Steven Woods, PsyD

Woods is a professor of psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Houston.

Tell us a bit about your background: What is your area of research? What is your most recent journal editing experience?

At the University of Houston, my scientific and clinical work focuses primarily on how cognition can hinder and support everyday functioning and health in older adults and people with chronic medical conditions. For example, my lab has helped unpack the unique contributions of prospective memory (i.e., remembering to remember) to different aspects of everyday functioning (e.g., medication adherence) among healthy adults and people with various medical, psychiatric, and neurological conditions (e.g., Woods, 2021; Woods et al., 2008). I also direct a weekly neuropsychology consultation service for people with HIV disease in the Harris Health System.

I steadfastly believe that a scientific project is not complete until its findings are communicated effectively to the communities of interest. As such, I am an avid writer and reviewer who values—and, dare I say, enjoys—editorial work. My service as a reviewer and associate editor has been instrumental in shaping my clinical science knowledge, thinking, and communication. Most recently, I served as an associate editor for The Clinical Neuropsychologist and for Neuropsychology, whose editors-in-chief (Yana Suchy and Keith O. Yeates, respectively) were incredibly generous in sharing their hard-earned insights and wisdom. In the spirit of paying their generosity forward, I am excited to announce that an outstanding team of associate editors are joining me on Neuropsychology’s masthead, including Cady Block, Emily M. Briceño, Matthew Calamia, Alexandra L. Clark, Sarah Tomaszewski Farias, and Ryan Van Patten.

What are your main priorities? For example, how will you grow readership, what type of scholarship would you like to see in the journal, and what kind of content are you hoping to attract? 

Neuropsychology’s editorial leadership team is prioritizing a data-driven, open, transparent, and community-oriented approach to its work, which we hope will ultimately grow the journal’s readership and impact:

• As an example of our data-driven approach to journal management, the associate editors and I undertook a retrospective bibliographic study of Neuropsychology’s content and citation patterns over the past 38 years. This project helped us better understand the journal’s history and the convergence and divergence of Neuropsychology’s content with other journals in the field, as well as anchored our updates to the journal’s scope in data.
• Our emphasis on openness is evident in how we identified new editorial board members. I worked with APA to distribute an open, international call for applicants, which yielded an impressive pool of highly qualified associate editors who were selected based on their editorial experience, vision, and scientific communication skills. We will use a similar approach when appointing future consulting editors and editorial fellows.
• Our transparency in managing the journal’s operations will be evident in the clarity of the editorial decision-making in our correspondence with authors and reviewers, as well as periodic editorials that provide a data-driven, behind-the-scenes examination of mysterious journal processes (e.g., desk rejections).
• Finally, to be community-oriented, the journal will regularly reach out to the consulting editors, actively solicit the interests and preferences of current and potential readers, create a more-visible and -engaged presence on social media, and provide educational content on scientific writing and peer review for junior authors and reviewers.

Why is this journal important for the field? What is its relevance to society/public health? What are the “hot” issues in your area right now?

Neuropsychology was one of the earliest and most-cited journals in the field. Its impact over the past 38 years is a product of its strong editorial leadership, the rigor of its published science, its ability to integrate both basic and applied neuropsychological sciences, and its partnership with APA. While the core scope of Neuropsychology remains steadfastly on target, numerous opportunities exist for the journal to lead the way on critical issues in the field. For example, there are recurring and unresolved controversies about the role of cognition in the diagnosis and management of neurocognitive disorders (e.g., Cysique et al., 2024; Kiselica et al., 2024), the ecological validity of neuropsychological assessment (e.g., Suchy et al., 2024), the role of cultural factors in cognition and everyday functioning (e.g., Reyes et al., 2024), and pathways to brain health and disease prevention (e.g., Randolph & Miller, 2021).

What challenges, if any, lie ahead for the field and/or the journal? What issues do you see as important for the field to address more broadly?

Neuropsychology’s associate editors and I have identified two main areas of focus for the next 5 years:

• First, a wide-spread perception exists that the development of new methods and ideas in neuropsychological science has stagnated (e.g., Calamia et al., 2024). Our goal is to ensure strong representation of expertise in quantitative psychology (e.g., advanced psychometrics) and key areas of translational neuropsychology (e.g., cognitive neuroscience, brain health, and everyday functioning) on the editorial board and to actively solicit the field’s top work in these areas.
• Second, neuropsychology is well behind the curve in the engagement with and representation of diverse communities in our training, research, and clinical activities (e.g., Woods & Norman, 2022). Our editorial leadership team will strive to ensure that the journal’s consulting board members and reviewers, editorial processes (Sharp, 2024), and content reflect APA’s dedication to diversity and inclusion.

