JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR 2008, 89, 95–109 NUMBER 1 (JANUARY)

THE JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR AT FIFTY

VICTOR G. LATIES
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER

The Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior was founded in 1958 by a group of male psychologists,
mainly from the northeastern USA and connected with either Harvard or Columbia. Fifty years later
about 20% of both editors and authors reside outside this country and almost the same proportion is
made up of women. Other changes in the journal include having its own website for more than a decade
and now publishing online as well as on paper. A recent connection with PubMed Central of the
National Library of Medicine has made possible the completely free electronic presentation of the
entire archive of about 3,800 articles.
Key words: behavior analysis history, women as journal editors, geographical distribution of editors,
online publishing, B.F. Skinner

________________________________________

I have lived my professional life by decades. It PubMed Central of the National Library of
was 60 years ago, in 1928, that I arrived at Medicine so that all of our articles now are also
Harvard as a graduate student in psychology. served by them.
Behaviorism was then only 15 years old. Ten
years later, in 1938, I published The Behavior of
Organisms and 10 years after that, in 1948,
Walden Two. Things were then taken out of my THE BEGINNINGS OF JEAB
hands, but still by decades. Nineteen fifty eight
saw the first issue of The Journal of the This journal was mainly the brain child of
Experimental Analysis of Behavior, the title Charles B. Ferster, a 1950 Columbia Ph.D. who
reminiscent of the subtitle of The Behavior of spent five fruitful years with B. F. Skinner at
Organisms, and ten years later the behavioral Harvard exploring the domain of reinforce-
engineering of Walden Two moved from fiction ment schedules in highly original ways (Ferster
to real life in the first issue of the Journal of
& Skinner, 1957). Experimental psychologists
Applied Behavior Analysis. Of all the anniversa-
ries one is likely to celebrate in a lifetime the
who studied learning and motivation then had
50th is the golden one, and that is why this two major outlets for their work: the Journal of
chapter is about The Behavior of Organisms and Experimental Psychology ( JEP) and the Journal of
how it looks to me after half a century. (B. F. Comparative and Physiological Psychology ( JCPP),
Skinner, 1989, p. 121) both published by the American Psychological
Association (APA). Ferster did not appreciate
Twenty years after Skinner wrote those harsh criticism of his work by their editors,
words in 1988, JEAB’s golden anniversary is who usually had neither knowledge of nor
being celebrated by the six essays in this sympathy for studies of operant conditioning.
section. This essay touches on only a few Years later, Richard Herrnstein captured Fer-
aspects of the journal’s history: its founding ster’s suffering in this account:
and its editors, the geographical distribution
of editorial board members, the increase in At some point, I remember Ferster storming
women involved in editing the journal, the into the office I shared with Morse, Blough,
start of a second journal to deal with applied Anliker, and Azrin, waving a rejection letter
behavior analysis, the development of a web- from the Journal of Comparative and Physiological
site, the increase in electronic publishing, and Psychology, probably from Harry Harlow, its
the consequent move to a relationship with editor. JCPP wanted statistical tests, but, said
Charlie, the behavior under the various exper-
imental conditions did not even overlap, or
I thank Geoff Inglis and Troy Zarcone for aid in words to that effect. This indignation over,
preparing the figures.
first, the demand for pointless inferential
Address correspondence to Victor G. Laties, Depart-
ment of Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester statistics and, second, the heavy-handedness
Medical Center, Box EHSC, Rochester, NY 14642. of a journal editor was, from my vantage point,
doi: 10.1901/jeab.2008.89-95 the seed that grew into JEAB.

