Publications and Communications Board: 2021 Annual Report

APA Publishing serves two important functions, as a content provider of important research, and as APA’s primary source of income. Total revenue for APA’s core scholarly and professional publishing program (APA Journals, APA Books, APA Style and Publication Manual, Academic Writer, PsycInfo abstracts, PsycArticles full-text, PsycLearn, PsycTests, PsycTherapy, PsycBooks, PsycExtra, and PsycNet platform) totaled over $100 million in 2021.

The P&C Board is pleased to have made five editorial appointments in 2021, naming the following Editors to six-year terms, beginning in 2022 as the Editor-elect year (and 2023 as the debut masthead year). 

• Developmental Psychology–Koraly Perez-Edgar, PhD 
• Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology–Pim Cuijpers, PhD 
• Journal of Experimental Psychology: General–Sarah Brown-Schmidt, PhD  
• Motivation Science–Guido Gendolla, PhD, & Rex Wright, PhD 
• Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology–Mark Beauchamp, PhD  

In 2021, the P&C Board also opened nine searches for the following journals; incoming editors to begin in 2023: 

• Emotion 
• Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 
• Journal of Comparative Psychology 
• Journal of Counseling Psychology 
• Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 
• Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 
• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition 
• Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science 
• Rehabilitation Psychology 

APA Journals produces an array of scholarly journals that cover the spectrum of modern psychology. Journals published more than 63,000 pages in 2021 across 89 journals, representing more than 5,700 articles in 516 journal issues. 

The APA Journals program launched the new Open Access Platform, APA Open, at the end of 2019 with the new journal Technology, Mind, and Behavior. The journal received 100 submissions in 2020 and accepted 15 articles for publication. This grew to 11 submissions in 2021 and 43 accepted articles for publication. Volumes one and twoopens in new window are available on APA Open.

A multi-society collaborative launched the Psychological Research Preregistration-Quantitative (PRP-Q) Templateopens in new window, which published as an article in American Psychologistopens in new window in 2021: This Joint Psychological Societies Preregistration Task Force consisted of the American Psychological Association (APA), British Psychological Society (BPS), and German Psychological Society (DGPs), with support from the Center for Open Science (COS) and the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID).

APA core titles adopted the Transparency and Openness (TOP) Guidelines. The Guidelines, introduced in an article in Science in 2015, are a set of 8 standards with 3 graded levels of adoption. Core titles now publish replications and ask authors for disclosures and/or adherence to standards for data citation; data, code, and materials sharing; design and analysis transparency; and preregistration.

APA Journals continued its commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) through several ways in 2021: the P&C Board received a toolkit for promoting equitable editor searches at its May 2021 meeting, and APA Journals published the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Toolkit for Journal Editors in September 2021. The Editors’ toolkit offers more than 30 recommended actions for promoting equity and inclusion in scholarly journals; it was promoted widely to audiences both within and outside of APA. APA Journals also continued the partnership with Bowie State University to spotlight student researchers of color in psychology and hosted a “How to Publish Your Manuscript” webinar for Bowie State students and faculty in March 2021. APA Journals worked closely with the peer review vendor, Aries Systems, to launch an improved mechanism for collecting demographic information from authors and reviewers in the peer review system (Editorial Manager); this update was launched in June 2021. APA Journals likewise launched a new series of editor video interviews highlighting methods for promoting equity through open science. The first interview with Dr. Katie Witkiewitzopens in new window addressed author contribution statements and the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT); the second interview with Dr. Keith Yeatesopens in new window addressed constraints on generality statements. 

