| President's Message |
|
Message from the ISMTE Board President May 2022 For many editorial office professionals, our jobs are often conducted behind the scenes as we make sure papers move smoothly through peer review, anticipating and even solving potential problems before they arise. There is no better way to celebrate the work we do than by nominating a colleague for an ISMTE Award! The nomination period for the 2022 ISMTE Awards and Scholarships is open through May 25. Current members of ISMTE can be nominated or apply themselves via self-nomination. Please consider taking the opportunity to recognize a professional colleague this year. May is Mental Health Month and is an opportunity to raise awareness about and reduce the stigma around mental and behavioral health issues. In this month's podcast, Phaedra Cress speaks with Derek Tracy about the effects of the pandemic and remote work on mental health and offers suggestions for navigating these challenging times. Taking frequent breaks, ensuring that you're eating and staying hydrated, and having meaningful contact with other people are just a few of the tips mentioned. Additionally, join the Early Career Committee on May 18 for an informal online forum discussion to discuss ways to keep your workplace and your mental health refreshed and revived for Spring.As a reminder, we are seeking submissions for an ISMTE Time Capsule through July 31. All contributions can be submitted online. This digital time capsule will be shared with members during our 2022 Global Virtual Event in November. Entries are welcome in any digital format and can take any form, such as a unique poem, a short animation or video clip, a PDF of archival society documents, a handwritten memory, a poster montage, or photographs from past events. We can't wait to see what memories our members share that represent your connection to ISMTE. Finally, don't forget to register for next month's Book Club organized by the ISMTE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee. On June 23 at 12:00PM EST join other ISMTE members to discuss the North American version of The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman.
We are excited to announce that ISMTE will be holding a Global Virtual Event November 1-3, 2022! Hosting a virtual event provides an opportunity for all our members and industry colleagues—no matter where they are in the world—to connect and learn from each other. Members of the North American and European Meeting Planning Committees, in collaboration with the Global Events Oversight and Asia-Pacific Advisory Council, are putting together programming for this year's theme "Scholarly Publishing in a Connected World: Turning Disruptions into Opportunities." Keep an eye out for additional program details and registration information.
Consider nominating a colleague or applying for an ISMTE Award this year. Call for submissions – ISMTE 15th anniversary As I've highlighted in previous communications, 2022 marks ISMTE's 15th anniversary, and we are celebrating all year long. The 15th Anniversary Committee is seeking submissions from members for an ISMTE Time Capsule and a Photo Archive. All contributions can be submitted online. We encourage members to submit their memories and photos as we reflect on ISMTE's history and look forward to the next 15+ years. Educational Resources The ISMTE Webinar Committee plans and organizes webinars throughout the year on a variety of topics. Webinars are free to attend for ISMTE members. If you missed a webinar or want to look back at the archives, you can find recordings of past webinars on the ISMTE website.
Hopefully, ISMTE can reduce some of your workplace burdens as you go about your daily tasks. The ISMTE Education & Standards Committee recently released a series of case studies representing real-life examples of efforts editorial office professionals have made to implement diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Be sure to check these out if you need inspiration. Are you subscribed to the ISMTE Discussion Forum? This email listserv provides an opportunity for ISMTE members to reach out to each other and ask questions or receive guidance on industry topics. It is one of my go-to resources when I need advice or if I'm looking for suggestions on how to handle a challenging situation. Responses from members are incredibly helpful and provide practical solutions to editorial office conundrums. Sign up for the Discussion Forum if you haven't already. Registration is open for several upcoming virtual events, including a Webinar on March 30 "Improving the Reader Experience: Removing Barriers in Language and Technology" and another Office Hours session on April 14 "Managing Your Editor’s Expectations: When Just Saying “No” Won’t Work." If you have suggestions for topics or would like to host a future Office Hours, please let us know. Continuing our celebration of ISMTE's 15th anniversary, Jason Roberts reflects in the February episode on the original vision of ISMTE "to professionalize our careers and...say we provided a service that's unique." Fifteen years later Jason says that "We truly are starting to shape how the industry should perform." He is expecting even brighter and bigger things to come. The latest episode features a conversation with Michael Willis on the impact of technology in scholarly publishing. Michael notes that technology is "not a one-stop solution for everything that needs to happen in an editorial office" and instead technology "needs to be there to support rather than replace" the day-to-day work of managing a publication. ISMTE Committees are the backbone of the society and the dedicated volunteer Committee members help plan, organize, develop, and implement the resources, content, and event offerings. Do you love EON? Consider applying for the EON Editorial Board. Interested in promoting all the great events and resources ISMTE offers? The Marketing & Social Media Committee is waiting for you. All Committees are seeking additional members, so whether you're new to ISMTE or new to volunteering, we encourage you to jump right in! If you're interested in learning more about available opportunities, fill out the Volunteer Form or contact Volunteer Committee Board Liaison Anke van Eekelen. As we continue living in these turbulent and uncertain times, I hope that you, your loved ones, and our scholarly publishing colleagues around the world are safe and well.
