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VOLUME 3, ISSUE 4 PSYCHNEWS INTERNATIONAL December 1998
-- AN ONLINE PUBLICATION --
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SECTION B: INVITED EDITORIAL
APA ENTERS ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
by Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D.
Despite initial skepticism, psychology and other mental-
health related disciplines have quickly responded to the
new demands and potentials of the rapid development in
communication and information technologies. I myself became
involved in discussions through so-called email forums with
"InterPsych" (http://www.interpsych.org) in 1994, a con-
federation of discussion forums about psychology and
psychiatry founded by Mr. Ian Pitchford at the University of
Sheffield, UK.
Particularly on the InterPsych forum "psychiatry-l" and the
Internet-based discussion list of APA's division 12, Section
3 (SSCP), controversial but constructive debates evolved, f.
i. on "psychopharmacology versus psychotherapy in panic
disorder", that led Donald Klein, M.D. and me to think about
a more systematic format to use the Internet as a platform
for intra- and interdisciplinary exchange.
After two eventful years, the e-journal "Treatment" came in-
to being. A first article with peer commentaries was pub-
lished in September 1997 (http://journals.apa.org/treatment).
Because of the American Psychiatric Association's guild-
protective withdrawal from collaboration with the American
Psychological Association, "Treatment" died an early death,
but it was rapidly replaced by "Prevention & Treatment", the
publication intended to become the flagship electronic
journal of the American Psychological Association.
Below is the mission statement of "Prevention and Treatment".
PREVENTION AND TREATMENT is a peer-reviewed electronic journal
sponsored by the American Psychological Association. PREVENTION
AND TREATMENT publishes major empirical and theoretical
research on prevention, psychotherapy, and biologically
oriented therapy, and the combination of such interventions.
It also publishes articles on personality and the normal and
psychopathological processes as they relate to the outcome of
interventions. In addition, PREVENTION AND TREATMENT publishes
integrative reviews of the literature relevant to therapy,
prevention, and the underlying personality processes.
Articles in PREVENTION AND TREATMENT generally will be
published with accompanying peer-reviewed commentaries and with
the authors' replies. PREVENTION AND TREATMENT also fosters
discussion of individual articles by establishing unreviewed
bulletin board discussions for each article.
PREVENTION AND TREATMENT will also schedule occasional
synchronous author/reader online chats at specified times. We
seek to publish signal articles that report an important
finding or major, documented idea about therapy, prevention, or
underlying processes and that warrants rapid and wide
dissemination. We publish articles based within the "disorder"
model, but we emphasize contributions that identify and bolster
strengths as their primary mode of intervention.
Contributions of different lengths are encouraged, and we
publish both empirical and theoretical articles. Articles can
be either Brief Reports or Full Articles. The Brief Reports are
2500-4000 word articles reporting one or two studies of the
"breakthrough" kind reported in SCIENCE or in NATURE or in THE
NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE. A Brief Report will usually be
empirical in nature, but Brief Reports that theoretically re-
interpret or re-analyze already existing empirical data in
major new ways, if sufficiently important, are welcomed.
The Full Articles usually report a series of interlocked
empirical findings. So longer, multi-study contributions of the
traditional variety are welcome. But Full Articles that theo-
retically review and reinterpret existing bodies of literature
are also welcomed.
PREVENTION AND TREATMENT will also publish, with peer
commentary, an electronic reprint of occasional "Feature
Articles." APA editors will nominate current articles they con-
sider to be the most important in all of psychological science,
and PREVENTION AND TREATMENT will be the forum to reprint them
and bring them to the attention of the full membership and the
media.
Here are ten reasons to publish in Prevention and Treatment:
(1) A full "APA journal";
(2) Abstracts automatically go into the PsycINFO abstract
database;
(3) FULL TEXT copy automatically goes into the new APA Full
Text Article database (so it will be available "eternally");
(4) Wide circulation (it is already #2 in readers, behind the
"American Psychologist");
(5) Data on "hits" (or number of times read) provided as needed
for tenure review;
(6) Articles released in their own "special issue";
(7) Publicity via press release to science writers by APA
Public Information Office;
(8) Fastest speed of publication and distribution of all APA
journals;
(9) CE offering helps make practitioners more aware of science;
(10) Peer Commentary.
Launching "Prevention & Treatment", the American Psychological
Association has set the signal for a first committment to new
communication means. Technically, publication lags, delayed peer
feedback, and slow dissemination of information could promptly
become obsolete. I cordially invite the PsychNews International
readers to subscribe and submit articles. Last, not least, the
access to "Prevention & Treatment" through the World Wide Web
bears immense potentials to provide timely quality information
that is truly affordable and accessible to mental health
professionals and institutions around the globe. Trivial but
true: The world has become the _global_village_. With APA's
"Prevention & Treatment", we have paved the way for the Mental-
Health Avenue that can be accessed from every corner of the
world.
The website (URL) for Prevention & Treatment is located at:
http://journals.apa.org/prevention/
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