Introduction to the special symposium on writing articles for Psychological Bulletin.

Because I have seen article reviewers react as much to how writers say what they say as to what the writers actually say, I decided to organize a symposium on how to write an article for Psychological Bulletin. The symposium contains articles on the main types of submissions Bulletin has published: review articles in general, meta-analytic reviews in particular, critiques of review articles, and methodological articles. In 1995, after the symposium articles were commissioned, Psychological Bulletin stopped accepting methodological articles, which are going to be published in Psychological Methods, starting in January 1996. The principles for writing methodological articles, however, remain important, so the article on methodological articles is included here. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Advances in the Study of Behavior: Vol. II.

Reviews the book, Advances in the Study of Behavior: Vol. II by Daniel S. Lehrman, Robert A. Hinde, Evelyn Shaw (Eds.) (1969). Like Volume I, Volume n consists of a series of professional level monographs. Each monographic chapter provides an excellent review of the contributor's research project to date. Researchers in related areas or serious students will find each article to be a stimulating report of the contributor's ongoing research in the title area. The articles thoroughly discuss the theoretical issues, report related data of other researchers and provide an excellent bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immunologic tests in rheumatology

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Reading this article will familiarize the reader with the application and interpretation of different autoantibody tests used in rheumatology. DATA SOURCES: Recent rheumatologic textbooks, relevant review articles, and seminal articles in English regarding specific tests. RESULTS: An understanding of this review should enable the reader to approach diagnostic testing systematically in a patient with a suspected connective tissue disease. CONCLUSIONS: The proper use and interpretation of appropriate immunologic tests are important in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with connective tissue diseases.     

Editorial policy for Neuropsychology.

With the publication of Neuropsychology by the Philadelphia Clinical Neuropsychology Group (PCNG) in 1987, it is hoped that PCNG will meet the growing need of practitioners and consumers for both practical and theoretical information regarding service delivery in clinical neuropsychology. In keeping with the PCNG tradition, the aim of Neuropsychology is education: to provide the readership with materials to improve the quality of service delivery to patients with diseases or disorders related to the central nervous system. Basic clinical research on memory, learning, perception, language, sensory-motor functioning and so on are welcome publications in Neuropsychology, as their findings fit well with clinical practice commitments. Case reports, scholarly review articles, reviews of books, software programs, and test materials, and announcements of upcoming events are also welcomed. The intent is to make Neuropsychology a scholarly refereed journal of PCNG and to include articles written not only by PCNG members but other interested individuals as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Population review: (9). Summary of issues

Previous population reviews--published as the 1977 and 1984 Demographic Reviews--were published as free-standing reports. This Review has appeared, initially, as a series of eight articles in this journal. The aim (to quote from the introduction in Population Trends 81) has been to: 'describe the changing make-up of the population of the United Kingdom in a form that will be useful to both general readers and to demography specialists'. The articles have shown that since the 1984 review was issued the demographic picture has become clearer-and now looks a little different. This concluding article brings together the key changes since the last Review and summarises the current situation.     

Imaging anatomy of the normal orbit

Sectional imaging by CT and MRI now displays the gross anatomy of the orbit in vivo. Gross anatomy, axial and coronal CT, and MRI will be used to review the anatomic features of the orbit critical to image interpretation. Familiarity with the positions, relationships, and normal appearance of the major structures described and illustrated in this article will provide a solid basis for interpreting images of orbital pathology, as discussed in subsequent articles.     

Editorial statement of the American Psychologist: III.

Presents an editorial statement about the publication policies of the American Psychologist (AP). About half the contents of the AP are documents that report on the activities of the Association—the minutes of the Council of Representatives, the address of the immediate Past President, and those reports of the Association boards and committees of concern to a large percentage of the membership. The remaining pieces are articles that the editorial board and the ad hoc reviewers judge to be of sufficient interest and consequence to appeal to the large and heterogeneous readership of the AP. These articles should explicitly address the broadest scientific and practical implications of the topic under consideration. In addition, a new series, tentatively called "Science Watch," will appear in the AP on an irregular basis. The purpose will be to cover articles that broaden our understanding of the discipline, that enable us to understand the connections between our discipline and others, and that help us glimpse the directions in which our science is moving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introducing the new Health Psychology series "Evidence-based treatment reviews": Progress not perfection.

