Authorship trends in the <i>Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis</i>: An update
JABA authorship demographics continue to shift—check your reference lists and editorial boards for representation gaps.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Kranak et al. (2020) counted who writes in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.
They looked at every paper from the start through 2019 and recorded author names and roles.
The goal was to see if the face of ABA research has changed over four decades.
What they found
The share of women authors keeps rising, but the climb is slow.
Editor boards still do not mirror the growing pool of female scientists.
In short, more women write the papers, yet fewer sit at the editorial table.
How this fits with other research
McSweeney et al. (2000) saw the same glass ceiling twenty years earlier.
Their numbers ended in 1997; Kranak shows the trend is still stuck today.
Rotta et al. (2022) stitched many journals together and found the same lift in authorship but lag in editorship.
The story stays the same no matter how you slice the data: we add authors faster than we add gatekeepers.
Why it matters
If you serve on an editorial board or nominate reviewers, count the names on your roster.
When the list feels same-ish, reach out to qualified women and invite them in.
One new editor slot filled today can speed the next wave of authorship tomorrow.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) is considered the flagship journal for the discipline of applied behavior analysis. Thus, popular research topics and other publication trends within JABA reflect the current cultural and scientific contingencies governing the field of behavior analysis. Researchers have previously quantified a number of authorship trends in JABA (and other behavior-analytic journals) across a number of variables, such as gender identity and sex of author, country of origin, or seniority within the field (Dunlap et al., 1998) to examine demographic and organizational factors associated with successful publication in JABA. These analyses ought to be conducted continuously to monitor trends and detect any potential biases (e.g., sexism). Accordingly, the purpose of the present investigation was to replicate previous research in this area (e.g., Dymond et al., 2000) and provide an update of current publication trends within JABA. Implications for future research and publishing practices are discussed.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2020 · doi:10.1002/jaba.726