Hoist the flag! The future of measurement instruments for the social sciences

A Two-Year Anniversary Around this time of the year 2020, we celebrate the second anniversary of the journal Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences. We are pleased with what the journal has achieved over the course of roughly two years. The starting point for the journal’s inception was the heart-felt need of aiding scientists with documenting their endeavors for sound measurement of specific constructs―be these constructs from sociological, psychological, educational, or economic contexts. And yet, the journal focus is clearly broader than that. It pertains to any methodological advances in the field of survey research and social research in general, and it likewise reflects the accumulative knowledge gathered on all kinds of measurement in the social sciences, whether drawn from the context of international social surveys or large-scale assessments in education. All these aspects together should render its content highly practical. Best practice for item generation, issues of questionnaire translation and adaptation, and the overarching topic of achieving cross-cultural comparability and validity—these topics are too easily forgotten when authors experience the heat of trying to sell their ideas to substantive journals.