientist or just generally interested in psychology, then please do consider getting involved with us!