Do you have plans for a special issue or changes to the editorial process? Have you introduced or are you planning to introduce any changes?

The associate editors and I are plotting a series of special issues that will reflect Neuropsychology’s updated scope, including those topics mentioned earlier. We also are exploring the possibility of developing new sections dedicated to open science (e.g., robust null findings, replication studies) and brief, limited-scope systematic reviews to provide timely synthesis of the emerging science on specific topics of interest to clinicians and scientists.

What advice would you offer new authors hoping to publish in your journal? What are you looking for in a manuscript?

New authors and reviewers often—and quite understandably—struggle with confidence, analysis paralysis, and perfectionism in their writing. I encourage my trainees to recognize that rarely are there any “right” answers in clinical science, despite the many strong opinions they may encounter in the classroom, in the laboratory, or at conferences. For example, we often hear definitive claims about the right and wrong ways to conduct power analyses, determine covariates, measure a particular construct, balance Type I and Type II error, and communicate science. A more-flexible and -realistic approach is to embrace the heterogeneity.

Quality science often arises from a series of imperfect decisions that can vary by, and even within, investigators, populations, designs, measures, analytic approaches, and specific samples. Authors and reviewers should understand when and why these decision points occur and appreciate the pros and cons of each option in the context of other aspects of a study. This thinking allows one to more transparently describe these choices, the rationale behind the decisions, and the potential impact those decisions have on the integrity and generalizability of a study’s findings.

APA Journals is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in its practices and systems. How will this be reflected in the journal?

Neuropsychology remains committed to APA’s vision of inclusive, representative, and rigorous psychological science and editorial practices. The outgoing editor-in-chief has led several effective initiatives to strengthen the journal’s contributions in this regard, including a new editorial fellowship program for junior scientists from under-represented groups and a doubling of the number of published papers on cultural factors and social determinants of health. The incoming associate editors and I are excited to build on this foundation.

For inclusiveness, we will institute open, international calls for all editorial positions to increase access and representation. We also will continue to participate in the editorial fellowship program, which includes current early career fellows Luciana Mascarenhas Fonseca and Jacob Jones. Moreover, Neuropsychology’s updated scope highlights our keen interest in submissions that address cultural factors and social determinants of health (e.g., social and community context, ethnic and racial considerations, and community-based participatory research), expertise which is strong among the new team of associate editors.

Explore APA Journals’ EDI initiatives.

The APA Journals Program is committed to publishing transparent, rigorous research; improving reproducibility in science; and aiding research discovery. Do you foresee your journal participating or continuing to participate in any of APA Journals’ Open Science initiatives? What is the significance of such initiatives for your field?

Neuropsychology’s editorial processes and page content will reflect APA’s commitment to open, transparent, rigorous, and reproducible science. This includes both Level 1 (disclosure) and Level 2 (mandatory) reporting across the eight fundamental aspects of research planning and reporting. Moreover, the journal’s scope has been updated to prioritize research methods that promote rigor and transparency (e.g., replication studies, pre-registered reports, and robust null findings). The editorial leadership team also is planning to develop special issues and specific sections dedicated to transparency and openness in neuropsychological science, which are important because of the complexities of studying brain–behavior relationships and their influence on everyday life.

Explore APA Journals’ Open Science initiatives.

Please describe your experience with APA Publishing. Has your experience with APA as a nonprofit scholarly publisher differed from other publishers?

As a trainee and junior scientist, I viewed Neuropsychology as the field’s flagship journal due to its affiliation with APA, as well as the methodological rigor, conceptual sophistication, and blending of basic and applied research evident in its content. As an author, I vividly recall my first publication in Neuropsychology (Woods et al., 2005 ), for which the submission was user-friendly, the reviews and editorial correspondence were helpful and collegial, and the publication process was quick and seamless. Ever since, I have regarded Neuropsychology as a premiere outlet for my lab’s best work. My ambition is to provide a similarly positive experience for authors of submissions to the journal during my time as editor-in-chief. 

APA Publishing is proud to support the association’s mission to promote psychological science and knowledge to benefit society and improve lives. How will your editorship further support this mission?

