Elevating Psychological Science Everywhere

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On the Hill

APA educates policymakers in all branches of government about psychological science every day by:

APA maintains a constant presence in all branches of government to educate policymakers about the value of psychological science. Our engagement in 2024 and 2025 has been marked by unprecedented grassroots action.

• Grassroots Advocacy: In the first half of 2025 alone, psychologists sent over 110,000 messages to Congress on critical issues. This builds on the 20,000 messages sent by psychologist advocates in 2024. Specific 2025 campaigns included over 35,000 messages opposing cuts to Medicaid and science funding, over 22,100 messages to preserve current NIH funding, and 8,000 responses from 2,500 advocates opposing directives aimed at dismantling DEI programs.
• Direct Engagement: APA staff and members held approximately 800 meetings with legislators in 2024 and over 275 congressional meetings in the first half of 2025 to educate policymakers on topics like the importance of psychological science funding, the effects of AI, and misinformation. We also testified before Congress on behalf of psychologists twice in 2024.
• Led Coalitions: Led coalition efforts to defend federal programs essential to psychological science, including defending a diverse student pathway into psychology through advocacy for graduate student loans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), defending funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to support research on diverse groups, and led more than 90 organizations through the United Science Alliance to defend the gold standard of science from politically motivated attacks.
• Expert Guidance: We provide expert input to policymakers year-round. This includes submitting psychological science in testimony for House and Senate panels about 15 times a year and filing over 50 regulatory comments in 2024. Since 1962, APA has filed nearly 210 amicus briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court.

APA fights for science funding and research:

A core part of our mission is fighting for robust federal science funding and ensuring policy is grounded in sound psychological science.

• Securing Federal Funds: We actively advocate for increased federal funding for agencies including the NIH, NSF, DoD, and CDC. In 2024, we cosponsored the Rally for Medical Research, which supported a budget of at least 49ドル.2 billion for the NIH. We also advocated for the Youth Mental Health Research Act, which would invest 500ドル million over 5 years in NIH institutes.
• Informing Policy on Artificial Intelligence (AI): APA has become a leader in informing national AI policy. We provided expert input to Congress and the White House on AI's impact on youth, data privacy, and responsible development. In a significant victory, we joined a coalition to defeat a provision that would have frozen the enforcement of state-level AI safety laws.
• Bringing Science to Capitol Hill: We host briefings to bring psychological science directly to policymakers. So far in 2025 we’ve hosted events focused on menopause and midlife women's health, featuring APA President Dr. Deb Kawahara. We also hold at least two Science Advocacy Days per year to train scientists to meet with congressional staff.

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Our advocacy efforts directly support you and your work by:

• amplifying the visibility of our discipline;
• propelling the impact of your scientific work;
• helping to fund your work through protected and increased federal grants.

Your expertise is our most powerful tool. You can strengthen our collective voice:

• send scientific findings to APA staff when relevant to policy via our form;
• volunteer to meet with policymakers to share your knowledge and research findings;
• join the Psychology Advocacy Network;
• stay informed about APA/APASI’s response to recent federal policy changes affecting psychology via the APA/APASI Response Center;
• join the APA Advocacy Coordinating Committee.

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In the Lab

APA helps make science better and easier to do by:

• offering popular Science Training Sessions to help the field stay up to date with advanced scientific methods;
• offering many resources to help authors learn how to write, prepare manuscripts, determine authorship, hear from APA journal editors, and understand peer review;
• producing and training people to use APA Style, guiding, and standardizing scientific discourse in psychology and many other scientific disciplines;
• establishing, maintaining, and updating ethical codes to guide psychological science;
• offering the APA Style Journal Reporting Standards, featuring longstanding guidelines for quantitative and qualitative research, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews, along with the new Journal Article Reporting Standards for Race, Ethnicity, and Culture (JARS-REC);
• offering APA PsycInfo, a personalized notification service so scientists can get weekly updates about published papers in their areas of interest;
• producing research- and practice-related guidelines, including the Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research, the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing—American Educational Research Association (AERA), APA, the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME)—and the Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures (PDF, 360KB)opens in new window—Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP);
• funding new leadership opportunities to increase representation and expertise among gatekeepers of psychological science dissemination through our Editorial Fellowship Program.

APA promotes open science by:

• offering 34 APA journals that subscribe to the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines;
• publishing registered reports in 22 APA journals and publishing replications in 41 APA journals;
• offering open science badges in 27 APA journals;
• publishing author contributions via CRediT in 47 journals;
• publishing action editor names on manuscripts in all core APA journals;
• establishing an Open Science and Methodology (OSM) Expert Panel to advise editors and staff on open science practices;
• partnering with the Center for Open Science to create a data repository to facilitate data sharing;
• offering two free trainings to help scholars use open science practices through APA’s Essential Science Conversation series.

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How does this work help you?

• increases the quality of science in our discipline;
• helps train students to better conduct scientific work and create, interpret, and disseminate psychological science;
• guides the future of psychological science.

