PROFILES OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE MUSIC THERAPY JOURNALS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to present a content analysis of seven music therapy journals in the English language in order to provide an objective documentation of the longitudinal growth of the field. The current study examined seven English language music therapy journals including the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy: Journal of the American Association for Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, The Australian Journal of Music Therapy, The Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, The British Journal of Music Therapy, and The New Zealand Society for Music Therapy Journal. A total of 1,922 articles were coded according to author information (name, credentials, institution, geographic location), mode of inquiry, population studied, and subsequent article citation. Results indicated a broad range of research topics with a rapid rise in music and medicine research beginning in the 1980s. Research authors in music therapy comprise a diverse group of authors both from the United States and abroad. This study highlighted transitions in institutional productivity moving from clinical settings to academic settings. Over the course of 50 years, there have been continuous changes in various aspects of the music therapy literature that document the continuing growth of the profession.