Behavior Analyst Online
Contact Info
- Paul Malanga
- Cordova, TN
- Phone: (901) 745-7651
- Fax: (901) 745-7468
- SIG website
- SIG News (September 2011)
Mission/Objectives
Behavior analysis is without question one of the most dynamic professions today, with significant influence in the clinical setting; behavioral medicine; mental health; health, sports, and fitness; developmental disabilities; school-wide positive behavioral support; special education; organizational dynamics; criminology; offender rehabilitation; and education. The emphasis on prevention, early intervention, accurate comprehensive functional behavioral assessment, collaboration, and problem solving demands that behavior analysts be creative thinkers who command a tremendous range of evidence-based procedures based on principles of the science of human behavior. Keeping up with best practices is critical to ensuring that the client’s right to effective behavioral intervention is preserved. Behavior Analyst Online (BAO) is dedicated to helping behavior analysts keep up with current research and methodology in this rapidly progressing field.
The organization will develop and deploy new resources, making them available on the Internet free of charge to the public. These resources will be dedicated to educating the public about behavior analysis as well as serving as a resource for professionals involved in research and/or application of principles of behavior analysis.
The organization will be responsible to its membership to develop resources useful in everyday research, education, and application of the science of behavior.
The organization will be operated under the guidance of its Senior Membership Board.
The SIG provides information on and articles about:
- Theory, basic and applied research, model development based on behavioral principles, and behavioral practice
- Expectations and roles of the behavior analyst, including clinical behavior analysts and behavior analysts working as behavior therapists
- Collaboration and communication with other stakeholders
- Assessment strategies including functional assessment and analysis, curriculum based measurement, and direct and analogue assessment
- Behavioral interventions
- Laws, funding, and public policy
- Organizational behavior management level strategies and interventions for mental health, developmental disabilities, educational interventions, and systems for intervening
- Training and professional standards
Additionally, the organization is working to increase site readership by 200 readers per month though increased knowledge of the journals, starting of new journals, and the site forum.
Description of Membership
We have more than 1,500 members around the world.
Publications/Newsletters
The BAO publishes a number of journals quarterly covering a wide array of fields of interest to behavior analysis. The journals published include The Behavior Analyst Today, The International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, Journal of Speech and Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of Behavior Analysis of Offender and Victim Treatment and Prevention, Journal of Behavior Assessment and Intervention in Children, and Journal of Behavioral Health & Medicine. Over the past year 69 peer-reviewed articles have been published addressing issues such as fluency, functional assessment, verbal behavior, functional analytic psychotherapy, performance feedback and home-based consultation, self-monitoring with children diagnosed with autism, and the limitations of positive-only programs for people with severe behavioral challenges.
Specifically of Interest to Behavior Analysts
We meet the needs of behavior analysts in hard-to-reach regions who might not have access to behavioral journals. These journals can be found at the Behavior Analyst Online website, www.baojournal.com.
Behavior Analyst Online provides publishing opportunities for behavior analysts and has published more than 800 behavior-oriented articles in all areas of behavior analysis, including the experimental analysis of behavior, applied and clinical behavior analysis, organizational behavior management, behavior analysis in education, philosophical issues in behaviorism, behavioral health, and behavior analysis in the justice system, to name a few.
In addition, Behavior Analyst Online makes materials affordable and accessible to instructors and students. Textbooks are expensive, and often currency exchange rates increase the expense for individuals overseas. Instructors from around the world have contacted us to thank us for making quality behavior analysis articles available online. A clear instructional benefit is the fact that using easily accessible peer reviewed research articles as the basis of a thematic instructional unit provides meaningful examples that illustrate the behavioral concepts/principles to be taught.
Behavior Analyst Online Data
The Behavior Analyst Online website has experienced a surge in the past year. The average number of visits per month from April 2010 to April 2011 was 1,914, compared to 875 during the same period the previous year (April 2009 to April 2010). The range of hits per month also increased. During 2009–2010 the number of hits per month on BAO's site ranged from 1,906 to 260. During 2010–2011 the number of hits per month ranged from 2,926 to 1,426. The site has averaged more than 1,900 hits per month.
The articles published online are viewed internationally. Approximately 46% (a 10% increase from last year) of the site’s viewers are located outside the United States, comprising 16 countries including Kuwait, China, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.