• participate in the trainings offered by APA;
• contact APA staff with suggestions for new topics and resources to include;
• submit your work to APA journals;
• follow open science practices;
• use APA's tools to help you with your work;
• review the resources mentioned to change how you conduct, report, review, and disseminate psychological research;
• offer feedback and input on APA's equity, diversity, and inclusion work;
• include APA's tools in your work as a teacher and mentor.

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On the Career Path

APA supports students and educators with resources that help foster the next generation of psychological scientists by:

• pioneering PsycLearnopens in new window, a new online, evidence-based learning approach for undergraduate teaching that moves beyond textbooks and offers personalized, interactive opportunities for courses in the psychology major;
• maintaining OPL, APA’s Online Psychology Laboratory, a free resource offering experiments and data sets that instructors can use to teach psychological science at the high school and college level;
• publishing the Psychology Student Network, a free biannual online newsletter for undergraduate psychology students with over 30,000 subscribers that introduces students to innovative ideas in psychology and showcases the wide range of career paths available in the field;
• hosting Virtual Psychology Graduate School Fairs designed to connect students interested in pursuing graduate education in psychology with institutions that offer graduate psychology programs;
• collecting, analyzing, and disseminating data about the psychology workforce and education system;
• supporting APAGS, the largest group of organized graduate psychology students worldwide, that develops, endorses, and disseminates information to students about relevant education, training, and career issues in the field;
• creating a free guide, Explore the Wide Range of Psychological Science Careers (PDF, 1.7MB)opens in new window, that includes a summary of what psychological science says about factors that lead to job satisfaction and fulfillment and detailed information about science jobs in academia, business and industry, nonprofit organizations, and government;
• creating the Becoming a Psychological Scientist video series , which offers free advice and strategies for navigating all the steps of the application process for doctoral programs for psychological science, discusses important considerations for selecting a program, and highlights resources for funding graduate education;
• offering Summer Undergraduate Psychology Experience in Research (SUPER) Fellowships, which promotes access among undergraduate students considering research as a career by expanding opportunities to laboratory training and mentorship to those who may not have had the opportunity to lead psychological science research;
• offering the Careers in Applied Psychology video series to introduce students and young professionals to careers involving the application of psychological science outside the lab and outside the classroom;
• sharing educational policies and resources to support the teaching of introductory psychology, offer guidance on the knowledge and skills that undergraduate psychology majors should acquire through degree programs, and advance the implementation of principles for high-quality, equitable education in psychology;
• providing resources and curricula to 7,000 high school psychology teachers across the U.S. through our Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS) program to ensure that high school students learn about the science of psychology.

APA increases pathways for more psychological scientists to advance in their careers by:

• offering substantial training support for student researchers, including dissertation awards, undergraduate laboratory fellowships, and opportunities to learn next-generation methods;
• offering free professional development resources through its Continuing Education program;
• hosting the How Did You Get That Job? webinar series to educate scientists about different career opportunities for psychological scientists;
• in partnership with Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology (COGDOP), created the APA Task Force Report on Promotion, Tenure and Retention of Faculty of Color in Psychology (PDF, 1.5MB) opens in new window to address systemic barriers in academia.

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How does this work help you?

• helps fund your students;
• helps teach your students psychological science;
• helps educate your students about psychological careers;
• helps psychological scientists advance in their careers.

• disseminate these funding opportunities to your students;
• participate in the trainings mentioned above;
• contact APA staff with suggestions for new topics and resources to include.

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Across the Field

APA fights for the recognition of psychology as a science by:

• successfully integrating science into the educational guidance and standards that inform the teaching of high schoolopens in new window and introductory psychology, prompting College Board to change its framework and exam to align with APA recommendations. These guidelines have the potential to transform these courses which are taken by over 300,000 high school students and 1.5 million college students annually;
• in partnership with Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS) and Association for Psychological Science (APS), fighting to ensure psychological and behavioral sciences were eligible for funding through new National Science Foundation (NSF) and Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) funding opportunities;
• working to include psychology (subdiscipline) as a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) field for student visas.

APA unites and connects the subdisciplines of psychology by:

• offering 54 divisions forums to share psychological science, engage in crosscutting psychological science projects, and engage in open dialogue across the field;
• publishing the Editor’s Choice newsletter, a free channel offering access to new research findings selected by editors of 66 APA journals;
• sending out requests for scientific expertise and information on opportunities available to scientists and leadership of all 54 APA divisions via our Science Channel;
• partnering with more than 30 science leaders, each representing an APA division, to facilitate idea-sharing, strengthen cross-collaboration, and amplify scientific expertise and initiatives across APA;
• offering Science Summits at APA’s annual convention, which include panels of scientists across a range of subdisciplines all discussing topics of greatest societal concern, and research agendas for future work.

