Scholarship as an operant class: Strategies and tactics for increasing dissemination of applied behavior analysis
Treat your writing like any operant: reinforce submissions to non-ABA journals and watch our science spread.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Call et al. (2025) treat writing and publishing as behavior you can shape.
They argue BCBAs should send papers to non-ABA journals and use plain, cross-disciplinary words.
The goal is to make people outside our bubble read and use ABA findings.
What they found
The paper is a map, not data.
It lists tactics: pick journals that pediatricians or teachers already read, swap jargon for shared terms, and track submission rates like any other behavior.
How this fits with other research
Briggs et al. (2022) give the tools to stay current, while Call tells you where to ship your own work.
Abbott (2013) first shouted "go beyond kids and classrooms"; Call shows how to do it with your keyboard.
Heward et al. (2022) show ABA already touches 350+ topics, proving the audience is out there if we speak their language.
Why it matters
You can start small. Swap "mand" for "request" in your next paper and send it to a teacher magazine. Each new reader outside ABA is one more ally for our field.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Change every third jargon word in your next report to a plain-English term before you hit send.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Dissemination of applied behavior analytic scholarship to those outside the field can produce potent reinforcers. This discussion proposes that increasing dissemination requires the application of behavior analytic principles to scholarly behavior by applied behavior analysts. Its major premise is that increasing consumption of products of applied behavior analytic scholarship by those from outside the field requires distinct strategies to (a) attract individuals from outside the field to traditional outlets for applied behavior analytic scholarship and (b) increase the frequency of applied behavior analytic scholarship appearing in outlets that do not regularly feature it. A critical element of both strategies is the judicious adoption of methods or terminology from other disciplines. However, different approaches are required to implement each strategy. Practical tactics for individual applied behavior analysts to contribute to both strategies are also discussed.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2025 · doi:10.1002/jaba.70028