Updated Strategies for Making Regular Contact With the Scholarly Literature

Abstract

The Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2020a) states that behavior analysts must provide services based on the published scientific evidence (Code 2.01, “Providing Effective Treatment”) and maintain competence by reading relevant scholarly literature (Code 1.06, “Maintaining Competence”). Carr and Briggs (2010) acknowledged several potential barriers that might prevent behavior analysts from pursuing this obligation and offered helpful recommendations for circumventing these barriers. Although the nature of these barriers has primarily stayed the same since the publication of Carr and Briggs, the profession and field have grown more complex over the past decade, and several additional barriers have emerged. Luckily, technological advances and resources recently made available offer additional solutions for behavior analysts to consider adopting. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide an update to the strategies described by Carr and Briggs for overcoming barriers related to searching the literature, accessing journal content, and contacting the contemporary literature. In addition, we conclude with how leaders might incorporate the proposed strategies into their organization at a systems-wide level.