APA celebrates scientists’ achievements by:

• presenting Distinguished Contribution Awards and Distinguished Contribution Awards for Early Career Psychologists—the most prestigious honors available to psychological scientists, recognizing excellence and impact in over 10 domains of psychological science;
• sending letters to scientists and department chairs to offer public recognition of psychologists’ contributions to APA’s work applying psychological science;
• inviting APA journal editors to elevate outstanding papers via selection to the Editor’s Choice newsletter, which is disseminated broadly for greater impact and education of the field.

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How does this work help you?

• legitimizes psychology as science;
• increases visibility of psychological science;
• creates more opportunities for funding;
• unites the field, creates innovative collaborations, and promotes broader impact;
• assists the careers of psychological scientists.

• assist APA with its work in advocacy, education, and science;
• subscribe to APA's Editor's Choice newsletter;
• attend APA 2026;
• nominate or apply for APA awards and fellowships.

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In the Public

APA educates the public about psychological science by:

• constantly pitching psychological science and scientists to print, digital, and on-air media outlets (e.g., The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, etc.)—media mentions have increased in the last 6 years more than 988%;
• generating over 3,405 media clips featuring research from APA journals with a combined audience reach of 21.8 billion in 2024;
• issuing a Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence to summarize psychological science, leading national and international dialogue on this issue;
• featuring leading psychological scientists on the Speaking of Psychology podcast, which reached listeners via more than 3.1 million downloads in 2024;
• working with the National Academy of Sciences (NAW Entertainment Exchange to teach Hollywood writers and producers about psychological science and how to depict our field;
• offering media and communications trainings (e.g., Essential Science Conversation sessions and Science Training sessions) to help psychological scientists explain their science to the public;
• presenting original survey data through APA’s annual Work in America and Stress in America surveys to pique the interests of media and decisionmakers on topics of psychological science;
• providing resources to teach scientists how to interact with the media;
• offering scientists access to the "kudos" service to help create media pitches from their psychological science findings and papers;
• developing a toolkit to help fire departments promote well-being among their members;
• publishing a report on the impact of climate change on children and youth.

Media mentions have increased almost 1000%
since 2018

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How does this work help you?

• amplifies the visibility of the discipline and propels the impact of scientists’ work;
• educates the public about the range of topics that psychological science can address.

• subscribe to APA's Media Watch newsletter to learn about media coverage of psychological science;
• apply to APA's Media Referral Service to be included in our database of experts for media referrals on a variety of timely issues;
• send suggestions for Speaking of Psychology podcast guests;
• participate in the media/communications trainings offered by APA.

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In the World

APA promotes psychological science as a solution to global challenges by:

• regularly consulting with agencies and stakeholder groups to summarize and apply psychological science, including collaborations with:
  • the White House to address health equity;
  • the Surgeon General to address mental health in the workplace, misinformation, the youth mental health crisis, and the effects of social media;
  • Sesame Street to teach children about equity and inclusion;
  • the National Press Club to combat mis- and disinformation;
  • the United Nations and ecoAmerica to promote sustainability and combat climate change;
  • the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations to highlight mental health and psychosocial supports for vulnerable populations across the globe, including the U.S.;
  • the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and The World Health Organization to address the science of youths’ social media use and misinformation.
• Global Psychology Alliance and the Global Learning Leadership Institute which include over 70 national, regional, and international associations committed to move science into action on shared challenges;
• signing 67 memoranda of understanding (MOU) with psychological associations around the world to work together to disseminate psychological science, share resources, and support the creation of a unified global psychology;
• organizing a 2023 Population Health Science Summit to engage national thought leaders on a substantial shift in the mental health care system;
• organizing a Global Learning Leadership Institute and trained approximately 30 early career psychologists from every continent on the globe;
• partnering with the Consumer Technology Association®, to launch PsyTech at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES)opens in new window and engage with tech innovators about how psychological science intersects with and influences technology on topics such as the ethics of artificial intelligence, protecting kids online, harnessing digital interventions to improve health, and more.

APA makes psychological science available to the world by:

• funding editorships and associated editorships, and a publishing infrastructure, to support 88 journals of psychological science (the impact factors for its core journals are within the top-tier for each category of science);
• fielding 22,000-plus papers for review a year, completing 34,000 reviews, and publishing more than 5,000 manuscripts annually in APA journals;
• creating and maintaining APA PsycInfo to ensure that psychological science across 2,300-plus journals is indexed and searchable for more than 4,000 institutional subscribers around the world;
• publishing 50–60 academic books a year to synthesize and promote high quality psychological science;
• publishing 20–30 Magination Press books each year to translate psychological science into accessible, youth-facing content that addresses issues relevant to child development.

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How does this work help you?

• ensures your work has the greatest impact to improve human lives;
• creates opportunities for scientists to meet with and educate stakeholders and leaders;
• increases recognition of our science as essential and rigorous;
• increases the global impact of your publications;
• indirectly increases funding allocations for our science as it becomes more well-known and more frequently cited.

• send scientific findings to APA staff when relevant to policy via our form;
• join APA's Media Referral Service;
• volunteer to meet with stakeholders;
• submit to APA journals;
• become a consulting, associate editor, or editor in chief;
• join APA's Publications and Communications Board.

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