95
96 VICTOR G. LATIES

At the time Ferster waived his letter, I may or right-hand margins—some say this is where
may not have heard about the mimeographed desktop publishing began.)….
proceedings of Conferences on the Experi- ….One early decision we made about JEAB was
mental Analysis of Behavior, mentioned by to justify margins to simulate hot type; ‘‘ragged
other reminiscencers. I certainly heard of right’’ was widely disdained because it
CEAB at some point in the founding of JEAB, screamed ‘‘typewriter-composed.’’ Using the
but it seemed to me that Ferster meant Executive typewriter’s capability meant an
business in a way that the earlier organizers extra typing to count units and determine
did not. Ferster was going to start a real journal, how to get even lines. Every night I gave
on the model of the APA experimental thanks to Snow-Pake, the first—and I think the
journals, minus their flaws; perhaps indigna- best—of white-outs. (Gilbert, 1987, pp. 476-
tion is a better motive for starting a journal 477)
than camaraderie. (Herrnstein, 1987, pp. 449-
450) Because almost all those involved in starting
the journal had at least a passing interest in
Others in this new field readily agreed with what was soon to be called behavioral phar-
Ferster that there should be a new journal, one macology (Laties, 2003), most seed money for
that would be more receptive to their papers the new journal was donated by nine pharma-
(e.g., Kelleher & Morse, 1987). After much ceutical firms, all of them employing or
talk and correspondence, a small group consulting with those knowledgeable about
gathered on April 12, 1957 in a bedroom of operant conditioning.
the Statler Hotel in New York during the It was Nat Schoenfeld (1987) who took the
annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological lead in deciding many of the big and little
Association (EPA) and decided to found a new decisions that had to be made quickly for the
journal. Soon ‘‘A Plan for Establishing a New venture to succeed. He was in the best
Journal,’’ put together by Ferster, Peter B. position to do so, partly because his wife,
Dews, W. N. (Nat) Schoenfeld, and Murray Serena, worked for a publisher. He, for
Sidman, was circulated. It contained the name instance, designed the green and grey cover,
of the journal, the names of the first editorial influenced by the color scheme of the
board members, and a suggested editorial Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
policy. He also was responsible for the statement on
In early August a call for papers went out to the inside front cover that the journal was
the board, asking the members to solicit ‘‘primarily for the original publication of
submissions from their friends. Ferster him- experiments relevant to the behavior of in-
self, who was moving from the Yerkes Labora- dividual organisms.’’
tories in Orange Park, Florida to a new Most important, he made the crucial de-
position at the Indiana University Medical cision that the new journal should serve as its
School in Indianapolis during this busy sum- own publisher, hiring a printer, worrying
mer of 1957, spent much time trying to solve about how to attract subscribers and adver-
the basic problem of getting submitted manu- tisers, dealing with the post office concerning
scripts set into type. (A more detailed account mailing regulations, and so on. It still does.
of these events is in Laties, 1987b. Reminis- After someone pointed out that the new
cences by many of the participants are in journal had to have a formal corporate parent
Hineline & Laties, 1987.) to serve as publisher, three of the founding
Charlie’s wife, Marilyn Ferster (now Gilbert) members in the Washington, DC area, Herrn-
was pressed into service as the compositor of stein, Joseph V. Brady, and Donald S. Blough,
the first two issues. Her account of this engaged a lawyer and incorporated the Society
adventure shows how some primitive methods for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
were effective enough to launch the journal. (SEAB) on October 29, 1957.
On April 11, 1958, again during an EPA
We were also picking up great support. John meeting, the now formally organized Board of
Nurnburger, Director of the Institute [of Directors of SEAB met in a room of the
Psychiatric Research], loaned us a used IBM Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, Philadelphia. Ferster
Selectric typewriter. (The Executive model was held up a copy of the first issue of JEAB, saying
the one that allowed you to manually justify the ‘‘The Journal speaks for itself.’’ However, he
 JEAB AT FIFTY 97

was holding the just-published January issue. same general pool of authors and editors. For
Subsequent issues continued to be late for the example, Don Blough, one of JEAB’s foun-
first several years, partly due to trouble finding ders, was the second Editor of JEP:ABP.
suitable papers and partly due to production Currently, about 40% of the editorial board
difficulties. It was 1962, during John Boren’s members of each of those other two have also
term as editor, before the journal began to served on the JEAB board. In a striking
appear on time. demonstration of these interrelationships,
Gaining subscribers had not been a problem. two members of the 2007 JEP:ABP editorial
The year 1958 ended with 385 subscribers, board just began terms editing the other two
including 148 institutions. The total passed journals. Geoffrey Hall is now editor of L&B.
1,000 in 1962, 2,000 in 1966, 3,000 in 1968, James Mazur is the new editor of JEAB—after
and peaked in 1973 at 4,092, including 1,578 completing a term as associate editor of
institutions. From then it was a steady slide L&B.
down to the 1,657 (812 institutions) of 2006,
the product of diminished library funds for
journals, lessening federal support for aca- THE JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR
demic research, and perhaps increased com- ANALYSIS ( JABA)
petition from other journals.
Two important behavioral journals ap- Starting a second journal, one devoted to
peared in the mid-1970s. A group of experi- applications, reflected the rapid growth of the
mental psychologists, dissatisfied with APA’s applied area. A decade after JEAB was started,
performance in meeting the needs of its some of those involved with the journal had
scientific members, founded the Psychonomic moved into work with humans. Skinner him-
Society in late 1959 (Dewsbury & Bolles, 1995). self was deeply involved in programmed
In 1973, it founded Animal Learning & Behavior learning and the technology of teaching.
(AL&B). The name was shortened to Learning Other psychologists using the behavior analyt-
& Behavior (L&B) in 2003, thereby broaden- ic approach in applied research were having
ing its scope. The APA’s venerable Journal of trouble with unsympathetic journal editors,
Experimental Psychology, born in 1916 and the a situation reminiscent of the state of affairs
traditional publication outlet for those study- that led to JEAB’s own birth.
ing learning, was divided into four separate On September 3, 1967, the SEAB meeting
publications in 1975. One of them was the was dominated by discussion of a possible
Journal of Experimental Behavior: Animal Behavior second journal, one to be devoted to what
Processes ( JEP:ABP). Skinner had thought of as ‘‘behavioral engi-
These three journals resemble each other in neering.’’ Nathan H. Azrin, who had just
many ways, and it is important to authors that completed a term as editor of JEAB but was
they all remain healthy. Their printed versions already heavily involved in the applied area,
have all experienced severe circulation de- had been commissioned to survey the possi-
creases. From 1975 to 2006, JEAB subscriptions bilities—following a discussion initiated by
went from 3,736 to 1,657, and AL&B, from Skinner—and now recommended that such
1,457 to 784 (as L&B). JEP:ABP had 3,907 paid a journal be started. The recommendation was
subscribers in 1975 but only 844 in 2006. adopted, and Montrose M. Wolf of the
Indeed, subscriptions to all APA journals have University of Kansas was named editor of what
decreased, most likely because the society has he then named the Journal of Applied Behavior
been licensing PsycArticles, a package offering Analysis. (More detailed accounts of these
online access to all their journals and many events appear in Laties, 1987b, and Wolf,
libraries have then been dropping their sub- 1993.)
scriptions to the paper journals. The new journal was an instant success
JEAB also resembles JEP:ABP and L&B in with a paid circulation of 4,271, including
editorial practices, board membership and 761 institutions, at the end of its first year
content, but has remained unique in its and almost 5,500 after only two years (cf.
emphasis on studies ‘‘relevant to the behavior Laties & Mace, 1993). The peak was reached
of individual organisms.’’ Throughout their in 1975, when it had 7,097 subscribers (2,058
lives, the three journals have drawn upon the institutions). Its circulation in 2006 was 3,304
98 VICTOR G. LATIES