In 2021, APA Journals published more than 60 special issues or sections of journals.  The following are examples of special issues: Risk Perception, Decision Making, and Risk Communication in the Time of COVID-19; Parenting and Family Dynamics in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic; Perspectives on COVID-19: Impacts on Educators; Perspectives on COVID-19: Impacts on Children, Youth, Families, and Educators and the Roles of Human Services Professionals Addressing Diverse Needs; COVID-19: Uncovering Mental Health Disparities; Neuropsychology of Daily Life; Psychology and the Opioid Epidemic; From Ideas to Efficacy in Health Psychology; Psychological Perspectives on Cultural Change; Emerging Research in Industrial Organizational Psychology in Canada; Rendered Invisible: Are Asian Americans a Model or a Marginalized Minority?; Promoting Health and Well-Being in Forcibly Displaced Asian Populations; Revisiting and Re-Envisioning Mindfulness: Buddhist and Contemporary Perspectives; Prayer and Communication With the Divine, the Sacred, the Departed, and the Demonic in Spiritually Oriented Therapy; Clinical Developments at the Intersection of Religious, Spiritual, and LGBTQ+ Experiences; Psychology and Virtual Reality; Play Therapy With Military Families; Learning Memory Control; Play Therapy and the Treatment of Trauma; Play Therapy in Schools; Play Therapy in Medical Settings; Twenty-Five Years of Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice; Learning Memory Control; Gun Violence; Global Perspectives on Sexual Violence: Understanding the Experiences of Marginalized Populations and Elucidating the Role of Sociocultural Factors in Sexual Violence; and Play Therapy and the Treatment of Trauma. And the following are examples of special sections: COVID-19 Impacts on Education and Training; Notes From a Pandemic: A Year of COVID-19; Work Loss and Isolation During the COVID-19 Pandemic; Spirituality in Clinical Practice During COVID-19; Innovations in Education and Training; Diversity and Inclusion in Education and Training; The North American Correctional and Criminal Justice Psychology Conference (NACCJPC): Evidence and Innovation in Criminal Justice Psychology; Reassessing the History of German Critical Psychology; The Phenomenal Experience of Light, Contrast Polarity, and Vividness; Human-Animal Interaction: Implications for Humanistic Psychology; The Contribution of Learning and Memory Processes to Cognitive Control; New Conceptualizations and Directions in the Study of Family Context; and Mental Health in Historical Context. 

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, and Magination Press imprints, APA Style, and APA Videos.

Since its release in October 2019, the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association has broken records set by the previous edition and continues to make an impact in academia. In April 2021, ACES: The Society for Editing awarded the Robinson Prize to an APA Style staff member in recognition of the advancement of editorial excellence, accessibility, and inclusivity in the Publication Manual revision. In May 2021, the Publication Manual also won the Benjamin Franklin gold award from the Independent Book Publishing Association. In addition to being featured in major bestseller lists, the Publication Manual was the #1 book sold on Amazon across all genres during the week of August 23, 2021. As of December 2021, more than 1.1 million copies of the Publication Manual have been sold by APA and its distributors and retailers, including Amazon.

To complement the latest editions of the Publication Manual and Concise Guide to APA Style, the APA Style team released the seventh edition of the Mastering APA Style Student Workbook in September 2021. Rooted in learning science, this innovative digital workbook delivers scaffolded learning and supportive guidance to help students and new writers learn and apply foundational principles of APA Style. In 2021, the APA Style website, which includes companion resources for these products, was accessed by more than 10 million users with more than 37.7 million page views and 1.5 million downloads of free instructional handouts, guides, and sample papers.

In 2021 APA Publishing released 52 scholarly titles, 3 LifeTools (APA’s self-help imprint), one two-volume reference handbook (electronic edition released in December 2021, with the print version to follow in March 2022), and 35 Magination Press (APA’s children’s book imprint) titles. In addition, APA Books released 35 E-titles to ProQuest Ebook Central, EBSCO, OverDrive, 55 books to RedShelf, and VitalSource, and 55 titles to Amazon Kindle. In 2021 APA Books partnered with JSTOR, a digital library of scholarly content and is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization. In 2021 we sent 558 APA Books and References titles to their platform—as new books publish they will also be sent. Magination Press books are now found on online reading platform Epic! (118 digital books), as ebooks on Amazon Kindle (125 ebooks), and available as library digital copies on Bibliotheca/Cloud Library (155 books). Magination Press’ bestselling series, What to Do Guides for Kids has been published in Spanish for US trade marketing (print books and as ebooks)

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

• Papa, Daddy, and Riley , NCSS-CBC 2021 Notable Social Studies Trade Book
• Lulu the One and Only , NCSS-CBC 2021 Notable Social Studies Trade Book
• The Heart of Mi Familia , NCSS-CBC 2021 Notable Social Studies Trade Book
• Something Happened in Our Park , #6 on American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020
• Remembering Ethan , Bank Street’s 2021 Best Children’s Books of the Year
• Ani’s Light , Bank Street’s 2021 Best Children’s Books of the Year
• Lulu the One and Only , Bank Street’s 2021 Best Children’s Books of the Year
• Papa, Daddy, and Riley , Bank Street’s 2021 Best Children’s Books of the Year
• As Babies Dream , Kirkus Reviews’ Best Picture Books of the Year and Best Bedtime Books of 2021
• Something Happened in Our Park , Goddard Riverside CBC Youth Book Prize for Social Justice 2021 Shortlist
• Evelyn Hooker and the Fairy Project , NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Books 2022
• Magination Press new releases received dozens of good reviews in trade publications, but five 2021 books also received starred reviews: The Homework Squad, As Babies Dream, and Stitch by Stitch (*Kirkus Reviews), Stitch by Stitch (*Publisher Weekly), and What to Do When the News Scares You (*School Library Journal)

