Jonathon D. Crystal, PhD

Crystal is the Eliot S. Hearst Professor and Provost Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University.

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

It is a privilege to serve as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition (JEP:ALC), the flagship journal in the field. My research sits at the intersection of cognitive science and behavioral neuroscience. I develop animal models that recapitulate critical aspects of human memory mechanisms.

Human memory typically declines in aging and is impaired in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but it is difficult to study the biological mechanisms of memory decline in humans. Successful clinical translation of therapeutic strategies for memory impairments in aging and AD cannot be achieved if they rely on animal models that do not recapitulate critical features of human episodic memory. Effective implementation of these models to assess pharmacotherapies could ultimately substantially reduce the growing cost of failed clinical trials in AD. Therefore, my lab worked to discover the first evidence for several types of memory in rats, with most of these providing the first evidence in a nonhuman (e.g., episodic memory replay and binding; source, what–where–when, and prospective memory; and retrieval practice).

I value my more than 20 years as editor-in-chief and associate editor for other journals, which provided me with experience translating sometimes-heated views raised in the editorial process into constructive feedback that serves the scientific enterprise. Most recently, I served 8 years as editor-in-chief of Learning and Behavior.

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? 

My objective is to make JEP:ALC the venue for new and important developments in the field. Today, the academic community accesses articles beyond receiving physical copies of journals, reading tables of contents in favored journals, or focusing on a small number of journals. JEP:ALC thrived in that environment for generations but must change to remain discoverable .

Readers now follow threads of citations, taking them to many publication outlets. Google Scholar and other search engines place usually the most cited articles at the top of each search. It is increasingly difficult to find the latest developments in both general and specialized journals. Furthermore, authors are under pressure to select journals based on bibliometric performance measures. In an environment in which grant funds and, in some countries, institutional budgets, as well as promotion and tenure decisions, are influenced by bibliometrics, JEP:ALC  must become an essential venue to visit for current and important developments in the field.

To this end, JEP:ALC has launched a new section, “Outlook,” which discusses the most exciting current research on learning and cognition. These two-page papers will be invited, brief, and readable, allowing readers to quickly stay up to date on the latest findings, trends, and ideas. Many ground-breaking developments relevant to animal learning and cognition are published in high-impact journals (e.g., Nature, Science, PNAS, Current Biology), but finding these articles can be challenging. An “Outlook” paper will briefly review a target article and include the author’s own views on the covered topic.

JEP:ALC papers are often theory-driven, multi-experiment, and definitive statements on learning and cognition. Many papers use nonhuman animals, but others test human participants when they relate to themes, theory, or data connected to nonhumans. JEP:ALC has a long history of publishing research on associative learning. With the change in the journal’s name to include cognition several years ago, we have the opportunity to attract more research on animal cognition. Some of the best research in this area is conducted with nonhuman primates or other species. JEP:ALC must compete for this research, and so we encourage submissions from researchers who investigate animal cognition using a wide range of species.

Often authors examine the editorial board before deciding if a journal is a friendly home for their research. Therefore, the journal’s new editorial board includes nearly equal representation of prominent researchers in animal cognition and associative learning. JEP:ALC will continue to be a home for articles on associative learning, so we aim to expand and supplement the journal’s coverage.

Why is this journal important for the field? What is its relevance to society/public health?

We will support a wide range of work in the field, including exploration of the fundamental mechanisms of, pre-clinical models focused on, and behavioral neuroscience offering key insights into learning and cognition; comparative research; and work with human participants. Solving society’s most intractable problems will require multidisciplinary teams to leverage diverse skill sets. Consequently, we support science that brings together researchers with varying expertise to tackle problems that cannot be addressed by working in isolation.

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

Clarity on topic, design, analysis, and interpretation are important components of successful manuscripts. In addition, JEP:ALC supports APA’s initiatives to promote open science.

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

We are committed to having a more diverse editorial board and group of reviewers, including a broad representation of women; members of racial and ethnic minority groups; scientists from countries around the world; and researchers of all ages, including early career scientists. Women were substantially underrepresented on the editorial board in the past, as were individuals who focused on animal cognition. The new editorial board represents the breadth of expertise in the field, including nearly an equal number of experts in associative learning and in animal cognition. I am pleased that the new editorial board includes over half representation of women. Approximately 25% of the editorial board includes various elements of diversity, and 45% of the board is from outside the US. I will also strive to achieve diversity in the selection of reviewers.

Explore APA Journals’ EDI initiatives.