Table 1
JEAB Editors 1958–2008.

Name and Term School and Degree Date Affiliation when Editor
Charles B. Ferster (1958–60) Columbia 950 Indiana University
John J. Boren (1961–63) Columbia 954 Institute for Behavioral Research, MD
Nathan H. Azrin (1964–66) Harvard 955 Anna State Hospital, IL
A. Charles Catania (1967–69) Harvard 961 New York University
Stanley S. Pliskoff (1970–72) New York U. 956 University of Maine
Victor G. Laties (1973–76) U. of Rochester 954 University of Rochester
Michael D. Zeiler (1977–79) New School 962 Emory University
John A. Nevin (1980–83) Columbia 963 University of New Hampshire
Philip N. Hineline (1984–87) Harvard 967 Temple University
Edmund Fantino (1988–91) Harvard 964 U. of California-San Diego
Marc N. Branch (1992–95) U. of Maryland 972 University of Florida
Richard L. Shull (1996–99) Arizona State U. 969 U. of North Carolina-Greensboro
Kennon A. Lattal (2000–03) U. of Alabama 969 West Virginia University
Leonard Green (2004–07) Stony Brook 974 Washington University
James E. Mazur (2008– ) Harvard 977 Southern Connecticut State U.

(1,388 institutions), the drop being partly (Kendler, Kendler, Pliskoff, & D’Amato,
a function of the proliferation of journals in 1958); Zeiler on ‘‘choices and preferences of
the applied behavioral research field. Wyatt, nursery school children’’ (Betancourt & Zei-
Hawkins, and Davis (1986) list a dozen that ler, 1971); Hineline on ‘‘ethanol consumption
were founded in the 18 years following and the matching law’’ (Martinetti, Andrze-
JABA’s appearance. jewski, Hineline, & Lewis, 2000); and Lattal
The relationship between JEAB and JABA on ‘‘contingency management of tooth brush-
has remained both strong and warm over the ing in a summer camp for children’’ (Lattal,
years, probably because of the breadth of 1969).
interests displayed by workers in behavior Over the years JABA has consistently per-
analysis. For example, the 15 JEAB editors have formed well financially. JEAB could have
varied widely in their backgrounds and interests. continued without the second journal, but
Branch (2006) and Laties (2003) have spent JABA’s presence broadened the income base.
their professional lives closely identified with Although SEAB is a nonprofit organization, it
behavioral pharmacology. Fantino (Navarro & must still match expenses with suitably robust
Fantino, 2005) and Green (Green & Freed, income.
1993) are close to behavioral economics. Nevin
(Nevin & Mace, 1994), Shull (Shull & Fuqua,
THE JEAB EDITORS
1993), and Mazur (Fisher & Mazur, 1997) have
published articles in JABA that showed how basic The first three editors of JEAB were called
findings from JEAB bear upon the problems executive editors—so named by Ferster to
discussed in the other journal. emphasize his wish for benign treatment of
Phrases taken from article titles show that prospective authors. The first four, Ferster,
other JEAB editors have more explicit connec- Boren, Azrin, and Catania, all had Columbia
tions with research in applied behavior or Harvard backgrounds. Stan Pliskoff was the
analysis: Ferster has published on ‘‘perfor- first to come from another school. Table 1
mances in autistic children’’ (Ferster & shows the fifteen who have served as editors
DeMeyer, 1961); Boren on ‘‘experiments on during the half century.
reinforcement principles with a psychiatric As the journal grew in both size and
ward for delinquent soldiers’’ (Boren & Col- complexity over the years, the editorial burden
man, 1970); Azrin on ‘‘a rapid method of was shared with others. In 1963, Boren
toilet training the retarded’’ (Azrin & Foxx, appointed the first associate editors (Table 2)
1971); Catania on ‘‘lump detection in simu- to deal with the increase in manuscript
lated human breasts’’ (Adams et al., 1976); submissions. By coincidence, exactly 50 have
Pliskoff on ‘‘inferential behavior in children’’ served in this capacity since then.
 JEAB AT FIFTY 99

