Reporting of demographic variables in the<i>Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis</i>

Jones and the team read every research article in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis for one year. They checked if authors wrote down participant race, ethnicity, gender, age, and family income.

They used a simple checklist. If a paper said "three boys" but gave no race or income, it counted as missing data.

More than half of the studies left out race and income. Only one in four listed all five basic facts.

When race was reported, most samples were over 80 % white. The journal’s picture of who ABA helps is blurry.

Rosales et al. (2023) extends this warning. Their small-agency guide shows how to track staff race and language the same way Jones wants client data tracked.

Barton et al. (2019) and Straiton-Webster et al. (2025) show why the gap matters. Black children start ABA later and rural kids get fewer hours—facts we can’t see if journals don’t ask for demographics.

Ferrier et al. (2025) looked at the same JABA pool and found punishment studies rarely list cultural details. The two audits don’t clash; they just shine flashlights on different dark corners of the same drawer.

If you don’t report race, income, or language, you can’t tell if your treatment works for everyone. Start adding a five-line table to every intake form and every poster: age, gender, race, ethnicity, family income. It takes one minute and moves the field toward equity.