Editorial

Dear readers and colleagues,
This time we have gone beyond expectations!

Once again, as it is a must to keep up with the times, BPA completely renews and improves itself, aiming at an important internationalization of its profile, its readers, the scientific community of reference and the areas of interest.

The history of this journal is as important as the development of psychological disciplines in our country. In fact, BPA was born a few years after the establishment of Giunti Psychometrics (1950), the first national publishing house to publish psychological and psychodiagnostic tests.
It was Edoardo Abbele, former director of Tecnica e Organizzazione, the historical magazine of Adriano Olivetti (the Captain of Industry who brought Italy to the top of the world in the field of technology and innovation) who gave life to BPA in 1954. Since then, the journal has been characterized by its adherence to the early intuition of its founder: the focus on the psychological well-being of workers, on applied psychology and the interest in the development of tools aimed at measuring psychological constructs.

This further operation of renewal, which has been pondered for a long time, makes a further step forward while remaining firmly attached to its cultural and scientific roots: the attention to the development of psychological research in the application field.

In fact, the journal’s focus lies between tradition and the most marked scientific and methodological innovation.

To the consolidated interest on

1. Psychological Testing, focused on psychological tools, in terms of their development, validation and application, also in a multicultural key and online
   and to the equally consolidated interest in
2. Work and Organizational Psychology, related to behaviour in the workplace and the application of psychological principles and methods to improve the work environment, job satisfaction and safety
   we are placing side by side a scientific theme that is completely new for the magazine and strongly contemporary: the attention to Computational Psychology and to new technologies as a modern and more precise declination of the consolidated psychometric interest.
3. Computational Psychology seems to be the natural declination of the development of application methods and quantitative techniques – in terms of algorithms underlying behaviour and resources available to make predictions on it. The introduction of Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence, Tele- assessment, the expansion of the evidence-based approach to both treatment and psychological assessment, are now essential elements for psychological research and its application.
   
   

Therefore, a new scientific profile emerges attempting to decline the historical constructs and foundations of psychological research in contemporary methods and fields. It is an important challenge that requires to take a leap of faith to embark on a demanding and long-term path, rather than choosing immediate convenience.

Accompanying this challenge are both the new and more attractive graphic design and especially the new quality services for readers and researchers who choose to place here their scientific production.

In fact, several new features follow our project for the BPA:

1. Indexing on Scopus and soon on WoS;
2. Availability on the main databases of the field: PsycINFO, Scopus Bibliographic Database, Google Scholar, JournalSeek;
3. New website and new procedures for the submission of articles, fully computerized for the upload of manuscripts, and for the traceability of the peer-review process and the status of acceptance;
4. Papers in open access, both previous and new publications;
5. A new Associate Editor: Prof. Pietro Cipresso, for the Computational Psychology section, who will join the Editor in Chief, Prof. Alessandro Zennaro (Psychological Testing) and the Associate Editor for the Work and Organizational Psychology section, Prof. Claudio Cortese;
6. Integration of the Editorial Board with new Italian and international colleagues.
7. Integration of the Release for pre-publication of articles (and associated DOI assignment) from journal periodicity
   
   

Here we are, ready for a new beginning.
Looking forward to receiving your works…Enjoy our new BPA website!

Alessandro Zennaro
Full Professor in Psychopathology and
Psychological Assessment
University of Turin