skip to main content

Under the purview of APA’s mission to advance psychology to benefit society and improve people’s lives, the Publications and Communications Board (P&C) and the Office of Publications and Databases (OPD) operated to meet publishing goals for APA scholarly products.

Total revenue for APA’s core scholarly and professional publishing program (APA Journals, APA Books, Publication Manual, APA Style CENTRAL, PsycINFO abstracts, PsycARTICLES full-text, PsycTESTS, PsycTHERAPY, PsycBOOKS, PsycEXTRA, PsycCRITIQUES and PsycNET platform) totaled nearly $93 million in 2017.

Highlights of P&C Board Actions

APA renewed its commitment to open science by beginning a formal collaboration with the Center for Open Science (COS) to advance open science practices in psychological research.

Several APA journals now offer authors Open Science Badges for their articles when authors agree to make their data or materials open, or preregister their studies. Additionally, through their Open Science Framework, COS agreed to host an APA Data Repository for data corresponding to articles published by APA and to integrate its PsyArXiv preprint server with some APA journals to ease the submission process for authors.

The P&C Board announced the following editorial appointments in 2017.

  • Clinician’s Research Digest: Adult Populations – Marisol Perez, PhD
  • Clinician’s Research Digest: Child and Adolescent Populations – Marisol Perez, PhD
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition – Aaron S. Benjamin, PhD
  • Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology and Economics – Samuel M. McClure, PhD
  • Journal of Threat Assessment and Management – Laura S. Guy, PhD
  • Professional Psychology: Research and Practice – Kathi A. Borden, PhD
  • Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal – Sandra G. Resnick, PhD
  • Psychology and Aging – Elizabeth A. L. Stine-Morrow, PhD
  • Psychology of Violence – Antonia Abbey, PhD
  • Psychology, Public Policy and Law – Michael E. Lamb, PhD
  • Training and Education in Professional Psychology – Deborah J. Bell, PhD
  • Traumatology – Regardt J. Ferreira, PhD

APA Journals

APA Journals produces an array of scholarly journals that cover the spectrum of modern psychology. Journals published more than 51,000 pages in 2017 across 90 journals, representing more than 4,690 articles in 515 journal issues.

APA Journals makes available "Online First Publication" articles within 30 days after accepted manuscripts have been received at APA. These are designated as the "versions of record" and chronicled in PsycARTICLES.

More than 3,340 articles were released as Online First Publication between January and December 2017, and approximately 3,157 articles "graduated" to bound issues in this same time frame.

Also in 2017, APA Journals published more than 128 special issues or sections of journals. The following are some examples of special issues and sections:

  • American Psychologist (November 2017) — "125th Anniversary of the American Psychological Association"
  • Psychology of Violence (July 2017) — "Gender-Based Violence: Evidence From Europe"
  • Psychological Service (November 2017) — "College Counseling Services"
  • Psychology, Public Policy, and Law (November 2017) — "Psycho-Legal Researchers' Impact on Policies and Legal Practices"
  • Journal of Latina/o Psychology (November 2017) — "Evidence-Based Treatments With Latinas/os"
  • Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (November 2017) — Special Section on "Morton Dutsch"
  • Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (November 2017) — Special Section on "Spiritual Issues in the LGBTQ Community"
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance (October 2017) — "Celebrating 125 Years at APA"
  • Motivation Science (September 2017) — "Interdisciplinary Research in Motivation Science"
  • American Psychologist (September 2017) — "Close Family Relationships and Health"
  • Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice (August 2017) — "Behavior Analysis in School and Education Settings"
  • Psychological Services (August 2017) — Special Section on "Wounded Warriors: Treating Native American Veterans and Families"
  • Journal of Abnormal Psychology (October 2017) — Special Section on "Dark Personality Trais: Challenges and Innovations"
  • Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (August 2017) — "Learning / L'Apprentissage"
  • Canadian Psychology (August 2017) — "Employee Deviance and Withdrawal"
  • Psychology of Men and Masculinity (July 2017) — "Health Implications of Masculinity Within Military Populations"
  • Psychology of Violence (July 2017) — "Gender-Based Violence"
  • Journal of Occupational Health Psychology (July 2017) — "Journal of Occupational Health Psychology at 20"
  • Spirituality in Clinical Practice (June 2017) — "Contemplative Spiritual Life, Mindfulness and Treatment"
  • Traumatology (June 2017) — "Secondary Traumatic Stress, Compassion Fatigue, and Vicarious Trauma"
  • Families, Systems, & Health (June 2017) — "Strategies for Evaluating Integrated Care in the Real World"
  • Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology (June 2017) — "Everyday Attention — Part I / L'attention au quotidian — partie I"
  • Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology (September 2017) — "Everyday Attention — Part II / L'attention au quotidian — partie II"
  • Translational Issues in Psychological Science (June 2017) — "Psychology and the Legal System"
  • Psychological Methods (June 2017) — "Bayesian Data Analysis — Part I"
  • Psychological Methods (December 2017) — "Bayesian Data Analysis — Part II"
  • Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal (June 2017) — "Disability Policy Research"
  • Psychological Assessment (June 2017) — "Field Reliability and Validity of Forensic Psychological Assessment Instruments and Procedures"
  • Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research (June 2017) — "Fatigue in the Workplace"
  • Psychoanalytic Psychology (April 2017) — "Sexual Boundary Violations"
  • Journal of Counseling Psychology (July 2017) — Special Section on "The Future of Counseling Psychology"
  • Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (June 2017) — Special Section on "Reflections on the Orlando Massacre on Its First Anniversary"
  • School Psychology Quarterly (June 2017) — Special Section on "Addressing Non-Suicidal Self-Injury"
  • American Psychologist (April 2017) — "Psychology of Terrorism"
  • Journal of Applied Psychology (March 2017) — "Journal of Applied Psychology Centennial Special Issue"
  • American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (March 2017) — "Facilitating Reintegration for Military Service Personnel, Veterans, and Their Families"
  • Asian American Journal of Psychology (March 2017) — "Moving Beyond the Model Minority"
  • Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal (March 2017) — "Cognitive Remediation"

APA Books

APA publishes books to meet the needs of scholars, clinicians, researchers and students in all areas of psychology. The product lines encompass an array of resources, including the APA Books®, APA LifeTools®, Magination Press® imprints and APA Videos®.

In 2017, APA Books released 43 scholarly titles, two LifeTools (APA's self-help imprint), five reference handbooks, and 21 Magination Press (APA's children's book imprint) titles.

In addition, APA Books released 46 E-titles to ProQuest Ebook Central, EBSCO, OverDrive, RedShelf and VitalSource and 48 titles to Amazon Kindle.

Book awards bestowed upon APA titles are generous. Included here is a list of awards received for APA scholarly, LifeTools and Magination Press titles.

APA Books Awards

The following four books each won a Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award for 2017:

  • Adlerian Psychotherapy by Jon Carlson and Matt Englar-Carlson
  • Helping Couples on the Brink of Divorce: Discernment Counseling for Troubled Relationships by William J. Doherty
  • The Art and Science of Mindfulness: Integrating Mindfulness Into Psychology and the Helping Professions by Shauna Shapiro and Linda E. Carlson
  • What Psychology Majors Could (and Should) Be Doing, Second Edition: A Guide to Research Experience, Professional Skills, and Your Options After College by Paul J. Silvia, Peter F. Delaney and Stuart Marcovitch

Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy by Pratyusha Tummala-Narra won an Honorable Mention in the Psychology category of the 2017 PROSE competition, which is organized annually by the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers.

Affirmative Counseling and Psychological Practice With Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Clients, edited by Anneliese Singh and lore m. dickey, won APA Div. 44's Distinguished Book Award. Div. 44 is the Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.

