The Future of Verbal Behavior: Together Is Better

The Analysis of Whose Verbal Behavior?

Recent reviews of behavior analytic journals suggest that participant demographics are inadequately described. These reviews have been limited to brief periods across several journals, emphasized specific variables (e.g., socioeconomic status), or only included specific populations. The current scoping review included all published articles in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior from 1982-2020. Six demographic variables were coded for 1888 participants across 226 articles. Despite small sample sizes (i.e., fewer than six participants in 62.3% of studies), only age (85.4%) and gender identity (71.6%) were reported for the majority of participants. Socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and primary language were reported for fewer than 20% of participants. Over time, the number of demographic variables reported showed a slight increasing trend, although considerable variability was observed across years. These findings suggest that editors and reviewers must consider what constitutes acceptable participant characterization. Researchers might also be emboldened to extend their work to populations currently underrepresented in the journal.

Citation Analysis of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (2008-2018)

Recent articles by the editorial board of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB) include calls for greater integration, collaboration, and inclusion. In so doing, it may be helpful to consider TAVB's current reach. Previously, Petursdottir, Peterson, and Peters (The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 25, 109-121, 2009) described the number of citations of articles published in TAVB from 1983 to 2007. The authors found that the greatest number of references to TAVB were self-citations, followed predominantly by other behavior-analytic outlets, such as the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Here, we replicate and extend the work of Petursdottir et al. (The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 25, 109-121, 2009) by conducting a citation analysis of references included in TAVB publications from 2008 to 2018 and also report citations by these venues to TAVB. This citation analysis allows for a more recent review of those outlets that articles published in TAVB commonly reference and those that cite TAVB. Generally, self-citations predominated, with articles published in TAVB commonly referencing books and chapters. The implications of these practices on the impact of TAVB and suggestions for moving forward are considered.