Skinnerians and post-Skinnerians: A bibliometric study of communication between behavior analysis and contextual behavioral science

It is possible that the emergence of contextual behavioral science (CBS)—presented as a variation of behavior analysis (BA)—could result in isolation between the fields, reducing the possibility of productive debates. But this was a speculative question. To clarify the actual extent of this distancing, this study examined communication between CBS and BA by analyzing citations in representative journals from 2012–2024. The results indicate that, although the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science (JCBS) and The Psychological Record cite each other more frequently than they are cited by a general psychology journal (Psychological Research), signs of a widening divide have emerged. In JCBS, citations to BA journals progressively declined across the period, while journal self-citations increased. Citations to Skinner also showed a continuous decrease – approaching zero by the end of the period – whereas citations to Hayes remained consistently high. Overall, the findings suggest a potential risk of CBS becoming increasingly isolated from BA, even though cross-citation rates between CBS and BA remain substantially higher than those observed in general psychology.