Research, Writing, Editorial Reviewing, and Publishing as Social Justice Issues: The Effects of Stigma

People with disabilities face problems, not only because of their specific impairments but because of social stigma. This article focuses on stigma as it relates to a broad range of physical, social, and behavioral characteristics, and on the effect of stigma on academic research. Effects examined here include decisions regarding the ways in which research questions are defined, what research is funded and how it is funded, the ways in which research is conducted (e.g., the use of community-based participatory research versus traditional approaches), the way in which publication decisions are made, and the way in which research is received by professional colleagues and the public.