Behavioral and Brain Sciences

BBS publishes important and controversial interdisciplinary articles in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral biology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, linguistics and philosophy. Articles are rigorously refereed and, if accepted, are circulated to a large number of potential commentators around the world in the various specialties on which the article impinges. Their 1000-word commentaries are then co-published with the target article as well as the author's response to each. The commentaries consist of analyses, elaborations, complementary and supplementary data and theory, criticisms and cross-specialty syntheses.

BBS has rapidly become a widely read and highly influential forum in the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. A recent recalculation of BBS's "impact factor" (ratio of citations to number of articles) in the American Psychologist [41(3) 1986] reports that already in its fifth year of publication (1982) BBS's impact factor had risen to become the highest of all psychology journals indexed as well as 3rd highest of all 1300 journals indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index and 50th of all 3900 journals indexed in the Science Citation index, which indexes all the scientific disciplines.

Commentators are selected by the following means:

BBS maintains a computerized file of over 10,000 BBS Associates; the size of this group is increased annually as authors, referees, commentators and nominees of current Associates become eligible to become Associates. Many commentators are selected from this list.
The BBS editorial office does informal as well as formal computerized literature searches on the topic of the target articles to find additional potential commentators from across specialties and around the world who are not yet BBS Associates.
The referees recommend potential commentators.
The author recommends potential commentators.

We have now added a further source for selecting potential commentators: The abstract of the target article will be posted in the relevant newsgroups on the net. Eligible individuals who judge that they would have a relevant commentary to contribute should contact the editor at bbs@bbsonline.org

Potential commentators should send their names, affilliations, a description of their general qualifications and their basis for seeking to comment on an accepted target article to the email address above.