Writing Up a Case Study as a BCBA: The Lowest-Risk Way to Publish

Writing up a case study is the lowest-risk path to publish as a BCBA, and the menstrual hygiene replication Dr. Stephanie Peterson and her co-authors did is a clean proof. They found one article on the topic. It was 30 years old. It was built around women in institutional settings in the 1970s. They modernized it. They ran it with adolescent girls at home with their parents doing the teaching. That single case turned into a paper. You can do the same thing with a case you already have on your caseload. A BCBA is a board certified behavior analyst, the person who writes and supervises behavior plans. This page walks through which journal categories accept one-case write-ups, the two examples Dr. Peterson shares in the talk, and the minimum data set a reviewer will accept.

What Counts as a Case Study in ABA (vs. Just a Write-Up)#

A case study in ABA is a structured write-up of one client, one intervention, and one set of data, presented in a way another BCBA could read and copy. A clinic note is a write-up. A case study is the same content, organized for a reader who was not in the room. You name the participant in general terms. You name the setting. You name the target behavior. You name the intervention. You show the data. You say what changed and what did not. The difference is the audience. A note is for the chart. A case study is for the field.

The other thing that makes it a case study is that it adds something. It is a new population. It is a new setting. It is a new combination of two known procedures. It is the same protocol run thirty years later with a different family structure. You do not need a new idea. You need a useful contribution.

Permission to write up a case after the fact is the part most BCBAs miss. You do not have to plan a study before the intervention starts. Dr. Peterson is clear on this:

Sometimes it's an afterthought. We did the intervention, not thinking about it as research, but we look back and say, that's kind of cool. Could there be a way to make that a contribution? You weren't going into it thinking it could be written up, but it turns out that it does. From the talk — Dr. Stephanie Peterson

That is the door most working BCBAs do not know is open.

Three Journal Categories Built for One-Case Write-Ups#

The standard JABA research article is not where you start. Acceptance rates are low and reviewers want a full multi-baseline design. There are three categories that are built for the single case. These are the ones Dr. Peterson points at by name.

The first is brief practices. One participant is fine. The bar is a useful application of a known procedure that another BCBA could copy on Monday. The second is tutorials. You take a procedure you run all the time, write out the steps, and show it on one case. The third is case conferences, a category in Behavior Analysis Research and Practice (an APA journal). The whole point of that category is one interesting case.

Brief practices might require only one participant, but a really interesting application of some practice, and is supposed to be like really immediately applicable to other people's practice. Tutorials might be an interesting way to go. From the talk — Dr. Stephanie Peterson

Other categories worth a look: brief reports in Education and Treatment of Children, and the practice section in Behavior Analysis in Practice. All of them are built for the clinician with one case and a useful story. Pick the category before you draft. The format of your write-up follows the category.

Worked Example: How a Feeding Consult Became a JABA Paper#

Dr. Peterson describes a consult on a nearly adolescent client whose mother was worried about how fast he was eating. The mother had real concerns. Dr. Peterson came in as the contracted consultant. She was not planning a study. She was planning a session.

The team found a body of literature on tactile prompting, which is a small touch cue used to set the pace of a target behavior. They used a tactile prompt to slow the eating. It worked. The intervention was a replication of a study published in JABA (the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis) a few years earlier with one new piece. It was a new participant and a new setting. That was enough to write up.

The contribution was modest and honest. The procedure was not new. The population and the family context were. The data showed the slower pace. The write-up gave the next BCBA a working playbook.

Worked Example: How a Menstrual Hygiene Teaching Protocol Got Published#

The second example is the cleanest case for the after-the-fact write-up. Dr. Peterson's team had adolescent girls who were starting their periods. Parents did not know how to teach the routine. The team looked for a teaching protocol they could use.

We found one article that was very dated, like 30 years old at the time. We found it not bad, but also dated and focused on women in institutionalized settings in the seventies. So we modernized that, we brought it to practice, and we used it with adolescent girls in homes with their parents. From the talk — Dr. Stephanie Peterson

That was the paper. They took an old protocol from an institutional setting in the 1970s. They updated the procedure. They moved it into homes. They put the parents in the teaching seat. That is the whole contribution. The publishable piece is the gap between the old protocol and the modern home. If the gap is real and the data backs it up, you have a case study.

