Publications and Communications Board (P&C): 2008 Annual Report

The Publications and Communications Board (P&C) and the Office of Publications and Databases (OPD) addressed challenges and opportunities surrounding changes in the scholarly publishing and current economic climates to finish the year meeting its publishing goals for electronic resources, books, and journals.

Under the direction of the P&C Board and to fulfill APA’s global mission of disseminating psychological science, the Office of Publications and Databases had a record year in terms of production and improved services for print and electronic alike.  Below are the 2008 highlights:

• At the 2008 APA Annual Convention, the P&C Board combined convention programming hours with APAGS to offer a “Publishing Track”. P&C contributed eight programming hours. APAGS contributed one convention hour, three hours of 1-hour break-out sessions, and one social hour. The attendance target for main sessions was 70; average attendance for main sessions was 122. Certificate completion targets were set for 20; actual certificate completion was 45. 
  In 2008, the P&C Board presented “How to Publish Your Manuscript” symposiums at seven regional psychological association conferences. 

• The P&C Board actively continues to monitor the substantial issues in the scholarly publishing industry, including technology, Open Access, government-mandated Public Access, and large for-profit search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Legislation passed in 2007 requires mandatory deposits of final manuscripts about research that was funded by the National Institutes of Health. 

• In 2008, the P&C Board membership included 22% ethnic minorities and 33% women. P&C Board member Linda Porrino, PhD resigned and John Disterfhoft, PhD now fills that seat. The Council of Editors Chair is Anne Kazak, PhD and the Council of Editors Chair-elect is Annette LaGreca, PhD.

• The critically acclaimed, landmark APA Dictionary of Psychology was honored by the prestigious American Library Association (ALA). The APA Dictionary of Psychology was their 2008 Outstanding Reference Source and won the ALA Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Award. 

• APA Books released the APA Concise Dictionary of Psychology. This abridged version of the APA Dictionary of Psychology maintained all the best features of the parent dictionary.  Its 10,000 entries cover 90 sub areas of psychology. 

• APA Books released 53 new titles in 2008, representing 16 more titles than in 2007. Those releases included the Handbook of Cancer Control and Behavioral Science: A Resource for Researchers, Practitioners, and Policymakers, and Ethics Desk Reference for Psychologists. 

• In addition, APA Books released a number of student resource titles including Psychology as a Major: Is It Right for Me and What Can I Do With My Degree?, Surviving Graduate School in Psychology: A Pocket Mentor, Undergraduate Writing in Psychology: Learning to Tell the Scientific Story, and Finish Your Dissertation Once and For All!. 

• APA Books added 26 new titles to the APA Psychotherapy Video Series, including Adapting Psychotherapy for Working With Older Adults with Dr. Bob Knight, Working With Arab Americans with Dr. Naji Abi-Hashem, and Working With Veterans with Dr. Gary R. Brooks. 

• Magination Press released 9 new titles in 2008, including Harry Goes to the Hospital by Howard J. Bennett, which won the 2008 Silver Medal in the Health Issues category; Circle of Three: Enough Friendship to Go Around? by Elizabeth Brokamp, which won a Bronze Medal in the Juvenile Fiction—Early Reader category; and  Mind Over Basketball, Jane Weierbach and Elizabeth Phillips-Hershey, which received a Moonbeam Children's Book Award for Juvenile Fiction (Gold) and was a National Parenting Publications Honors Award Winner (NAPPA). 
  Sales of the APA Publication Manual in 2008 reached $6.9 million. 

• In 2008, APA Books Subsidiary Rights Office continued to license translations of APA Books and Magination Press titles in Icelandic, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Complex Chinese, French, Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Korean, German, Greek, Polish, Croatian, Turkish, Arabic, and Dutch.  A total of 115 translation licenses were signed in 2008.   

• During 2008, PsycINFO added 150,735 new records to the overall database; the number of journals covered at the end of 2008 was 2,452, up 113 from 2007. PsycINFO covers journals with journals published in 52 countries and 29 languages.

• PsycARTICLES is the APA database of full-text articles from journals published by APA, the Canadian Psychological Association, and the Hogrefe Publishing Group (Germany). In 2008, APA added 6,098 articles for new issues and those from older volumes. 

• PsycBOOKS added 150 books containing 2,170 chapters in 2008. The first books from the Akron Digitization Project were released into PsycBOOKS.  The project, underway since February 2008, involves scanning all of the psychology books in the public domain held by the Archives of the History of American Psychology (AHAP).  

• PsycEXTRA added 25,657 records in 2008. APA is also digitizing a large amount of gray literature for PsycEXTRA, the APA database for professional literature outside peer reviewed journals and books.    

