Association for Behavior Analysis International

The peer-review process may seem mystifying and frightening to students who have not had experience in publishing and reviewing papers. After a brief overview of the peer review process in general and ethical concerns in peer review, Editors of ABAI journals Behavior & Social Issues, Behavior Analysis in Practice, Education & Treatment of Children and The Analysis of Verbal Behavior will discuss how peer review operates in their respective journals, what an author should expect in the peer review process, and how to respond to reviewers. Each editors’ presentation will be brief to allow for questions and discussion with the audience.

The target audience is graduate students in the field who are interested in or actively submitting manuscripts for peer-review.

Success in academia is measured by accomplishments in three domains: research, teaching, and service. Theoretically, doctoral programs are designed to prepare students to succeed in all three domains; however, the prevailing contingencies of the doctoral graduation requirements may not always reflect this goal. Often, the emphasis in student development is on research. Students are typically required to successfully propose and defend a dissertation, present research at conferences, and publish in peer reviewed journals. In contrast, teaching and service requirements may be considered less stringent. Students might only be required to be the instructor of record for one course or be the primary instructor for a few instructional sessions to meet teaching requirements. As for service, requirements are virtually nonexistent. Therefore, students may need to seek additional opportunities to ensure they are prepared to succeed in teaching and service. This professional development series event brings together three leaders in teaching and service to discuss ways in which students can prepare themselves to be master teachers and engage in meaningful service. Panelists will share methods they use to ensure their teaching is effective, discuss service opportunities, provide their perspectives on ways research, teaching, and service can be integrated, and answer audience questions.

Graduate students

Research grants are an essential component in supporting academic research programs. Formal education on grant writing is typically unavailable to graduate students despite the beneficial nature of this knowledge for professionals in the field of behavior analysis. This panel features 3 behavior analysts who have experience obtaining grants. This presentation will review where to search for funding, what types of grants are available, best practice in proposal writing, maintenance of grant funding, and how students can get involved in the grant writing process. Learning how to write a competitive grant proposal is essential to funding meaningful research that suits the needs of both the researcher and the funding entity. Panelists will answer audience questions and provide recommendations to students interested in research grants.