TAKING STOCK: THE FIRST 25 YEARS OF THE JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

Abstract

Some aspects of the performance of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) are described on the occasion of the journal's 25th anniversary. Comparative circulation data are presented. JABA's influence on the scientific community is measured by examining the citation history of articles that it has published, with attention to both frequency and source of the citations. The influence that other journals have on JABA's authors is assessed through an analysis of citations made by those authors in this journal's reference lists. The citation history indicates dearly that JABA has made substantial contributions toward producing methods useful in coping with a wide variety of problem behaviors, from profound developmental disabilities (such as autism) to the simpler behavioral problems that interfere with normal functioning in home and at school. Recently, the journal has devoted many issues and parts of issues to special topics, in a concerted effort to reflect the increasing breadth of applied behavior analysis.

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior: a Status Update

“…Another approach has been to summarize the most-cited articles published in a particular journal (e.g., JABA, Laties & Mace). A third approach has been to use journal-impact statistics published by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), such as impact factor (e.g., Carr & Stewart 2005), self-citation rate (e.g., Carr & Stewart;Laties & Mace;Poling et al 1994), and cited half-life (e.g., Carr & Stewart). As of 2014, TAVB has not been included in previous bibliometric analyses because it has not been issued an ISI impact factor.…”

Principles and Practice of Behavioral Assessment

“…Interest Journals Table 2-2 illustrates data on the 1992 and 1997 circulations of several behavioral and general interest journals (some data on 1992 were taken from an article by Laties and Mace [1993]). These data indicate that several journals that specialize in behavior therapy and applied and experimental analysis of behavior have a good circulation that has increased since 1992 at a rate similar to that for general psychology and education journals.…”

The History and Current Status of Behavior and Social Issues: 1978–2016

“…Within behavior analysis, it is common to reflect on a journal's impact and trends (e.g., special section of Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Volume 26[4], in 1993 to commemorate the journal's 25 th anniversary with articles from a range of authors including Laties and Mace [1993] and Northup, Vollmer, and Serrett [1993]). This kind of analysis has not been conducted on Behaviorists for Social Action Journal, Behavior Analysis and Social Action, or Behavior and Social Issues (hereafter collectively referred to with the current journal title, Behavior and Social Issues [BSI]).…”