Table 2
JEAB Associate Editors 1963–2008

Names and terms

Roger T. Kelleher 1963-66 Dianne McCarthy 1987-90
J. M. Harrison 1963-66 Stephen R. Hursh 1988-91
William H. Morse 1966-69 Douglas J. Navarick 1988-91
William C. Holz 1967-69 Gregory Galbicka 1989-91
Stanley S. Pliskoff 1967-69; 1976 K. Geoffrey White 1990-93
Herbert S. Terrace 1967-69 Daniel J. Bernstein 1991-93
John A. Nevin 1969-70; 1973-76 Michael Perone 1991-94
Larry D. Byrd 1970-76 David A. Eckerman 1992-94
Howard Rachlin 1970-72 Carol Pilgrim 1994-97
Lewis R. Gollub 1970-73 John T. Wixted 1994-96
Michael D. Zeiler 1970-76 Nancy A. Ator 1995-96
Herbert M. Jenkins 1971 James E. Mazur 1995-97
Edmund Fantino 1972-74;1981-83 William M. Baum 1997-2005
Donald F. Hake 1973-76 Kathryn J. Saunders 1997-99
Alan Baron 1977-79 Leonard Green 1998-2001
Patricia M. Blough 1977-79 Timothy D. Hackenberg 1998-2000
M. Jackson Marr 1977-79 Mark Galizio 1999-2002
Charles P. Shimp 1977-79 Thomas S. Critchfield 2001-03
Philip N. Hineline 1980-82 Michael Davison 2001-04
Evalyn F. Segal 1980-83 Gregory J. Madden 2003-
John E. R. Staddon 1980-83 Harold A. Miller 2004-07
Kennon A. Lattal 1983-86 Michael J. Dougher 2005-07
Stephen E. G. Lea 1983-85 Douglas M. Elliffe 2006-
Peter Harzem 1984-87 Brent Alsop 2008-
Richard L. Shull 1985-88 Amy L. Odum 2008-

Quite appropriately, given the primitive and finance. These responsibilities have now
equipment available to operant conditioners been divided: the Editor is primarily for
half a century ago, an Apparatus editor, Doug Journal content and, with the advice and
Anger, was immediately appointed in 1958 consultation of the Executive Committee and
(Table 3). The first issues of the journal the Executive Editor, policy decisions; the
Executive Editor supervises Journal business
contained many notes on cumulative recorder and finance.
inks, pulse shapers, shock grids, tension
gauges, session timers, and levers. Soon, half
a dozen companies were formed to supply the Catania became the first Review editor in
rapidly growing field’s needs. By 1967, the 1970 and about 100 book reviews have since
editorial category—renamed Technical Notes appeared in JEAB. Drug-behavior articles
editor after 1963—had disappeared. appeared from the very first issues but repre-
In 1966, when Charlie Catania was chosen to sented less than about 5% of the total until the
edit JEAB, he asked me to serve with him, late 1970s. Lewis Gollub was appointed the
caring for the business and financial aspects of first editor for Behavioral Pharmacology in
the job (Catania, 1987; Laties, 1987a). He thus 1982 to care for such submissions. A steady
became the first editor to be called ‘‘editor’’ stream of drug studies continues to appear,
whereas I became the ‘‘executive editor.’’ and a search of the abstracts database at our
When Catania was succeeded by Stan Pliskoff, website now brings up over 230 items. As was
I continued as the executive editor. The SEAB noted above, the role of behavior analysis in
minutes for March 28, 1967 contain this pharmacological research has been large from
explanation, from Catania’s first report as the beginning (Laties, 2003). The Behavioral
JEAB editor: Pharmacology Society (BPS) was founded
on April 10, 1957, a day before the meeting
The Journal was formerly organized under the that gave birth to JEAB, with many of the
direction of a single (Executive) Editor, who same names appearing among its founders.
was responsible for Journal content, matters of John Boren, the second editor of JEAB,
policy, and the supervision of Journal business was one of the two men who organized
100 VICTOR G. LATIES

