Harris Cooper, PhD
Cooper is the Hugo L. Blomquist Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University.
Background
Tell us a bit about your background.
I grew up in New York City and attended SUNY Stony Brook for my undergraduate education. I received my PhD in social psychology from the University of Connecticut in 1975. I was on the faculty at the University of Missouri for many years before moving to Duke University in 2003.
What is your area of research?
My research has followed two paths. The first path concerns research synthesis and research methodology. I was an early adopter of meta-analysis and believe research syntheses ought to be held to the same standards for good science as any other form of research. I have written numerous articles and two books on this methodology. The second path involves the application of social and developmental psychology to issues in educational policy. I research the relationship between time and learning; in particular, how time outside school influences learning. So, for example, my students and I have examined the effects of homework and the school calendar on achievement.
What is your most recent journal-editing experience?
I served as editor for Psychological Bulletin from 2003 through mid-2009. I was also the inaugural coeditor of the Archives of Scientific Psychology, APA’s first open methods, collaborative data-sharing, open-access journal. For six years, I was the chief editorial advisor for APA’s journal publishing program, serving as a resource to the editors of APA’s journals as well as mediating disputes between editors and authors and between authors and authors. I am editor-in-chief of APA’s Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology, now preparing its second edition.
Journal importance
Why is American Psychologist important for the field? What is its relevance to society/public health?
American Psychologist is among the most important journals published by the American Psychological Association. It is APA’s public face, both to its members and the world. Its reach dwarfs any other journal of scientific psychology.
Priorities
What type of scholarship would you like to see in the journal?
First, I value rigorous, thoughtful, and creative scholarship. I use the term “scholarship” because it encompasses all of the tools psychologists use to study the phenomena that interest and motivate them, including but not limited to quantitative, qualitative, and historical approaches.
What kind of content are you hoping to attract?
The specific content of articles published in a journal like American Psychologist is driven by the interests and concerns of researchers. In turn, their interests are driven by the concerns of our profession and its interface with society. That said, my eyes light up when I see scholarship that breaks through the demarcation between basic and applied/clinical research and theory. The best basic scientists embrace the challenge of addressing why their scholarship should help inform issues confronting society. The best applied/clinical scientists are delighted to address the relationship of their work to basic notions of psychology and its implications for the historic, transcultural understanding of human behavior. Relating basic research to applied problems and vice versa requires scholars to stretch their thinking. This is a challenge they should be excited to take on.
Plans
Do you plan changes to the editorial process?
My predecessor, Anne Kazak, did a phenomenal job of raising the bar for scholarship to be published in American Psychologist. I hope to continue down the path that she established. This includes implementing APA’s recommendation that journals adopt the Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines developed by the Center for Open Science. American Psychologist will also implement the Open Science Badges Program and the Contributors Role Taxonomy to describe each author’s individual contributions to the work. These are a natural progression that build on Anne’s initiatives.
Challenges
What challenges, if any, lie ahead for psychological science?
Today, the principal challenge facing psychological science, indeed all sciences, is improving the trust that society places in us and in our prescriptions. This requires that our research and theories be the result of careful, systematic thought and mechanisms for discovery. We need to put our best foot forward when we explain things to the public. Also, we must be open and transparent with regard to how we arrived at the conclusions we draw. For this reason, I am an advocate for the open science movement, that is, for transparency of methods and data analysis in research reports and the sharing of data. Further, I will continue to work with APA to find ways to make the articles published in American Psychologist more readily available to interested readers throughout the world and to those of limited means.
