The translation of psychological science for the public good: Commentary on Marcus et al. (2025).

Marcus et al. (2025) code the accuracy of the citations to empirical research contained in 16 amicus curiae briefs submitted by the American Psychological Association (APA). Based on their findings that these APA briefs contained citations that they deemed partly or wholly inaccurate, the authors made recommendations that APA adopt strategies to reduce miscitations in their briefs. However, their application of a coding scheme developed for evaluating the accuracy of citations for the scientific literature to an applied context without modifications that reflect the differences between those two contexts inflated the proportion of citations the authors coded as partially accurate. Although the citations in APA briefs may not be perfect, the briefs themselves have served the important function of bringing psychological science to the attention of the courts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).