• The PsycCRITIQUES Blog launched in September. These reviews and comments are available to everyone at https://psyccritiquesblog.apa.org. 

• The APA PsycNET Direct interface became available for public use in 2008. Individuals can purchase access to all 5 APA databases on a transactional basis.  For PsycARTICLES and PsycBOOKS, users can search free; then, when they discover an article or a book chapter they would like, users can purchase $11.95 to download the item.  Users can also buy “day passes,” which are good for 24 hours of searching in one of the other databases, or they can buy a combined day pass that permits them to search PsycINFO, PsycEXTRA, and PsycCRITIQUES for 24 hours. A “day pass” for a single database is $11.95, and the combination day pass is $24.95. 

• PsycINFO staff launched an APA PsycNET page on the popular social networking site, Facebook.  Visitors find PsycNET information on its “wall” including tips for searching as well as links to video tutorials on YouTube, and they can send messages to PsycINFO.  The APA PsycNet Facebook page address is https://www.facebook.com/pages/APA-PsycNET/16466191558.

• APA Journals printed and mailed all its 2008 issues in 2008. 

• APA Journals published over 36,000 pages in 2008 in 56 journals. For 2008, this represents a growth of three additional journals and 3,000 additional pages. 

• In April, 2008, APA and Division 56 launched a new journal about psychological trauma. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. The journal was formally introduced at the APA 2008 Annual Convention in Boston. 

• In July, APA and Division 36 launched Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. 

• In 2008, APA Journals and Division 24 entered into a publishing contract to begin publishing bi-annually, the Division’s journal, Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, in the spring of 2009. 

•  In 2008, APA Journals published 22 special issues or sections of journals. Some examples include: 

  • Developmental Psychology. (September, 2008). “Sexual orientation across the life span.” 

  • Rehabilitation Psychology. (August, 2008). “Research and methodological advances and issues in rehabilitation psychology”. 

  • Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. (February, 2008). “Psychologists responding to Hurricane Katrina.” 

The P&C Board is pleased to announce these six-year editorial appointments in 2008, starting as editor-elect in 2009:

• Psychological Assessment—Cecil R. Reynolds, PhD 

• Journal of Family Psychology---Nadine Kaslow, PhD 

• Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes—Anthony Dickinson, PhD 

• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Personality, Processes, and Individual Differences---Laura A. King, PhD. 

• History of Psychology---Wade Pickren, PhD. 

The P&C Board opened five searches in 2008 for the following journals: 

• Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 

• Developmental Psychology 

• Psychological Review 

• Violence 

• Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. 

Currently, there are 23 international editors and associate editors serving in editorial capacities for APA journals with international editorial leadership roles.

• APA Database consortia sales staff closed over $11,900,000 in December, 2008. 
• In 2008, the Sales, Licensing, Marketing & Exhibitions staff held over 42 exhibits and finalized the 2009 Exhibits calendar with over 40 exhibitions to include Europe, Asia, and South America. 
• Books Marketing:  The books marketing program generated 34 direct mail campaigns (including 3 catalogs, 3 email campaigns, and 19 postcards) to a combined audience of 1,159,636; 64 paid advertisements in distributor catalogs, conference programs, and publications such as Publishers Weekly and the New York Review of Books for exposures of 2,200,000; and marketing promotions for 39 conferences and 30 combined displays to reach a total of 334,300 attendees. All campaigns resulted in a minimum of 3,700,000 promotional exposures. 
• Journals Marketing:  The print journal marketing program generated a journals catalog and updated an agent brochure (combined distribution of more than 170,000); 23 direct mail campaigns to nearly 255,000 recipients; 7 email campaigns to more than 95,000; 23 paid ads in agent catalogs, convention programs, and other publications resulting in 643,000 exposures; the promotion and display of print journals at 32 conferences (combined attendance of 230,000); and the updating and/or creation of 53 house ads, 53 order forms and 50 mini-mocks. The group also oversaw the promotional launches of 5 new journals for 2008 and 3 for 2009. 
• Database Marketing: Highlights of the 2008 marketing strategy for Database and Electronic Products included reinforcement of the APA database brands as a vital part of the multidisciplinary information holdings of every institution by introducing the tagline, “APA
• Databases: The psychology behind it all.” This message was disseminated in revised collateral materials, at industry conferences, and supported by space advertising in a multitude of library and professional publications.
• The remaining electronic products were migrated to the new APA PsycNET platform and the brand was unified to include the individual database packages. Now called APA PsycNET Silver™, APA PsycNET Gold™ and APA PsycNET Platinum™, these packages share in the positive and widespread acceptance that the platform has achieved. This rebranding was introduced to APA members at the Annual Convention. Six separate email campaigns were conducted for renewal, migration and new sales.