You almost certainly have a case like this on your caseload right now. A protocol you found in a paper that you adjusted because the original setting did not match yours. That adjustment is your contribution.

When a Replication Is the Smartest First Paper#

Most BCBAs skip replication because it sounds boring. It is the opposite. It is the lowest-risk publishing path in the field. You take a study you already trust. You run the same procedure on a new client. You show whether the effect holds. You write up what was the same and what was different.

If you spent your whole career just doing really thoughtful replications of other good work, it'd be amazing. We need more replications. I don't know about you, but as a practitioner, I oftentimes read an article and I use it in my practice. From the talk — Dr. Stephanie Peterson

Pick a paper you already use in your clinical work. Write up the next case where you used it. That is a publishable replication. If the population is different from the original study, even better. If your data lines up with the original, your paper strengthens the procedure. If it does not, your paper is even more useful because it shows where the procedure does not generalize.

The feeding case above is a replication. The menstrual hygiene case is a modernized replication. Both got accepted. Both started as caseload work.

The Minimum Data Set a Reviewer Will Actually Accept#

A case study needs four things at a minimum. Reviewers will push back if any one of them is missing.

Clear baseline. You need data from before the intervention started. Even three to five data points. Without a baseline, the reviewer cannot tell if anything changed.

Defined intervention. Write the procedure so another BCBA could run it without calling you. If you used BST (behavioral skills training, which means you instruct, model, rehearse, and give feedback), say so and spell out each step. If you used a tactile prompt, describe where, how often, and at what intensity.

Visible change in the data. A single-subject graph with phase change lines. The trend should be readable at a glance. If the graph is not readable, the write-up will not get past the first reviewer.

Honest limits. One participant is one participant. Say it. You are not claiming a general effect. You are claiming a useful case that another BCBA can copy. Reviewers reject papers that overclaim. They accept papers that scope the contribution to what the data shows.

That is the floor. Pick the category, hit those four, and you have a draft.

A Template You Can Start Tonight#

Open a blank doc. Use these headers. Title that names the procedure, the population, and the setting. One-paragraph abstract that says what you did and what changed. Background that names the one paper you replicated or the gap you filled. Method with participant description (no identifying info), setting, materials, and the steps of the procedure. Results with one graph and two sentences of plain interpretation. Discussion with what the case adds and what the case does not show. Reference list with the source paper at the top.

That is a brief practices skeleton. You can fill it in over three or four evenings. The hardest part is the first session. After the first session, the paper is just polishing what is already on the page.

Frequently Asked Questions#

Can I publish a case study with only one client?

Yes. Brief practices, case conferences, and tutorials are built for one client. The bar is a useful contribution that another BCBA can copy. Single-subject design is the standard for the field, so one well-documented case with a clean baseline and a visible change can be a full paper.

Do case studies need IRB approval?

It depends on whether the work counts as research at your institution. If you ran the intervention as clinical practice and decided after the fact to write it up, many institutions will route you through an exempt review or a chart-review pathway rather than full IRB. If you knew going in that you wanted to publish, talk to your IRB before you start. If you are in private practice with no IRB, look into a contracted IRB. Either way, ask before you draft.

What's the difference between a brief report and a case conference?

A brief report (often the category in Education and Treatment of Children) is a short data-driven write-up of one or a small number of cases, organized like a mini research article. A case conference (the category in Behavior Analysis Research and Practice) is built around the clinical reasoning of one interesting case, with the data supporting the reasoning. Brief reports lead with the data. Case conferences lead with the clinical question. Pick the one that matches how the case actually played out.

Watch the Full Talk#

If you want the full walk-through with Dr. Peterson's own examples, the one-hour CEU is free and counts for one general learning credit. She covers idea conceptualization, IRB barriers, the time problem, and the journal categories in more depth.

Watch the full CEU on publishing as a practitioner