Table 3 Table 4
Other JEAB Editors JEAB Business Managers

Apparatus Editor Ogden R. Lindsley 1957–1959

Douglas Anger 1958–63 Kay Dinsmoor 1959–1991
Technical Notes Editor Devonia Stein 1992–2007
T. Verhave 1964 Lauren Bryant 2007–
W. C. Holz 1965–66
Executive Editor of JEAB, holding a variety of positions, first as
Victor G. Laties 1967–
Business Manager for 32 years. In the early
Review Editors 1980s she was concurrently the managing
A. Charles Catania 1970–76
Victor G. Laties 1982–83 editor for five years. After retiring in 1991,
A. Charles Catania 1984–91 she remains active, now as the Assistant
Philip N. Hineline 1992–98 Treasurer of the Society. Her hand-picked
M. Jackson Marr 1999– successor, Devonia Stein, took over as Business
Editors for Behavioral Pharmacology Manager in 1992, also doing a superb job and
Lewis R. Gollub 1982–83 retiring in 2007 after a respectable length of
Marc N. Branch 1984–88
James E. Barrett 1989–91 service. Again, the successor to Devonia,
William H. Morse 1992– 96 Lauren Bryant, was hand-picked by her pre-
Nancy A. Ator 1996–99 decessor.
Stephen T. Higgins 2000–03 JEAB started as a quarterly and averaged
Jonathan L. Katz 2004–
about 350 to 400 text pages until it jumped
Editor for Behavioral Neuroscience to over 600 pages and moved to bimonthly
David W. Schaal 2006–
publication in 1963. Our editors have always
Managing Editors been able to choose what to publish, never
H. Garth Hopkins 1962–78
Andree F. Coers 1979–81 being given page allotments by anyone.
Robin Smith 1981–82 Between 1962 and 1981, five monographs
Kay Dinsmoor 1982–87 were included in the journal, all but one as
Kathy Hill 1988–2002 supplements, and were also sold separately
Ann Davis 2003–05
Sharon Corcoran 2006– for classroom use. Beginning in 1984, editors
have included special sections within an issue
and have even occasionally devoted an entire
issue to a particular subject. So far there have
BPS—at first called the Drug-Behavior group. appeared 16 such sections and 10 special
The editor for Behavioral Neuroscience issues. The latest special issues were the 387-
post was created in 2006 following the publi- page November 2005 issue, Relation of Behav-
cation of the November 2005 special issue ior and Neuroscience and the 370-page Novem-
on The Relation of Behavior and Neuroscience, ber 2002 issue, Categorization and Concept
with David Schaal as the first to hold the Learning.
position.
The managing editors are responsible for NON-USA MEMBERS OF THE BOARD
preparing accepted manuscripts for publica- OF EDITORS
tion, serving as copy editors and querying
authors if questions arise, overseeing the Behavior analysis abroad has grown rapidly
proofing stage and delivering the final issue over the past half century, mainly due to the
to the printer. efforts of the Association for Behavior Analysis.
The Business Managers for JEAB are shown Its website now lists 31 active chapters in
in Table 4. Og Lindsley, a student of Skin- foreign countries (http://www.abainternational.
ner’s, played an important part as one of those org/Chapters/nonUSchapters.asp). JEAB has
among the journal’s founders. He was the been positively affected by that growth and now
Treasurer and also served as Business Manager draws upon that pool of talent for both editorial
until December 1959, when Kay Dinsmoor expertise and authors.
succeeded him. Kay, a person of boundless Figure 1 shows how those from other
energy and intelligence, became the backbone countries have participated in editing the
 JEAB AT FIFTY 101

Fig. 1. Non-USA Members of the JEAB Board of Editors (1958—2008).

journal over the years. The first to join the editors. The 2008 board lists 10 nonUSA
editorial board were from Canada, Herbert editors out of 50. The 2005 and 2006 journal
Jenkins, in 1968, and Richard Gilbert in 1971. issues were examined to see where our authors
The most vigorous participation recently has now come from. Thirty-six of the 106 articles
been from the psychologists of New Zealand, appearing during these two years—34%—had
which so far has contributed five associate at least one foreign author. If one gives
102 VICTOR G. LATIES

a country credit every time it has one or more 1994, was originally meant to be no more
authors on a paper, New Zealand leads the than an interesting way to tell the world about
pack with 16. Next come the UK (8), Mexico the history of our journals, their editors, the
(5), Ireland (4), Japan and Belgium (3), Brazil rules for manuscript submission, the prices of
(2), and Canada, Spain, Germany, and Myan- the JABA reprint volumes, subscription rates,
mar with one each. and so forth. However, a graduate student,
with our permission, produced a commercial
product that included all of our abstracts,
WOMEN AS AUTHORS AND EDITORS which he had laboriously scanned and
There were no women among the small compiled into a searchable database. He
group that founded this journal in 1958 allowed us to add his database to our site.
(Figure 2). At the time, there were few female Suddenly, the website boasted a useful feature
faculty members or graduate students interest- that attracted much activity, particularly
ed in experimental psychology and fewer still among students. Traffic increased dramati-
working in behavior analysis. It is not surpris- cally.
ing that women were not named to the The way we thrashed about initially is
editorial board until they started to publish captured in this May 5, 1995 e-mail to Michael
in the new journal. Perone, who had been an associate editor and
No woman was on the editorial board until then was serving as President of SEAB. Mike
Barbara Ray was appointed in 1970. Evalyn had written concerning the recent announce-
Segal was named to the board in 1972 and ment by Joseph Plaud of the founding of the
Patricia Blough in 1973. Both became associ- Electronic Journal of Behavior Analysis and Ther-
ate editors soon after finishing three-year apy. How would such an ‘‘electronic journal’’
board terms. They each served for about affect our journals? My reply dodged his
a dozen years. During these years there usually question because I did not know the answer,
were 4 or 5 women on the board among 35 to but it outlined how far we had come in
40 men—these numbers always including the exploring the possible ways in which we could
editor and the associate editors. supplement the value of the journals through
Only five other women have been associate use of the internet:
editors. Dianne McCarthy became one in I have thought a great deal about this topic,
1987. Nancy Ator served in that capacity for partly because I have been surrounded by
two years starting in 1994 and then was named people who were closely watching the de-
the editor for Behavioral Pharmacology. Carol velopment of the World Wide Web.…As you
Pilgrim and Kate Saunders were associate already know, we at Rochester have been
exploring the possibilities afforded us by the
editors in the mid-nineties. In 2008, Amy Web over the last few months. (The ‘we’ refers
Odum became the latest female associate to Geoff Inglis, our systems manager, Ray
editor. The total number of women on the Preston, working for Bernie Weiss on a grant
board has gradually increased since 1970, at the time, Randy Pittelli, an undergraduate
drifting from about four or five in the late EE student, and me.)
seventies to eight or nine more recently. Because Geoff created a home page for my
However, total board membership has itself department and manages the server, it was easy
moved from the 40 or so of the seventies and to add a page for SEAB. Because he had just
eighties up to about 50. And board member- created a search program for a NASA database
that Bernie was interested in it, it was more
ship roughly parallels publication in the feasible to produce a truly elegant one for
journal, as can be seen in the insert in JEAB and JABA.…
Figure 2. Because I had much history stuff already in
electronic form (Hineline & Laties, 1987;
Laties & Mace, 1993), that material now
THE WEBSITE AND reappears in smaller pieces as part of what
ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING interested persons using appropriate tools can
choose to inspect if seized with the desire to
The development of the World Wide Web explore the past and current status of our
has changed the nature of journal publishing. journals. They can read about the founding of
Our website, which was launched in October JEAB and JABA. They can find out who were
 JEAB AT FIFTY

