Are Keynote and Invited Speakers at State Behavior Analytic Conferences Experts on Their Presentation Topics?

Boggs et al. (2025) checked the résumés of every keynote or invited speaker at 15 U.S. state ABA conferences held between 2021 and 2023. They counted how many peer-reviewed papers each speaker had published on the exact topic they were asked to present. No surveys, no interviews—just a straight publication count matched to the talk title.

One in three speakers had zero peer-reviewed articles on their topic. The share of speakers with no publications rose each year. The authors label this a negative finding for the field’s continuing education.

Reid et al. (2020) showed that long lectures with slides tank learner attention, while questions, stories, or videos bring it back. Boggs adds a credential warning: even if the crowd stays awake, the person at the front may lack published expertise.

Laske et al. (2022) and Harper et al. (2023) proved you can train almost anyone to give a polished talk with brief BST. Boggs raises the flip side—polish does not guarantee depth.

Schreck et al. (2025) found that adding gamified BST to ethics class makes students more willing to challenge bad practice. Boggs implies we may need the same courage when selecting conference headliners.

If you sit on a conference committee, ask for CVs and run a quick PubMed check before you send the invite. If you are in the audience, look up the speaker’s work beforehand and bring evidence-based questions. Either action pushes the field toward speakers who both publish and present well.