The brain and cognition are critical to success in a variety of daily activities, ranging from basic functions like grooming and eating to instrumental tasks like managing one’s finances and health to rewarding leisure and creative activities like arts and recreation (Woods, 2021). Our editorial team’s bibliographic study showed the following:

• Neuropsychology has experienced an increase in studies on cognition and everyday functioning over the past 10 years,
• Neuropsychology has published a relatively greater number of papers on cognition and everyday functioning over the past 5 years compared to several similar journals in the field, and
• Studies on cognition in everyday functioning had better citation metrics than most other types of studies published in Neuropsychology.

Accordingly, we have updated the journal’s scope to further encourage the submission of studies on the interplay among the brain, cognition, and different aspects of everyday functioning (e.g., ecological validity, functional capacity, cognitive symptoms, activities of daily living, and quality of life). We are interested in studies that examine the pathway from brain–behavior variables to everyday functioning, including innovative measurement approaches and compelling mediating and moderating factors (e.g., compensatory factors and culture).

Calamia, M., Ready, R. E., Kapoulea, E. A., Farrell, A., Runk, A., Babicz-Boston, M. A., Woods, S. P., & Cirino, P. T. (2024). A survey of the perceptions and practices of faculty in clinical neuropsychology doctoral training programs: Is heterogeneity the norm? The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 1–26.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13854046.2024.2325168opens in new window

Cysique, L. A., Brew, B. J., Bruning, J., Byrd, D., Costello, J., Daken, K., Ellis, R. J., Fazeli, P. L., Goodkin, K., Gouse, H., Heaton, R. K., Letendre, S., Levin, J., Aung, H. L., Mindt, M. R., Moore, D., Mullens, A. B., de Almeida, S. M., Muñoz-Moreno, J. A.,  … Rourke, S. B. (2024). Cognitive criteria in HIV: Greater consensus is needed. Nature Reviews Neurology, 20(2), 127–128. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-024-00927-1opens in new window

Kiselica, A. M., Atkinas, K. J., Han, S. D., Diaz-Orueta, U., Gogniat, M. A., Blanco-Campal, A., Hermann, G., Contributing Neuropsychologists, & Duff, K. (2024). Reactions of clinical neuropsychologists to the Alzheimer’s Association workgroup’s draft diagnostic and staging criteria for Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 102(3), 877–884. https://doi.org/10.1177/13872877241292089opens in new window

Randolph, J. J., & Miller, J. B. (2021). The science of brain health: State-of-the-art perspectives and clinical applications. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 36(7), 1255–1256. https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acab048opens in new window

Reyes, A., Torres, S., Robinson, T. L., Rentería, M. A., & Clark, A. L. (2024). Integrating diversity, culture, and equity into the neuropsychological evaluation. Neurologic Clinics, 42(4), 959–979. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ncl.2024.05.004opens in new window

Sharpe, D. (2024). Editor bias and transparency in psychology’s open science era. American Psychologist, 79(7), 883–892. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001224

Suchy, Y., Mora, M. G., DesRuisseaux, L. A., Niermeyer, M. A., & Brothers, S. L. (2024). Pitfalls in research on ecological validity of novel executive function tests: A systematic review and a call to action. Psychological Assessment, 36(4), 243–261. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0001297

Woods, S. P. (2021). Introduction to the special issue on the neuropsychology of daily life. Neuropsychology, 35(1), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000716

Woods, S. P., Iudicello, J. E., Moran, L. M., Carey, C. L., Dawson, M. S., Grant, I., & The HNRC Group. (2008). HIV-associated prospective memory impairment increases risk of dependence in everyday functioning. Neuropsychology, 22(1), 110–117. https://doi.org/10.1037/0894-4105.22.1.110

Woods, S. P., & Norman, M. A. (2022). Do Black lives matter to clinical neuropsychologists? An introduction to a special issue. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 36(2), 209–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/13854046.2021.2020906opens in new window

Woods, S. P., Rippeth, J. D., Conover, E., Gongvatana, A., Gonzalez, R., Carey, C. L., Cherner, M., Heaton, R. K., Grant, I., & The HNRC Group. (2005). Deficient strategic control of verbal encoding and retrieval in individuals with methamphetamine dependence. Neuropsychology, 19(1), 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1037/0894-4105.19.1.35

Woods, S.P., Rippeth, J.D., Conover, E., Gongvatana, A., Gonzalez, R., Carey, C.L., Cherner, M., Heaton, R.K., Grant, I., & The HNRC Group. (2005). Deficient strategic control of verbal encoding and retrieval in individuals with methamphetamine dependence. Neuropsychology, 19(1), 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1037/0894-4105.19.1.35