MY THOUGHTS ON THE SEVEN DIMENSIONS JOURNAL

MY THOUGHTS ON THE SEVEN DIMENSIONS JOURNAL

During my master’s program, I was required to complete a capstone project. The project I chose was extending Shadish et al., 2016 and surveying behavior analysts to find out what the prevalence of publication bias was among single case design research. While my manuscript currently is sitting on my computer unpublished, I will say that the results showed, just like past research, that publication bias was very prevalent in our field.

So, when I saw a post from Shane Spiker about a new journal in which the first line of the Call for Papers was “Null-result research is an area of research that sorely lacks representation in academic journals.” I was extremely interested. I continued to read their purpose and goals and got more and more excited. Here are some things that stood out when I was reviewing their first issue.

1. Categories on assessing the quality of research: They assess the research submitted on several subcategories, including a) novelty, b) potential for influence, c) cross-disciplinary applicability, and d) diversity in references (to name only a few). Why does this matter? Because when I read them, it seems like their goal with these categories is to break out of the ABA world and produce research that can be easily disseminated across psychology and into the mainstream! I love that, as my whole platform is based on dissemination as well.
2. Goal Area 3, Dissemination: Later in the edition, they report on their three measurable goals. Their third goal they report on is “Journal Reach, Development, and Dissemination.” Yes, I am once again going to point out dissemination. I am very interested to see if the team is going to try to tailor journal content to better promote this goal, but regardless I really like seeing a concrete focus on dissemination outside of our field.
3. The content itself: When I tell you the big smile that I got when skimming the actual content of the journal… The first article is named “A Behavior Analytic Perspective of the Public Behavior of President Donald Trump.” Later in the journal, “Well, That Didn’t Work: Human Response Recovery.” These topics are not your everyday cookie cutter topics. They are unique and interesting approaches to our science. This is the type of research that I just generally look forward to reading, and I cannot wait to check these out myself.

So, overall, I am very excited about this new journal. I cannot say what it is true impact or effect will be on our field, but I can very much say that I will be reading and checking out each one of these articles. I am really excited to see the focus on dissemination as well as fun and unique research. I am getting STRONG Dr. Thomas Critchfield vibes from this paper, and that is the highest compliment I can give.

Matt Harrington, Head Librarian for the ABA Research Library, BCBA

To find more summaries and article reviews for full journals, click the link below to get four volumes of ABA journals with every article summarized and key points pulled out to save you time!

https://www.behavioristbookclub.com/offers/V7JbVZx2

From the posting by WND Press (Publisher):

This journal is an Open Educational Resource (OER) which means there are no paywalls that prevent you from accessing it. This is currently available FOR FREE at Seven Dimensions: Volume 1 (Spring 2022) | Mysite (wndpress.com) Editorial Board for the journal: Shannon Biagi, Alana Michell, Shane Spiker