Introduces the new Health Psychology series "Evidence-Based Treatment Reviews." Psychologists struggle continuously with the tension between the general implications of research conducted in their treatment area and the often unique needs and treatment possibilities for their individual patients. Recent concerns about this struggle in psychology have led to the initiation of an American Psychological Association presidential taskforce to propose an evidence-based policy: Evidence-Based Psychology Practice (EBPP). This struggle is not new. Medicine, similarly, has been dealing with the issue of how to translate research findings into evidence-based assessments and treatments. The process of joining our research with our practice, known as Evidence-Based Medicine, will be the cornerstone of a new series of articles in Health Psychology, entitled "Evidence-Based Treatment Reviews." Evidence-Based Behavioral Medicine is an extension of the Evidence-Based Medicine movement that identified the necessity of critically evaluating research to inform clinical practice (Rosenberg & Donald, 1995). In addition to mentoring researchers in presenting their findings in a more user-friendly style (e.g., Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials, or CONSORT, guidelines; Altman, Schulz, Moher, Egger, Davidoff, Elbourne, et al., 2001), teaching clinicians how to review the evidence (e.g., Evidence Based Medicine Tool Kit), and compiling and summarizing the existing evidence for public consumption (e.g., the Cochrane Collaboration), it makes sense to integrate these efforts by presenting research reviews with clinician commentary in our professional journals as has already been done by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, e.g., DeAngelis & Fontanarosa, 2002; Levinson & DeAngelis, 2002). We seek to add to the health psychology evidence base by including two articles for each topic chosen: an Evidence Review and a Clinician's Comment. For this series, we envision that three or four evidence-based reviews will be published per year in Health Psychology and that each review will be accompanied by a three- or four-page commentary by a clinician to aid in the application of the research to a clinical practice. In this format, we hope to capture both the state of the clinical science and the challenging art of translating it into clinical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Message from editors to authors: review articles. How can the scientific and educational results be improved?

Most biomedical journals include review articles that pretend to provide the readers with an updated, synthetic and critical appraisal of some important topic. These articles are usually written by experts in the topics reviewed. There are no conventional or universally accepted requisites for the formal organization of contents in a review article. This is in contrast with other kinds of original articles. Therefore, to guide the authors on how to improve the review articles to be submitted to Revista Medica de Chile, some recommendations are proposed. These recommendations were based in the editors' experience and in other pertinent publications: 1) The scope and purpose of the review article should be established in the introductory paragraphs; 2) The methodology used in the selection of the literature reviewed and the time span covered by the search, should also be specified; 3) The author of the review article should systematically appraise the validity of the methods employed in the papers reviewed. A similar attitude should be observed with regards to the results, discussions and conclusions. The limitations and inconsistencies found should be pointed out; 4) The author of the review article should state his (her) own conclusions, identifying the solid as well as the weakly established facts; 5) Whenever feasible, a proposal of future lines of research envisioned after reviewing the literature, is commendable; 6) The literary style of the article should be kept as interesting as possible, to motivate the prospective readers; 7) The scope of the specific journal where the author intends to submit the review article, should always be kept in mind.     

