Bericht aus dem Österreichischen Bundesverband für Psychotherapie

Abstract

Investigations of readers’ opinions of “Psychotherapie Forum”

Summary
This paper reports the results of an interrogation of the readers of “Psychotherapie Forum", a journal published quarterly by Springer and edited by the OEBVP, the Swiss Charta of Psychotherapy and the Crossprofessional German Roofing Bond for Psychotherapy. The print run is about 6000 copies and consists of a scientific part and a supplement, dealing with professional and political issues. This study is the first since the foundation of the magazine (1992).

Methods: In the first half of the year 2008 a representative sample of the readers was asked to fill out a questionnaire. 1500 subscribers were chosen coincidentally and weighted by countries. The questionnaire consists of about 50 questions. 200 questionnaires were returned within the time limit (13.34%).

The results grouped around the midpoint of the five-point-scale. Only very few differences between the subgroups (see personal data) showed up. The supplement and the scientific part of „Psychotherapie Forum“ are differently accepted by readers. The supplement is less accepted than the scientific part.

Conclusion: As the publisher is mainly responsible for the appearance of the journal there is no need to give further recommendation according to the results of this study. Readers claim the scientific part should be more practice-oriented. The number of copies per year and the copies dealing with specific topics should stay the way they are. The magazine should still be published in printed form and not online. The price should stay the same and the subscription fee should still be included in the membership fee. Since the supplement is judged less positively than the scientific part, publishers should think about some appropriate changes.