Fig. 2. Women as Editors and Authors in JEAB (1958—2008).

103
104 VICTOR G. LATIES

the members of the first board of editors of Table 5

JEAB—and even inspect their photographs Origins of Visitors to JEAB Website (one year ending 24
(the ones Charlie Ferster took in the hotel Sept 2007).
room where the journal was founded). They
Country Visitors % of total visitors
can examine a long list of references relevant
to journal history. They can learn of the United States 69,557 56.75
relative standing of the journals among their United Kingdom 5,985 4.88
competitors, in circulation, citations, etc. We Mexico 4,371 3.57
also now list all the JABA monographs, tell the Brazil 3,823 3.12
world about the new JEAB cumulative index, Canada 3,730 3.04
Japan 3,677 3.00
give the current board members of SEAB, and Uruguay 3,018 2.46
on and on. New Zealand 2,715 2.22
We also added pages giving the tables of Australia 2,006 1.64
content of the November, 1994 issue of JEAB Germany 1,567 1.28
and the Winter issue of JABA when they were China 1,369 1.12
published. Because we had already entered the France 1,215 0.99
journal abstracts to the database (all of JEAB’s, Ireland 1,090 0.89
Spain 1,027 0.84
only one year of JABA’s), we could link the
titles to the abstracts so that anyone examining
these contents pages could simply click on
a title to bring up the associated abstract. web pages (Laties, Preston, Inglis & Pittelli,
When the January issue of JEAB arrived, it
1996).
replaced November as the ‘‘current issue’’ and
we now have two JEAB issues, each article Searching the abstracts continued to increase
linked to its abstract. in popularity. Traffic for the 36 days starting
Last week I finished the task of converting April 1, 1997 showed 2,110 visits to the JEAB
one article from the January JEAB into a form search page, 59 visits, on average, per day. Ten
suitable for electronic presentation, broken years later, in 2007, the search engine contin-
into sections that are more easily digested ued to stand second only to the home page in
by computers (Introduction, Method, etc.). number of visitors. After the search engine, the
The honor of being the first electronic JEAB most popular pages include the most recent
paper belongs to Baron and Leinenweber table of contents and the long page of
(1995, 63, 97–110), chosen because it was ‘‘Selected Articles’’ chosen by the editor from
short, contained only one small table, and
treated a topic of great interest to me.…If you
each issue—usually the first one or two papers
can get to a suitable machine, check it out. plus a book review or special article, if available.
There is a link to it from the JEAB home page (Access to the web statistics is freely available on
and in several other locations. This paper the journal’s home page.)
illustrates some of the virtues of electronic The site continues to serve our authors by
publishing. For example, links have been displaying the journal content in a way that
created between most of JEAB papers in the most likely increases readership. Traffic re-
reference list to their abstracts in the search- flects the academic year, with between 100 and
able database. 600 visitors per day to the JEAB homepage, the
lowest figures marking the popular vacation
A few weeks after this letter, when the times.
SEAB board met on May 27, 1995, it voted to We can discover where our visitors come
present one complete paper from each issue from and how often they visit, which features
in electronic form. Progress was slow but one of the site are most popular, and even the
year later, in May 1996, we had seven articles particular journal articles they examine. Ta-
from JEAB and five from JABA on the site ble 5 is a report, taken from our own web
and were adding one or two articles regularly server, showing where the users live and how
from each issue. The Adobe Portable Docu- often they came to the JEAB pages during the
ment Format (PDF) was used for most of the 365-day period ending September 24, 2007.
articles, because it presented the original text Note that this activity does not always match
fonts, graphics and layout. In the November the editorial involvement data of the foreign
issues of both journals an editorial appeared, editors; on this measure, for this period,
formally announcing the existence of the Uruguay ranks above New Zealand!
 JEAB AT FIFTY 105