Magination Press partnered with several national organizations in 2021 and distributed over 140,000 books across 14 partners, including:

• 81,000+ books through 108 Title I schools in the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) literacy program
• 17,000+ books through 15 Reach Out and Read (ROAR) hospitals and pediatric practices
• 14,000+ books through Clinton Foundation’s Too Small to Fail community partners like the National Diaper Bank Network and the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI)
• 13,000+ books through the Cancer Support Community/Gilda’s Clubs
• 9,000+ books through child advocacy centers within the National Children’s Allianceopens in new window, a nonprofit working to eradicate child abuse
• 500+ books through the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Welcoming Schools program

In addition to these distribution efforts,MP editors work directly with partners to collaborate on content. For example:

• The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis licensed dramatic theatrical rights to Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard’s book, Something Happened In Our Town. Along with the production of the play, the Theater Company has partnered with MP, authors, and their local CBS affiliate to develop parent resources and a town hall program that interviews families and local experts about racial justice. They are also working on educational programming after the play for audience, cast, and authors on shared experiences relating to the story.
• Author Michael Genhart will participate in Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools 2021-22 program in partnership with the NYC Department of Education. The program will feature his book, Rainbow: A First Book of Pride.
• Magination Press has partnered with Start LightHouse, a social justice literacy nonprofit in Bronx, New York, working with them on their Literary Adventures program and Racial justice initiative that provides kids with the opportunity to curate their own library of multicultural books reflecting the culturally diverse lives and experiences of their community. They will meet with BIPOC authors to learn more about their journey and work, too!
• Magination Press is collaborating with several groups such as Know Your IX, PFLAG, and the National AIDS Memorial who are writing prefaces, creating endmatter, and generally assisting in new book development, lending their expertise and adding value and an additional platform to meet the needs of our shared audiences.

Academic and Professional Books also garnered recognition and praise, including:

• Three Choice Outstanding Academic Titles for 2021 (Choice is the reviews publication of the Association of College and Research libraries):

  -Older Women Who Work: Resilience, Change, and Choice edited by Ellen Cole and Lisa Hollis-Sawyer (part of the APA Division 35 Psychology of Women series)

  -Confronting Inequality: How Policies and Practices Shape Children’s Opportunities edited by Laura Tach, Rachel Dunifon, and Douglas Miller (part of the APA Bronfenbrenner Series on the Ecology of Human Development)

  -Perspectives on Hate: How it Originates, Develops, Manifests, and Spreads edited by Robert Sternberg

• When Your Child Has a Chronic Medical Illness: A Guide for the Parenting Journey was awarded a silver medal in the Parenting Book category of the Independent Publishers Book Awards.

The Video division of APA Books released 7 individual video titles in both DVD and in streaming format (through our distributors), including Reflections on Race and Ethnicity in the Therapeutic Setting with guest experts Rita Chi-Ying Chung, Frederick Bemak, Thema S. Bryant-Davis, and Joseph Cervantes; Providing Emotion-Focused Therapy Online with Rhonda Goldman; Functional Family Therapy, with Thomas Sexton; and The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Method with Hadas Wiseman and Orya Tishby.

The Video division also released 11 videos into APA PsycTherapy®, APA’s database of streaming psychotherapy videos, and enriched approximately 50 other videos with annotated segmentation.

APA PsycTherapy received certification for full compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, Level AA. The accessibility evaluator was David Berman Communications.

APA’s platform (PsycNet) and databases (PsycInfo, PsycArticles, PsycBooks, PsycExtra, PsycTests, and PsycTherapy) are supported by the Product Management and Content Management departments in APA Publishing.

The Content Management department oversees and implements policy and program development in all matters related to content for the PsycINFO and PsycTests databases. Initiatives to ensure the quality of the PsycINFO database included an ongoing re-evaluation of journals on the coverage list.

• More than 193,900 records were released into the PsycInfo database in 2021. In May 2021, the 5 millionth record was added to PsycInfo and by the end of the year, the database contained over 5.1 million records. Of these 774,710 records have ORCID IDs and 245,281 are Open Access. In addition, the database contains more than 135 million cited references.  The number of journals covered by PsycINFO at the end of 2021 was 2,292, 25 journalswere dropped during the ongoing journal re-evaluation process and 39 new journals were added.
• PsycINFO also includes the metadata records for the PsycArticles and PsycBooks databases:
• Over 7,300 metadata records were added to the PsycArticles database, bringing the total number of records to 226,952.
• Approximately 546 APA book and chapter records were added to PsycBooks. At the end of the year, PsycBooks contained 72,696 book and chapter records.
• The PsycTests database grew by 4,357 new records, totaling more than 67,303 records by the end of the year.  Nearly 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 800 such archival records were added to PsycExtra in 2021.

