Cultural and multicultural topics in Neuropsychology Journal titles from 2010-2020

The values of a field are reflected in the science it publishes. The goal of this study was to present a historical analysis of the extent to which the field of clinical neuropsychology publishes journals with titles that address culture in the context of brain function and behavior between 2010 and 2020.

Titles from articles published in 13 neuropsychology journals from 2010-2020 were collected and coded with regard to culture and multicultural content. The aims of the study were to (1) determine how often cultural or multicultural topics were represented in journal titles, (2) determine if cultural or multicultural content in neuropsychology journal publication titles increased over time, and (3) to explore other neuropsychological content that was most and least likely to appear in publications pertaining to culture or multicultural issues.

Results indicated that titles for publications in clinical neuropsychology journals with content relevant to cultural or multicultural neuropsychology represented 1.1% to 13.4% of titles across the 13 journals. The number of cultural/multicultural titles increased over time. The number of cultural/multicultural titles per journal was not significantly correlated with the journal impact factor. Normative data were addressed significantly more often in cultural/multicultural titles versus non-cultural/multicultural titles, whereas psychiatric issues were addressed significantly less often.

There are many actions that clinical neuropsychologists can take to increase the field's attention to the effects of culture on brain function and behavior. It is vital to update our data from 2021 to the present, given the substantial increase in awareness of social justice issues that occurred since 2020.