PUBMED CENTRAL: GOING While weighing the various alternatives, we

COMPLETELY ELECTRONIC came upon the program that moved us in
a quite different direction. In 2000, the year
The SEAB Board minutes for 2000 contain we had first started down this road, the
the following paragraph: National Library of Medicine (NLM) had
The Board reasserted an awareness that the introduced a program that eventually pro-
Society will ultimately be forced to deal with vided the solution to our problems. The NLM
the question of involvement in electronic is part of the National Institutes of Health and
publishing.…One of the basic dilemmas is is the world’s largest medical library. Its
how to make the journals as accessible as Medline database of abstracts is searched
possible to as many as possible, thus fulfilling some 900 million times per year via PubMed.
its chief function, while at the same time It had launched a program to deal with
remaining sufficiently solvent to continue to journals that were starting to produce elec-
publish the journals in hard copy. No resolu-
tronic copies of their contents.
tion followed this discussion.
As they explain at their website, the NLM
However, our movement toward joining was:
with a larger entity in an effort to make our
journal more accessible in an electronic …taking the lead in preserving and maintain-
format was slow but steady. In 2001, a commit- ing unrestricted access to the electronic
literature, just as it has done for decades with
tee was formed ‘‘…to determine the cost of
the printed biomedical literature. PubMed
producing an electronic version of each Central aims to fill the role of a world class
journal for individuals who subscribe to the library in the digital age…NLM believes that
paper version.’’ It consisted of Wayne Fisher, giving all users free and unrestricted access to
Andy Lattal, Dorothea Lerman, Brian Iwata, the material in PubMed Central (PMC) is the
and Victor Laties. Although I reported in 2002 best way to ensure the durability and utility of
that all JEAB articles between July 1996 and the archive as technology changes over time
November 1999 had been added to the (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/about/
website, there was no movement toward intro.html).
making the more current material available
to subscribers. The SEAB committee studied the alter-
In 2003, Leonard Green urged that we move natives and then chose to cooperate with
more quickly toward going completely elec- PMC, partly because of price—zero setup,
tronic. He then headed a committee to zero yearly charges—but mainly because
investigate the matter. The following year, in lodging the electronic version of the journal
May 2004, he reported that ‘‘…the possibilities with the National Library of Medicine would
for implementing this included doing it in- ensure the journal’s continuity. Our printer
house with our website (already in place) and now sends a copy of each issue to PMC
Allen Press, Inc., the printer of the journals, or upon publication, conforming to their strict
going with outside proposals.’’ He had gath- specifications. No action by anyone else is
ered some cost estimates from one outside needed. It is totally independent of our
company (about $16,000 set-up costs plus website.
a yearly charge of about $13,000) and was A further highly attractive feature of joining
awaiting the figures from another (which later PMC was their offer to scan and digitize our
gave us guesstimates of $33,000 to $46,000 back issues. We already had produced elec-
setup costs and $24,000 to $46,000 yearly). tronic versions of issues going back to 1996 but
SEAB President David Wacker appointed they captured for us PDF electronic versions of
a new committee (Green, Fisher, Thomas all the rest, going back to 1958 for JEAB—
Critchfield, Timothy Vollmer, John Wixted, about 30,000 pages—making it possible to
and Laties) and gave it the strong mandate ‘‘to offer almost 3,800 articles to the public.
consider all the options for electronic publish- Moreover, they used optical character recog-
ing, present those options to the entire Board nition to produce text ‘‘.…of sufficient quality
via e-mail with their recommendations, and to build indexes for full text searching.’’ They
have the Board vote by August upon which the did the same for JABA and its back issues—
Society should follow.’’ scanning about 16,000 pages. We now are
106 VICTOR G. LATIES

presenting to the world about 60,000 pages of ducted at our website. Until recently, only
text. those abstracts with articles published after
In sum, the contents of both journals are mid-1996 have carried links to the complete
now made available from our own website paper. Now all the 6,000-plus abstracts more
(from 1996 on) as well as from PMC (all than six months old carry links to the
years). At our request, PMC imposes a six- complete PDF versions at PubMed Central.
month embargo on the newest material—
three issues of JEAB, two issues of JABA—
SEAB: THE PUBLISHER OF JEAB
making them publicly available via the tables
of contents pages only after that time. We The Society for the Experimental Analysis of
similarly deny access on our website to the Behavior’s Certificate of Incorporation con-
newest issues for six months to all but our own tains this statement of aims:
subscribers. However, by adding a few articles
The purpose and objects of this corporation
from each new issue (about 25 to 30% of the shall be to encourage, foster, and promote the
content) to the Selected Articles pages, we advancement of the science of experimental
deliberately make that embargo somewhat analysis of behavior, the promotion of research
leaky. in the said science and the increase and
diffusion of knowledge of the said science by
the conduct of a program of education, by
THE INFLUENCE OF PUBMED CENTRAL meetings, conferences and symposia, and by
ON OUR WEBSITE the publication of journals, papers, periodicals
and reports.
The sudden revivification of the older
material has made it possible to present Over the past half-century, it has been true
groups of these articles in ways that make to its charter, its members engaging in in-
their availability and usefulness more obvious. numerable ‘‘meetings, conferences and sym-
This is important because otherwise the posia.’’ The Society also supported the publi-
potential user of the older material is faced cation of a half-dozen collections of articles,
at PubMed Central with a rather long and which have been useful to teachers of behavior
forbidding page of about 300 links to 50 years analysis at every level.
worth of JEAB tables of content. The database Although listed last, journal publication
is searchable but there are some natural quickly became the dominant theme of
groups of articles that warrant better pre- SEAB’s activity. Over the years the journals
sentation. For example, the special issues or have proved profitable enough for the Society
sections of issues, are now quite invisible to the to engage in its other educational endeavors,
younger audience, as are the almost one one being simple philanthropy, giving small
hundred book reviews that have appeared in amounts of money to support the programs of
JEAB. other groups. For example, SEAB supported
New topical pages that feature titles with the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour Group
direct links to articles at PMC have now been in England when it gave students travel grants
created and are proving to be quite popular. A to attend a conference on ‘‘Mechanisms of
page displaying links to all ten of the special Learning and Motivation.’’ Likewise, on occa-
issues published by JEAB had just over 2,000 sion it contributed funds to the Association for
visitors over the past year. Pages with the titles Behavior Analysis, helping to sponsor sympo-
of all the book reviews or with all the special sia at their meetings.
sections in issues were both visited by about The main recipient over the years has been
1,200 people. A welcome byproduct of this Division 25 of APA where, starting in 1965, the
effort has been the sudden appearance of Society has regularly subsidized the various
some older articles from these pages among awards programs with gifts now averaging
the most-often downloaded papers during the about $1,000 per year. Other recipients have
past year. included the Archives of the History of
The PubMed Central connection also has Psychology, ABA’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior,
permitted us to enhance the value of our own the Midwest Association for Behavior Analysis
search pages. Searching the abstracts has (which became ABA), the Eastern Psycholog-
always been the most popular exercise con- ical Association, the Mexican Journal of Experi-
 JEAB AT FIFTY 107

