The simple fact is there is little systematic data available to psychologists about important dimensions of independent practice of psychology. Practitioners provide regularly provide considerable data to managed care organizations about themselves and their practices for credentialing and re-credentialing and even more frequently when the submit billing and utilization review material. The fact is that these organizations have much more information about individual practices than the psychologists themselves and a better grasp of important aspects of practice than is available to any other group. In addition, research into effectiveness of psychological services seldom focuses on experienced psychologists working in independent practice settings.

In response to this, the Emerging Patterns of Practice Committee of the APA Division of Psychologists in Independent has initiated the Independent Practice Research Network (IP-Net). The goal is to develop a system that will provide accurate information about private practice of psychology including:

• Patterns of practice organization and management
• Practitioner career paths
• Service delivery and payment systems
• Market factors affecting independent practice
• Practitioners' attitudes and opinions regarding issues affecting practice and public policy

In addition, the Committee's goals include establishing procedures and methods for research on the effectiveness of services in private practice settings.

The first stage of the project is to develop methods employing Internet based data collection and a foundation for sampling based on such factors such as demographics of the psychologists and the communities in which they practice, geographic location, practice structure and services, and market factors. We are particularly interested in insuring that data obtained from participants recruited to respond through a Website only is equivalent to data obtained from a reference sample that can respond online or by mail.

The reference sample is composed of 2000 randomly selected Division 42 members. Participants can elect to respond to surveys through the Website or by mail. Participants are asked to respond to surveys up to eight times a year. Each survey is designed to be completed in less than 15-minutes. Participants are provided with summary data compiled after each survey.

Those who respond by mail will be sent the survey with a coded identifier and asked to complete and return the survey in a postage-paid envelop. Those who do not respond within two weeks will be followed-up.

Those who respond through the Website will be sent an email with instructions on how to access the website. Those who do not respond within two weeks will be followed-up. Clearly, online participation is preferred because it reduces cost of mailing and responses are automatically entered into the database.

The initial surveys will examine demographics of the individual, the practice community, and the structure of the practice. Subsequent surveys that have been designed at present will assess market and practice promotion activities and technology use.

The survey and the methods are reviewed by members of the Emerging Patterns of Practice Committee and the Human Subjects Committee in the Psychology Department at Indiana State University. The data will be used for Doctoral Research Projects of students in the Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology Program at Indiana State University. Michael J. Murphy who is Secretary of Division 42 and Chair of the Emerging Patterns of Practice Committee directs the research.

Data that would allow identification of individual respondents is maintained in a database separate from the database containing responses. The only connection between the databases will be to identify participants who have not responded to a survey to allow for follow. Furthermore, all results will be reported for grouped data. The research will conform to APA standards for research with human participants.