Publications and Communications Board 2010 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. Total revenue for APA’s core scholarly and professional publishing program (APA Journals, APA Books, Publication Manual, PsycINFO, abstracts, PsycARTICLES full-text, PsycBOOKS, PsycEXTRA, PsycCRITIQUES and PsycNET platform) exceeded $80 million in 2010.

• At the 2010 APA Annual Convention, the P&C Board contributed eight programming hours. Programming included “Meet the Editors Social Hour,” “How to Publish With APA Books,” “How to Publish Your Manuscript,” “Advanced Training for Searching APA Databases,” “How to Review – Joining the Publication Pipeline,” “Search Techniques for Using APA PsycNET” and “Writing With APA Style.” The average attendance for main sessions was 115.

• In 2010, APA Books released the three-volume "APA Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology" (Shelly Zedeck, Editor-in-Chief), the first multivolume reference set in the new APA Handbooks in Psychology™ series. Each handbook set is headed by a small editorial board: an editor-in-chief and 2-9 associate editors, depending on the size of the set. In 64 chapters, the I/O handbook traces the building and development of organizations; the selection and retention of participants within the organization; and the maintenance, expansion, and contraction of the organization itself.

• The "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition," maintained strong sales in 2010, with total revenue of approximately $11 million.  A fifth book in APA’s suite of style products was released: "Reporting Research in Psychology:  How to Meet Journal Article Reporting Standards," by Harris Cooper, which provides a thorough explanation of the standards that are new to this edition of the Publication Manual.  Efforts to inform and serve the APA Style audience were extended through regular postings on the APA Style blog, which was visited by approximately 94,000 people, and through postings on Facebook^©opens in new window  (3,000 fans) and Twitter^©opens in new window (2,000 followers).

• APA Books released 62 new titles in 2010.  Those titles included "Violence Against Women and Children, Vol. I: Mapping the Terrain," Jacquelyne W. White, Mary P. Koss, and Alan Kazdin (Eds.) and "Vol. II: Navigating Solutions," Mary P. Koss, Jacquelyne W. White, and Alan E. Kazdin (Eds.);  "Deployment Psychology: Evidence-Based Strategies to Promote Mental Health in the Military," Amy B. Adler, Paul D. Bliese, and Carl Andrew Castro (Eds.); "Advanced Methods for Conducting Online Behavioral Research," Samuel Gosling and John A. Johnson (Eds.);  "Social Pain: Neuropsychological and Health Implications of Loss and Exclusion," Geoff MacLeod and Lauri A. Jensen-Campbell, (Eds.); "Ethical Practice in Operational Psychology," Carrie H. Kennedy and Thomas J. Williams (Eds); "Pharmacotherapy for Psychologists: Prescribing and Collaborative Roles," by Robert McGrath and Bret Moore; and "Public Speaking for Psychologists: A Lighthearted Guide to Research Presentations, Job Talks, and Other Opportunities to Embarrass Yourself," by David B. Feldman and Paul J. Silvia. 

• APA Books launched two books for service members and the general public respectively, under its “APA Lifetools” imprint:  "Wheels Down: Adjusting to Life After Deployment," by Bret A. Moore and "How to Find Mental Health Care for Your Child," by Ellen B. Braaten.

• APA Books added 12 new titles to the APA Psychotherapy Video Series, including "Helping Skills in Practice," with Dr. Clara E. Hill, "Brief Dynamic Therapy Over Time," with Dr. Hanna Levenson and "Psychotherapy Over Time," with Dr. George Stricker.

• In addition, several additional titles were published in the book series “Theories of Psychotherapy.” These short books, each focusing on a major theory in psychotherapy and written by leading practitioners, emphasize solid theory and evidence-based practice. New volumes included "The Basics of Psychotherapy," by Bruce F. Wampold, "Psychotherapy Integration," by George Stricker, "Brief Dynamic Therapy," by Hanna Levenson, "Person-Centered Therapy," by David J. Cain, "Interpersonal Therapy," by Ellen Frank, "Reality Therapy," by Robert E. Wubbolding, and "Narrative Therapy," by Stephen Madigan.