Fig. 3. SEAB Board of Directors (1988—2007). The vertical columns indicate board members as of September 1 of
the year given, which is when terms start.
108 VICTOR G. LATIES

mental Analysis of Behavior, and the Psycho- Catania, A. C. (1987). Editorial selection. Journal of the
Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 48, 481–483.
nomic Society. We also have participated in Dewsbury, D. A., & Bolles, R. C. (1995). The founding of
the Journal Donation Project, whereby SEAB the Psychonomic Society. Psychonomic Bulletin and
donates about 20 subscriptions to each of its Review, 2, 216–233.
journals to libraries in Eastern Europe, Russia, Ferster, C. B., & DeMeyer, M. K. (1961). Development of
and some Asian countries. performances in autistic children in an automatically con-
trolled environment. Journal of Chronic Diseases, 13, 312–345.
A chart of all board members who served Ferster, C. B., & Skinner, B. F. (1957). Schedules of
between 1957 and 1987 was included in the reinforcement. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
article celebrating SEAB’s 30th year (Laties, Fisher, W. W., & Mazur, J. E. (1997). Basic and applied
1987b). Twenty years later, it seems fitting to research on choice responding. Journal of Applied
Behavior Analysis, 30, 387–410.
add a similar chart of those who were members Gilbert, M. B. (1987). Memories of JEAB’s mother. Journal
from 1988 to 2007 (Figure 3). of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 48, 475–477.
Near the end of Skinner’s essay on the Green, L., & Freed, D. E. (1993). The substitutability of
fiftieth anniversary of The Behavior of Organisms reinforcers. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of
Behavior, 60, 141–158.
is this paragraph: Herrnstein, R. J. (1987). Reminiscences already? Journal of
I have not yet mentioned the most important the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 48, 449–453.
by-product of The Behavior of Organisms—the Hineline, P. N., & Laties, V. G. (1987). Anniversaries in
behavior analysis. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of
work done by others using the same proce- Behavior, 48, 439–514.
dures according to much the same analysis. Kelleher, R. T., & Morse, W. H. (1987). The Yerkes
The procedures have, in fact, been greatly connection. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of
improved, and experiments in laboratories Behavior, 48, 456–457.
throughout the world have yielded a vast Kendler, H. H., Kendler, T. S., Pliskoff, S. S., & D’Amato,
corpus of facts beside which those reported M. F. (1958). Inferential behavior in children. Journal
in my book are miniscule. Not only are there of Experimental Psychology, 55, 207–212.
many new facts, but, as in other fields of Laties, V. G. (1987a). Double duty. Journal of the
science, the facts hang together. They com- Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 48, 485–487.
Laties, V. G. (1987b). Society for the Experimental Analysis
pose, it seems to me, the most consistent of Behavior: The first thirty years. Journal of the
picture of what behavior really is. (Skinner, Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 48, 495–512.
1989, p. 133) Laties, V. G. (2003). Behavior analysis and the growth of
behavioralpharmacology.TheBehaviorAnalyst,26,235–252.
By the end of 2007, JEAB could boast of Laties, V. G., & Mace, F. C. (1993). Taking stock: The first
having published almost 3,800 articles on 25 years of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.
40,839 text pages. A worthy toast to JEAB’s Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 26, 513–525.
next half-century would promise a continuing Laties, V. G., Preston, R. A., Inglis, G. B., & Pittelli, R. L.
(1996). JEAB and JABA on the World Wide Web: A
emphasis upon facts that ‘‘hang together,’’ report to readers. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of
composing ‘‘the most consistent picture of Behavior, 66, 265–266.
what behavior really is.’’ Lattal, K. A. (1969). Contingency management of tooth-
brushing in a summer camp for children. Journal of
Applied Behavior Analysis, 2, 195–198.
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 JEAB AT FIFTY 109

Wolf, M. M. (1993). Remembrances of issues past: Wyatt, W. J., Hawkins, R. P., & Davis, P. (1986).
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