In its newest chapter on publishing open access journals covering unique fields and topics, OU Libraries, in partnership with the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education, has launched Single Case in the Social Sciences (SCSS). SCSS is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes original experimental single-case studies, systematic reviews, and methods articles aimed at expanding knowledge across applied behavior analysis, counseling, education, psychology, social work, and related fields. SCSS seeks to improve the methodological decisions used in single-case designs, increasing the credibility and trustworthiness of research outcomes.
“Single Case in the Social Sciences is an international journal that brings together professionals across disciplines familiar with and using single-case research to provide a prominent platform for the dissemination of single-case research, which currently does not exist,” said Founding Editor Cian Brown. “In collaboration with OU Libraries, SCSS is an Open Access journal with no publishing costs, increasing the dissemination of single-case research and readily accessible to researchers, educators, and practitioners.”
SCSS and OU Libraries established a publishing partnership in August 2023, and since then, the Publishing Services team at OU Libraries has been working with the journal’s editors to prepare their new website and publish their first digital, fully open access issue in October 2024. Operating under a Creative Commons license, the journal is committed to upholding the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines developed by the Center for Open Science. All articles undergo a double-anonymous peer review process in which both the reviewer and the writer are unknown to each other.
OU Libraries began publishing faculty-driven, peer-reviewed open access journals in 2016 and has since established a portfolio covering topics from across the social science and humanities fields, including architecture, forensic social work, higher education athletics, music, performing arts, politics, race and ethnicity, writing, and young adult literature. Each publication is freely available to view online and download. The Publishing Services program focuses on producing high quality, sustainable publications guided by the aims of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) as well as best practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), National Information Standards Organization (NISO), Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).
“As open access initiatives continue to help shape the future of the university, OU Libraries’ is excited by this partnership and the shared space this journal provides to the research community,” said Nicholas Wojcik, Scholarly Publishing Librarian at OU Libraries and head of the Publishing Services program. SCSS will be published biannually through the University of Oklahoma Libraries and supported by reviewers, sponsors, and an editorial team dedicated to disseminating quality work for the advancement of single case research. The journal’s team includes founding editors Cian Brown, an assistant professor in the Professional Counseling Program in the OU department of educational psychology, and Corey Peltier, an associate professor of special education at OU, along with Co-Editor Kathleen Tuck, professor in the department of Special Education at the University of Kansas.
To learn more about Single Case in the Social Sciences, visit http://singlecasejournal.com. For more on OU Libraries Publishing Services, visit guides.ou.edu/publishing-services.