Inside JABA #9: Applied and Translational Research in Healthcare

In the ninth installment of the Inside JABA Series, I'm joined by Drs. Claire St. Peter, Jeff Tiger, and many-time guest Derek Reed. Unfortunately the JABA Editor in Chief, Dr. Linda LeBlanc, was not able to join us, but she did choose some very cool articles for us to talk about. The articles are:

• Vaidya & Armshaw (2021). Surface electromyography and gamification: Translational research to advance physical rehabilitation.
• Gravina et al. (2021). Increasing adherence to a standardized rounding procedure in two hospital in-patient units.
• The reason Derek joined us for this episode because he was the action editor for these two papers.

And while we did review the papers, we went super deep into the inner workings of the JABA review process. In doing so, what qualities an action editor looks for in selecting manuscript reviewers and how reviewers become 'known' for specific areas of expertise.

While we didn't solve the mystery of why Reviewer #2 is consistently a pain in the neck, we did talk about considerations of when to publish in JABA, and when to look towards other scientific outlets. This led to an unexpected but nonetheless fascinating discussion of how to disseminate one's research outside of mainstream behavior analytic journals. If you don't listen to any other part of this episode, please check that section out.

I'll leave you with this quote from the abstract from Sidman (2011):

I have written before about the importance of applied behavior analysis to basic researchers. That relationship is, however, reciprocal; it is also critical for practitioners to understand and even to participate in basic research. Although applied problems are rarely the same as those investigated in the laboratory, practitioners who understand their basic research background are often able to place their particular problem in a more general context and thereby deal with it successfully. Also the procedures of applied behavior analysis are often the same as those that characterize basic research; the scientist-practitioner will appreciate the relation between what he or she is doing and what basic experimenters do, and as a consequence, will be able to apply therapeutic techniques more creatively and effectively.

As always, the Inside JABA Series podcasts are presented without sponsors, though I would encourage listeners to subscribe to JABA, which when compared to many other journals, is relatively inexpensive, especially when you consider the number of papers that a typical issue of JABA has. When I first started subscribing to JABA in the 90's, I think the issues were about 1/5 to 1/4 of the size of those that are published currently. If this is something you're interested in, click here to subscribe.

The last thing I'd like to mention is that these Inside JABA episodes are eligible for BACB Continuing Education credits though the CEU store at behavioralobservations.com. What's even better is that because so much of this episode focused on dissemination, this one will qualify for 1.5 hours of ethics related CEU's. That's code element 6.02 for those playing along at home.

If I could beg of you one final indulgence, if you are enjoying the Behavioral Observations Podcast, please share your favorite episodes with friends, colleagues, random people on the street, and so on.