• Magination Press released 11 titles in 2010 (eight original titles, two English-language licenses and one second edition): "Eli’s Lie-O-Meter: A Story About Telling the Truth," by Sandra Levins with a Note to Parents by Mary Lamia, PhD; "The Bald-Headed Princess: Cancer, Chemo, and Courage," by Maribeth Ditmars; "Black Jack Jetty: A Boy’s Journey Through Grief," by Michael Carestio; "Phileas’s Fortune: A Story About Self-Expression," by Agnès de Lestrade and Valeria Docampo); "Take the Time: Mindfulness for Kids," by Maud Roegiers;  "Type 1 Teens: A Guide to Managing Your Life With Diabetes," by Korey K. Hood, PhD; "Many Ways to Learn: A Kid’s Guide to LD, Second Edition," by Judith M. Stern, MA, and Uzi Ben-Ami, PhD; "Being Me: A Kid’s Guide to Boosting Confidence and Self-Esteem," by Wendy L. Moss, PhD; "Applying to College for Students With ADD or LD: A Guide to Keep You (and Your Parents) Sane, Satisfied, and Organized Through the Admission Process," by Blythe Grossberg, PsyD; "Ready for Take-Off: Preparing Your Teen With ADHD or LD for College," by Theresa E. Laurie Maitland, PhD, and Patricia O. Quinn, MD; and "Understanding Myself: A Kid’s Guide to Intense Emotions and Strong Feelings," by Mary C. Lamia, PhD.

• In 2010, several Magination Press titles won awards and honors: "I Want Your Moo: A Story for Children About Self-Esteem," by Marcella Bakur Weiner, PhD, and Jill Neimark won a Teachers’ Choice Award for Children’s Books; "Black Jack Jetty: A Boy’s Journey Through Grief," by Michael Carestio, won a Teachers’ Choice Award for Family; "The Grouchies," by Debbie Wagenbach, and "Eli’s Lie-O-Meter," by Sandra Levins, have been named among the best in family-friendly media and received a Mom’s Choice Award (Gold) Children’s for Picture Books and an iParenting media award. The Washington Book Publishers awarded "Attention Girls! A Guide to Learn all about Your AD/HD" a First Place (tie) in the 2010 Book Design & Effectiveness Competition.

• In 2010, APA Books expanded delivery of direct–to-consumer electronic content and offered 37 titles for sale on Kindle.

• In 2010, APA Books Subsidiary Rights Office negotiated 89 licenses for the translation of APA Books into Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Simple and Complex Chinese, Polish, Norwegian and German.

• During 2010, PsycINFO added 195,000 new records to the overall database.  At the end of the year, the database contained 3,008,000 records.

• The number of journals covered by PsycINFO at the end of 2010 was 2,475, a slight increase from 2009.  Forty-seven titles were added; a systematic review of covered journals also resulted in dropping some journal titles for non-receipt or irregular publication.

• PsycARTICLES began including “Online First Publication” articles within 30 days after the accepted manuscripts have been received at APA.  These articles have gone through the full production process, including author approval, and are lacking only assignment to a volume and issue.  The P&C Board has designated these are “versions of record.”  More than 600 articles were released as Online First Publication between July and December, and the lag time to publication has been dramatically reduced.  When the article is included in a bound issue, the original Online First PDF is replaced by a paginated PDF and HTML rendition, and a corrected PsycINFO record that includes volume, issue, pagination, and indexing is released.

• Following an intense collaborative effort by PsycINFO and ITS staff, an automated reference checking and tagging system was implemented for many of the journals covered in PsycINFO, including APA journals.  This software eliminates the need to send these references to an outside vendor for tagging, thereby reducing both the cost and the time required.  The end result for APA journals is that they can be released as much as a week earlier than was possible earlier.

• PsycARTICLES added four new titles and more than 3,200 articles in 2010. The number of articles numbered more than 150,000 at the end of the year.

• APA continued to add books to PsycBOOKS from the Archives of the History of American Psychology (AHAP) at the University of Akron.  These psychology books in the public domain books have been scanned for inclusion in the database and a digital copy provided to AHAP. As a result of the AHAP project, there are now 62 books from the 17th and 18th centuries including a 1620 edition of Saint Augustine's "City of God." There are 285 books from the 19th century. At the end of the year, PsycBOOKS contained about 2,150 books and 33,000+ chapters, including APA books through July 2009 as well as the historical books.

• PsycINFO staff continued to expand the use of social media to inform the world about APA’s electronic databases and the APA PsycNET platform. They have posted regular comments on Facebook and Twitter.  By year’s end more than 60 brief training videos had been posted to YouTube© with links on the APS's web site and Facebook.  About 2 dozen podcasts were available as well. APA PsycNET has a Twitter pageopens in new window.  Users can view any of the videos on the APA's web site or at Facebookopens in new window.

• APA continued to expand its training program to support the databases on the various platforms with on-site training at conferences and multiple webinars weekly in addition to the video tutorials. Following the VIVA (the statewide Virginia library consortium) selection of APA PsycNET as the platform for delivering APA databases, PsycINFO staff trained more than 100 librarians on site.

