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Division 20 Listserv Policies

Confidentiality Warning

1. The listserv has global distribution, is publically archived, and is indexed in every major international search service. Posters should NOT post confidential or secure information (e.g., phone numbers/email addresses/physical addresses) that they do not wish the whole world to be able to access indefinitely. The presence of a confidentiality notice barring further distribution in the body of the email/posting DOES NOT override this warning. Responsibility for public dissemination of privileged or confidential information lies solely with the message originator. If sensitive information does get on the listserv and its' archives, Division 20 staff will try to remove information from the archives, and can share links to search engine "web removal tools" to try to get materials removed from cached pages.

Administration and Editorial Policies

1. Postings to the listserv may only be made by the moderator. Direct submissions to the listserv will be ignored. All postings for consideration on the listserv must be mailed directly to the moderator. The moderator may choose to post them under his/her name, or under the name of the originator.

2. There are no formal language or style guidelines; the listserv moderator's judgment is used, although there is a general principle against censorship.

3. When in doubt, the listserv moderator queries the Division 20 Executive Council for guidance.

4. Endorsement of political candidates outside of APA via the listserv is not permitted.

5. APA endorsements of policies or calls to action will routinely be posted.

6. Endorsement of APA candidates is disseminated as follows. (A) The Executive Committee requests information from candidates using a standardized questionnaire. (B) All responses received are posted on the Division 20 website, announced via the listserv, and published in the divisional newsletter. The Executive Committee may choose to endorse or rank candidates. Executive committee endorsements will be disseminated via the listserv. At the discretion of the Executive Committee, in a given APA election cycle, single "private member" endorsements of APA candidates are also permitted. When permitted, the "comment window" is publically announced, and will typically have a brief, fixed duration (typically two weeks).

Security and User Protection

1. All postings on the listserv, even when posted by the moderator, require "approval" by the listmaster. Specifically, after a posting is sent to the listserv, the listserv sends a query back to the moderator to verify the posting. If the moderator wishes the posting to occur, he/she types "ok", and the posting will appear. This double-leveled security (posting by moderator only, and subsequent approval mechanism) is designed to reduce spam mails and virus/trojan/worm dissemination.

2. List messages can be sent by list subscribers only. This is a SPAM mitigation policy; without it, the moderator receives dozens of spam postings a day. If posters do not wish to continue receiving emails from the list, they can again unsubscribe, or set their list membership to NOMAIL. Details are provided in the Division's "instruction" document.

3. The list of listserv members is made publically available on the division's website. E-mail addresses are graphically transformed to dissuade harvesting by spam-bots. Concealed membership is not allowed; it is possible to read listserv messages without joining the list (via the division website), thereby eliminating the need for concealed membership.

4. Non-members of the division (as well as regular members, fellows, retired members, students, etc.) may subscribe to the listserv. The division construes this open-access policy to the listserv and its contents as (a) a recruitment tool, to inform people about the division, and (b) consistent with the policy of "giving Psychology away".

Acceptable content

1. Postings are accepted in the categories of JOBS, STUDENTS, AWARDS, CONFERENCES, FUNDING, and INFORMATION.

2. As a matter of general principle, no requests for information (e.g., finding a difficult reference, finding an out-of-print book or measure, etc.) will be posted. The listserv is construed more as a dynamic online "newsletter" than as a discussion group.

3. Postings from for-profit entities are generally not accepted.

4. We follow APA policy in that Division 20 does not endorse or forward requests for research participation to any APA listserv. Specifically, as indicated on the APA website,

APA does not endorse or forward requests for research participation to any APA listserv. [While,d]ivisions may choose to post requests for research participants to their listservs[, Division 20 has opted not to]. If you need more information about a Division listserv, it is recommended that you contact the listserv administrator of that Division. Please note the following statements regarding the limits of division and all other listservs as sources for research participants and samples.

APA disclaimer regarding limits of division listservs as research samples.

Listservs (Division and other APA discussion lists) make no claim to be exhaustive collections of members who may fit into one or more specific category (e.g., clinical psychologists, practitioners, educators, and so on). In fact some 45% of APA members do NOT belong to any one Division. By using a Division as the "universe" for one's respondents, researchers are excluding a large number of eligible participants and hence may be introducing bias into their research.
Many members belong to more than one Division, and if the research is being sent to more than one Division, the researcher faces the challenge of defining response rate given duplication and of removing duplicate records.
APA members and others who are not APA members belong to Divisions and topical listservs for a number of reasons, some of these may not reflect the fact that the member works in the area covered by the Division or list in any more than a tangential sense - raising questions about the suitability of the sample to the research.

An exception may be made when a specific request is made to Division investigators for the purpose of gathering unpublished studies for inclusion in meta-analyses.

Access to listserv content

1. All postings to the listserv are publically archived, and linked to the Division webpage. A "digest" option for the listserv (e.g., where e-mails are bundled and sent once a week) is not available, but persons who opt out of the listserv may view postings on the web page. All postings are public, and are not restricted to members.