APA LifeTools Awards

Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek was a finalist in the Parenting and Family category of the 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards.

When an Adult You Love Has ADHD: Professional Advice for Parents, Partners and Siblings by Russell A. Barkley won a 2017 Independent Press Award in the Psychology category.

Magination Press Awards

In the National Indie Awards, the following were winners in their respective categories:

  • Bounce Back, (Juvenile Non-Fiction)
  • Dating and Sex (Young Adult Non-Fiction)
  • Either Way (LGBTQ Fiction for Children and Young Adults)

Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2017, noted GIRL: Love, Sex, Romance, and Being You as a winner in the Teen Nonfiction category. The book also received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

Being Me and A World of Pausabilities won Gold Awards in the Mom's Choice Awards

Emily Grace and the What-Ifs. Gold Award in the Nautilus Awards

Being Me. First place (Children's Non-Fiction) in the Purple Dragonfly Awards

Dating and Sex: A Guide for the 21st Century Teen Boy. Best of Show from the Washington [DC] Publishers Book Design Awards

Feminism From A to Z. Starred review from School Library Journal

The video division of APA Books released 19 individual video titles in both DVD and in streaming format (through our distributors), including the Emotion in Psychotherapy Series, featuring Leslie S. Greenberg, Norka Malberg and Michael A. Tompkins.

The video division also released 36 videos into PsycTHERAPY®, APA's database of streaming psychotherapy videos.

Electronic Databases

APA's platform (PsycNET) and databases (PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, PsycBOOKS, PsycEXTRA, PsycCRITIQUES, PsycTESTS and PsycTHERAPY) are supported by the Product Development and Content Management departments within the Office of Publications and Databases.

In 2017, APA upgraded the APA PsycNET platform to strengthen the overall search capabilities and help researchers find the most relevant psychology-related content with greater ease and precision. The improvements include a responsive web design, enhanced functionality, and a powerful technology and architecture upgrade. Related content, or a "more like this" feature was added to search results to broaden content discovery. An enhanced browse function provides journal snapshots for PsycARTICLES on the table of contents for each journal, listing the most cited and downloaded articles, along with other aggregated frequency data. In addition, citations can be added to "My List" directly from browse results as well as a new citation export to APA Style CENTRAL.

The new feature-rich platform showcases the integration of a redesigned Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, making it easier to target relevant research content.

Initiatives to ensure the quality of the PsycINFO database included a re-evaluation of all journals on the coverage list and a tight screening of books added to the database, primarily to weed out predatory publishers.

  • More than 200,000 records were released into the PsycINFO database in 2017, bringing the total number of records in the database to 4.4 million: of these 363,323 have ORCID IDs and 122,415 are open access. In addition, the database contains almost 110 million cited references. The number of journals covered by PsycINFO at the end of 2017 was 2,379 – 153 were dropped during the journal re-evaluation process and 22 new journals were added. Book coverage tightened by more than 25 percent, with more than 1300 books added in 2017.
  • PsycINFO also includes the metadata records for the PsycARTICLES, PsycBOOKS, and PsycCRITIQUES databases:
  • Nearly 5000 metadata records were added to the PsycARTICLES database, bringing the total records to 204,095.
  • Approximately 800 APA book and chapter records were added to PsycBOOKS. At the end of the year, PsycBOOKS contained 69,920 book and chapter records.
  • The PsycCRITIQUES database, with more than 43,000 records, was discontinued at the end of 2017.
  • The PsycTESTS database grew by 7,319 new records, totaling nearly 50,000 records by the end of the year. Approximately half of the metadata records are accompanied by full tests.
  • The PsycEXTRA database has been transformed into an archive for APA and APA-related content only. More than 1600 such archival records were added to PsycEXTRA in 2017, including abstract collections and presentations from the 2017 APA Convention
  • Approximately 3600 website pages were indexed 2017 for APA's public website. Much of this content is also archived in the PsycEXTRA database.
Date created: 2018