• The APA Library Advisory Council met twice in 2010. Among their discussion items were support for multiple formats of ebooks, particularly for smartphones; their preference for electronic communication from publishers; increasing need for videos that are in streaming format with embedded keywords, competency tagging, usage data, and MARC records; provision of learning objects that can be added to course management systems; and the increasing trend toward patron-driven acquisition., including directors, bibliographers, psychology specialists, collection development, electronic resource specialists, and consortia representatives. Council members have provided OPD staff with vital input regarding product features, pricing strategies, training and education, and policies regarding usage of electronic products.

• APA presented Brian Quinn, MLIS, with the 2010 APA Award for Excellence in Librarianship.  Mr. Quinn serves as the Coordinator of Collection Development and Social Sciences Librarian at Texas Tech University.  He is known as a self-motivated “servant-scholar and has been a leader in library instruction.  Well published himself, he seeks to apply the principles of psychology to librarianship.  The award garnered good publicity for APA as the university issued press releases and news articles praising APA for honoring librarians in general and Mr. Quinn in particular.

• The philosophy of wanting to be where our customers expect to find APA electronic products has guided decisions on the multiple vendor platforms that can be used to search them.  Over the past year that philosophy has led APA to sign with 4 discovery services.  These services, the next step up from federated search engines, ingest content into giant central indexes to speed discovery and access.  APA full-text articles and books are now crawled for one of these indexes by EBSCO Discovery Service, exLibris Primo, OCLC World Cat, and Serials Solutions Summon.

• PsycINFO indexed approximately 4,000 website pages in 2010 for www.apa.org.

• In preparation for the release of PsycTESTS in early 2011, PsycINFO staff collaborated with ITS staff to develop requirements for the new production system and the delivery of the new database.  During Operation Test Derby in Fall 2010, a concerted search and solicitation effort by a large group of PsycINFO staff brought the total of full-text tests to more than 5,000.  The goal is to reach 10,000 by mid-2011.

• APA Journals published over 36,500 pages in 2010 in 59 journals.

• APA Journals published a total of more than 3,100 articles in 294 journal issues.

• In July 2010, APA Journals launched Online First Publication (OFP). Articles accepted for publication will now be available online in as few as 30 days from the date the manuscript is received in production. OFP articles are available on each journal’s website and are included in the journal’s PsycALERT delivery of the latest tables of contents.

• In August 2010, at the APA Annual Convention in San Diego, APA released a sample issue of its new journal Psychology of Violence and began receiving new manuscript submissions. The journal will publish multidisciplinary research journal devoted to violence and extreme aggression, including identifying the causes of violence from a psychological framework, finding ways to prevent or reduce violence, and developing practical interventions and treatments. The first issue will be published in early 2011.

• In 2010, APA Journals published more than 30 special issues or sections of journals.  The following are some examples of special issues:

  • Review of General Psychology. (June, 2010). “Video Games: Old Fears and New Directions."

  • Training and Education in Professional Psychology. (February 2010). “Sharing Wisdom: Ethnic Minority Supervisor Perspectives."

• The P&C Board is pleased to announce these editorial appointments in 2010, naming the following to six-year terms to begin in 2011 as the editor-elect year (and 2012 as the beginning masthead year).

  • Sherryl H. Goodman, PhD, Journal of Abnormal Psychology

  • Josep Call, PhD, Journal of Comparative Psychology

  • Terence Tracey, PhD, Journal of Counseling Psychology

  • David A. DeSteno, PhD, Emotion

  • Suzette Evans, PhD, Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology

  • Eliot R. Smith, PhD, JPSP: Attitudes and Social Cognition

  • Stephen T. Wegener, PhD, Rehabilitation Psychology

  • Isabel Gauthier, PhD, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

  • James T. Enns, PhD, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

  • Judith Gibbons, PhD, International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation

  • Jeffrey J. Martin, PhD, Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology

  • Daniel Houser, PhD & Bernd Weber, MD, Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics

• The P&C Board opened 5 searches in 2010 for the following journals:

  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition

  • Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

  • Psychology and Aging

  • Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

  • School Psychology Quarterly 

• As of year-end 2010, the marketing programs for electronic products, books, and journals contributed to and supported product sales efforts by collectively producing 160 direct mail campaigns, four catalogs, 78 email campaigns, 332 paid advertisements, 150 house advertisements, five telemarketing campaigns, 11 press releases, 1,650 book publicity mailings, and booth displays at 39 exhibitions and product displays handled by outside vendors at 35 additional conferences. In combination, all such efforts resulted in more than 9,779,000 promotional exposures for the year.

• Through year-end 2010, the Exhibitions Marketing program has organized booth displays at 39 conferences, both in the U.S. and internationally, with a combined attendance of nearly 774,000. In addition, books and journals were promoted at an additional 35 conferences handled by outside vendors.