APA PsycInfo is the trusted, authoritative abstracting and indexing service in the behavioral and social sciences featuring both global and multidisciplinary content. In 2020 APA launched a personalized research notification service to assist researchers with keeping up to date with the latest research in psychology. With APA PsycInfo as the foundation of the service, the service includes the latest research from nearly 2,300 journals in psychology and related disciplines, dissertations, preprints, and national and international conference data. In 2021, APA enhanced the service based on researcher feedback to include faster and easier access to full text content from APA journals and other journal publishers, an interactive dashboard to explore all your notifications, and a content recommendation feature. The research service uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to provide a unique personalization experience. As a researcher engages with notification content, the service adapts to the researcher’s preferences, resulting in an experience tailored to individual research interests. The notification service supports the research process and brings APA PsycInfo deeper into the workflow of researchers, allowing for greater discoverability of the latest scientific research in psychology.

APA PsycNet, the delivery platform for APA's scholarly content, hosted more than 48 million user sessions in 2021, with 4.5 million journal article and book chapter downloads by institutional subscribers and APA members. Over a million full-text access links were issued last year via the “Get Access” entitlements check to subscribers on other vendor platforms, when they followed links to APA articles and books from social media, Google Scholar, PubMed, and other discovery services. Two new authentication methods were added to APA PsycNet to support off-campus access for small institutions and to facilitate member access to society and division journals. Features developed on the platform in 2021 included integration of the Kudos research widget intended to drive publication impact, free-to-read indicators for APA articles on COVID-19, and enhancements to the cited references search.

Academic Writer, APA’s complete digital environment for scholarly writing, was updated with new features to better support all users across all sales models. Most notably, the platform was redesigned and updated to be mobile responsive; these user experience improvements allow students to more easily complete their work, regardless of what device they use. 2021 was also spent preparing for a new initiative, launching in early 2022, that will explore Academic Writer’s value proposition for students. In this new direct-to-student sales model, we will add new marketing channels like TikTok to increase product awareness and drive subscriptions. This coming year will see Academic Writer expanding its reach in this new market, alongside continued support and new features for instructors who adopt the product.

PsycLearn is APA Publishing’s newest online series of products. It is an online learning delivery platform designed to immerse students into undergraduate-level content using interactive activities, instant feedback, and visualization tools that cannot be replicated in the flat format of a textbook or ebook. PsycLearn provides focused, chunked content that is easily consumable regardless of device. It provides a personalized experience to ensure that highly successful students can easily navigate through content without being bogged down with review material, while students who need more help are offered an alternative path that provides the review material they need to meet their learning goals. PsycLearn also enriches the teaching and learning experience by providing dashboard tools that allow instructors to track student progress through the course material and identify at-risk students and topics requiring further discussion and review.

PsycLearn is now available for three undergraduate courses: Research Methods, Introduction to Social Psychology, and Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. Revisions of Research Methods and Introduction to Social Psychology were launched in August of 2021 covering improved in-product assessments of learning, recommended student activities for use in-class and online, instructor-controlled customization of topic order, and downloadable test banks for summative assessments, as well as various enhancements and additions to student progress tracking and reporting tools. Piloting of the newest product in the PsycLearn series, Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, began in fall 2021, resulting in numerous adoptions and further pilots for the spring 2022 academic semester.

PsycLearn’s impact on learning has continued to grow, with 70% more students having used PsycLearn in 2021 than in 2020. Notable new 2021 adoptions include Columbia College, Iowa Wesleyan University, and University of Alabama. Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences has been very well received and is estimated to bolster triple-digit growth in 2022.

July 2020–July 2021

• James Campbell Quick, PhD (Chair)

• Stevan E. Hobfoll, PhD, ABPP (Chair-elect)

• Pamela T. Reid, PhD

• Richard E. Petty, PhD

• Mark Sobell, PhD

• Cheryl B. Travis, PhD

• Danny Wedding, PhD

• Kathleen A. Kendall-Tackett, PhD, IBCLC

• Michael Roberts, PhD

July 2021–July 2022

• Stevan E. Hobfoll, PhD, ABPP (Chair)*

• Kathleen A. Kendall-Tackett, PhD, IBCLC (Chair-elect)

• Richard E. Petty, PhD

• Mark Sobell, PhD

• Cheryl B. Travis, PhD

• Danny Wedding, PhD

• Michael Roberts, PhD

• Steve W. J. Kozlowski, PhD

• Mo Wang, PhD