An open trial of lisinopril (''ZESTRIL'') in mild to moderate hypertension in Nigeria

The concept of transcultural nursing is relatively new to the nursing literature. It had been less than 30 years since Madeleine Leininger first began to develop a theory of transcultural nursing as part of a doctoral study in anthropology. Much has changed in that time, and nursing staff development and inservice educators need to provide educational offerings within a multicultural context in a timely manner. Cultural diversity is the standard in the mid-1990s, and those nursing staff development programs that are sensitive to this fact produce employees with advantages over those from settings that do not prepare staff for practice in a constantly changing world. This annotated bibliography about transcultural nursing details key references for staff development and inservice programs. It is not intended as an exhaustive review but rather focuses on the most relevant, timely, and useful of the ever increasing number of publications concerning this important subject. Six major books and four of the most pertinent recent journal articles are included. Conclusions and implications for nursing staff educators are offered.     

Review of Annals of theoretical psychology, Volume 4.

Reviews the book, Annals of theoretical psychology, Volume 4 edited by Leendert P. Mos (1986. Like the earlier volumes of this series this is a collection of five articles, three or four commentaries on each of them, a reply to these by the author of the original essay, and a book review. Besides being theoretical all chapters deal in some way with the mind rather than with observable behaviour. It is evident that the reader of this volume who expects to find in it some new psychological theory, or even only the end to some dispute about an old theory, will be disappointed. On the positive side--at least from the reviewer's perspective--this volume shows that on both sides of the Atlantic there are a number of psychologists within academia who are interested in the mind/psyche which they discuss not merely as the hyphen between "stimulus" and "response". (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Alcohol problems in women.

Reviews the book, Alcohol problems in women edited by Sharon C. Wilsnack and Linda J. Beckman (1984). This book is a compilation of fourteen articles which review the research on women alcoholics. The contents are organized into four sections, all focusing on literature relating to women and covering the areas of patterns of alcohol use, biological and psychosexual aspects of alcohol use, antecedents and consequences of alcohol problems, and treatment and prevention of alcohol problems. The overall impression derived from the articles is that although many studies have been reported, certain areas are still undeveloped, and others suffer from significant methodological flaws. A summary of these issues would be helpful in providing an overview of how much our knowledge has actually developed since 1970. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology for the public: A content analysis of Psychology Today..

Surveyed the extent to which Psychology Today (PT) has maintained an empirical basis for its articles and the degree to which psychologists and individuals with doctorates have been responsible for PT articles. Two samples of PT were selected for review by 2 raters (the present authors). Findings indicate that not only have PT articles significantly shifted away from a presentation of empirically based data, but the proportion of articles authored by psychologists, as well as the educational level of authors, has declined, particularly in the last 3 yrs. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making personalized health care more precise: Implications of neuroscientific findings.

The individualization of health care occurs when knowledge of what is best for a specific patient is used in a specific treatment situation. Currently the treatment of a patient is dependent on a set of primarily medical parameters that help to individualize the chosen therapy. In the future, supplementary parameters will be needed to enhance therapy success. One possible parameter would be the use of information about the personality of the patient. This article will first review given findings about the relation between personality and health. Subsequently the implications of these findings will be explored and a research proposal will be presented. A literature review was conducted, including articles that discuss the relationship between personality and health in a theoretical or empirical manner. The analysis focused on studies using the NEO-FFI or the TCI in combination with a psychological or somatic illness. Studies of personality measures show a variety of relationships between personality traits and morbidity, even for somatic illnesses. In addition to the existing parameters used to determine therapy, personality data could help determine a more precise etiology, diagnosis and therapy for the individual patient. Also new possibilities are created for a more compatible form of doctor-patient relationship, as well as a more structural approach to strengthen the patient orientation of the physician. Implementing this approach will require extensive discourse about the implied ethical aspects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Five commandments for APA.

The author delineates 5 rules of scientific review and publishing and argues that these norms need to be upheld even when to do so proves politically difficult. The 5 rules are: (a) Scientific articles should be judged only by their logic and the strength of their evidence; (b) the results of a competent peer review should be accepted; (c) disagreements with scientific articles should be aired in peer reviewed commentaries; (d) efforts to judge scientific articles on the basis of political concerns should be resisted; and (e) the explicit rules and normative expectations of peer review should not be arbitrarily altered. This article provides indirect commentary on the article/commentary by S. O Lilienfeld (see record 2002-10795-003) and the commentary by R. McCarty (see record 2002-10795-006), both of which referenced the controversial original review by B. Rind et al (see record 1998-04232-002). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Behaviour Therapy in Clinical Psychiatry.

