Current perspectives in developmental science: Introduction to the 2023 special issue

When I took over as Editor of Infant and Child Development in 2020, I sought, among other things, to establish the journal as a welcoming outlet for opinions, perspectives and commentaries, as there are few outlets for such work in developmental science. I also wanted to be sure that those opinions, perspectives and commentaries were not just coming from the ‘usual suspects’, those who already held considerable status and access to power in the field.

My original intention was that the special issue would be published as the first issue of the year. As many people have noted, the 2021–2022 academic year was particularly challenging as many institutions began to ‘return to normal’ amidst the pandemic. At Infant and Child Development we seek to promote a healthy research and work culture, and thus we were quite flexible with deadlines. The result: the special issue is published as the last issue of the year rather than the first. Nevertheless, it is once again a fantastic collection of articles. Please take the time to read them.

A final note: there were three additional articles that were meant to be published as part of this special issue, but due to a production error were published in the previous issue. These papers, by Fong et al. (2023), Hendry and Scerif (2023) and Veldkamp and Kemner (2023), are just as good as all of the others, and are part of this special issue, at heart.