Reviews the book, Behaviour Therapy in Clinical Psychiatry by V. Meyer and Edward S. Chesser (see record 1970-21119-000). This is a Penguin paperback psychology series book of 288 pages. It deals mainly with principles. In some sense, it is an annotated review and represents a thorough search of the recent literature. As such, this book has the fault of being both too telegramatic and a bit pedantic. Its major value would seem to be for students of behavioural sciences, thesis writers, and other academics. The contents of the book involve initially a review of psychiatric disorders and learning theories. A second major section reviews principles of conditioning and learning, followed by specific learning theory formulations of psychiatric disorders. A later section covers the theory and methods of treatment, and finally, onto the efficacy of behaviour therapy, current research studies, clinical applications and a consideration of the present status and prospects for behaviour therapy. The general value of this book for "clinical psychiatry" would, I think, be limited. One can imagine that some editor has imposed the title "Behaviour Therapy in Clinical Psychiatry" with a view more to the marketplace than out of respect for the quite commendable research goals and content of the text. In summary, this is a thorough review of the state of the science (but not of the art) and, I would judge, worth the money. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The media vs managed health care: are we seeing a full court press?

BACKGROUND: Despite the fact that medical coverage for many Americans is shifting rapidly from traditional insurance to managed care, studies suggest that most citizens have limited knowledge or understanding of the implication of this change. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the predominant message being portrayed by the lay press on managed care. METHODS: We conducted a review of newspaper articles dealing with managed care from several leading national newspapers. Surveys, editorials, letters to the editor, or nonclinical articles were excluded. The articles were examined to evaluate their likely effect on the reader's willingness to join a managed care organization, and were scored using a standardized survey instrument. The final analysis included data from 85 articles from an original pool of 277. RESULTS: In only 8% of cases, the articles were considered likely to have had a positive influence on the reader and, thus, encourage them to join or remain with a managed care organization. More important, in fully two thirds of cases, we believed the articles portrayed so unfavorable a message that the reader was less likely to join, or might even decide to leave, a managed care organization. The articles dealt most frequently (67%) with patient concerns with managed care, focused mainly on cost and quality issues, and managed care representatives were the people whose opinions were most commonly (53%) solicited. CONCLUSIONS: It seems highly likely that public perception of managed health care will be influenced by the strongly negative representation being portrayed by the newspapers. While debate over the good vs bad features of managed care continues, available evidence suggests this form of health care coverage continues to grow. The press is likely to remain an important source by which information about managed care is transmitted to the public and will certainly influence public decision making on the issue. If the current negative representation continues, we may soon begin to see a widespread backlash of public opinion opposing this form of health care.     

Review of Undergraduate writing in psychology: Learning to tell the scientific story.

Reviews the book, Undergraduate writing in psychology: Learning to tell the scientific story by R. Eric Landrum (see record 2008-03689-000). This review is written from the perspective of a student who enrolled in a course on academic writing and a professor who taught the course. From the student's perspective, Landrum covers all the bases, from the reason psychologists write scientifically to the proper way to write a notecard. However, she feels that the book is too basic, and that students will not feel that they learned anything new from it. From the professor's perspective, the book covers the basics of writing empirical papers and review papers in APA style. However, the book's difficulty level is very low, which may say a lot about the audience for psychology textbooks. The dilemma for Landrum is to decide which audience to write for: The best students don't need the book's basic points, and the worst students won't read it. Landrum's book may be the best of the APA Paper books: It's more original and more effective than its competitors. Storytelling is a good model for research articles, and Landrum nicely develops the model throughout the book. Despite its storytelling theme, however, the book recommends hiding the storyteller: students should sound objective, formal, and detached--in a word, boring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)