January 2022 I am honored to serve as your new President during this important anniversary year and will be working closely with Vice President Phaedra Cress, Director Kimberly Retzlaff, Director Mary Miskin, and Michelle English who are leading the 15th anniversary celebration. Stay tuned for details and look for this special icon signifying special events, content, and opportunities to engage with us and connect with the ISMTE community! Take care, November 2021 Editorial office professionals typically are well versed in the myriad ethical issues we face in scholarly communications—examples of conflict of interest, image manipulation, and plagiarism are often a routine part of our jobs. Where we might not have
as much experience, however, is around the ethics of data sharing. I recall when, several years ago, data sharing became a consideration for our journals as the push for open science was gaining momentum. Our journals at AGA now have a data transparency
policy, but now I’m realizing that’s not the end of the story. Just as is the case with manuscripts, ethical concerns around datasets and data publication can arise. Fortunately, an organization called FORCE11 (The Future of Research Communications and e-Scholarship) has done the hard work of developing recommendations for handling such concerns. FORCE11 comprises scholars, librarians, archivists, publishers, and research funders who “help facilitate the change toward improved
knowledge creation and sharing.” Their recommendations fall into four categories: Authorship & Contribution Conflicts, Legal & Regulatory Restrictions, Rigor, and Risk.
I became aware of FORCE11 and their important work through a fellow ISMTE member, Kristie Overstreet. Kristie was a member of the Force 11 Research Data Publishing Ethics Working Group. When she told me about FORCE11 and its recommendations for the ethical
handling of datasets and data publication, I was reminded of why I find so much value in being an ISMTE member. Through our vast network of peers, we are poised to stand at the cutting edge of scholarly communications, often learning about ideas and
best practices just as they are taking hold. I think back to all of the developments that have emerged over the years and how ISMTE not only informed me of their existence but also why I should pay attention. I view this as a chief strength of ISMTE—taking
big-picture matters and turning them into practical take-home messages for the editorial office professional. Scholarly communications is a vast and complex industry, but ISMTE is always there to help make sense of it.
To that end, Kristie has written an article in this month’s issue of EON,
showcasing how you might use the FORCE11 recommendations if you encounter ethical issues around data sharing in your journal. Through a series of short case studies, she highlights how these recommendations can serve as a guide in an emerging area
in journal publishing.
As editorial office professionals, we often work alone or in small offices—ISMTE addresses that isolation by connecting you with a global network and by providing you with resources and education that will keep you ahead of the game. Sometimes, even a
simple email, like the one I received from Kristie, can make you aware of something you’ve never heard about. In these turbulent times of rapid change and uncertainty, I cherish how ISMTE keeps me connected and informed.
September 2021 In just a couple of weeks ISMTE will host its first-ever Global Event, "Unified Progress: Moving Forward Together in Scholarly Communications." The event features speakers from all over the world on topics around journal management, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and open access. The Global Event is unlike anything ISMTE has done in the past and is a standout offering in the scholarly publishing industry. Complete with programming that spans four days (Oct. 11-Oct. 14) and set in local time zones convenient for our global community, the ISMTE Global Event connects you with your peers in the industry, regardless of geographic location. There will be nearly 60 sessions for you to choose from—and what you can’t watch live, you’ll be able to view as recorded sessions during the life of the meeting or even well after the meeting ends. This is a prime opportunity for you to absorb the latest information about scholarly publishing in one place, on one platform. Each day will also offer opportunities for networking—through structured sessions hosted by several of our ISMTE committees, as well as through more informal opportunities such as speed networking and our popular Exchange Forum. As co-chair of the Global Event Oversight Committee, I am deeply indebted not only to my fellow committee members, but also to the members of the regional subcommittees for their tireless devotion to planning this event—months of hard work, deliberation, and coordination have gone into ensuring that we provide you with the best meeting experience possible. ISMTE’s Executive Director, Donna Blake-Weems, has been critical to organizing the event, pulling together all of the logistics and guiding our committees as we navigated the complexities of planning a global event. If there’s anything I’ve learned in the past 18 months, it’s that we’re more alike than dissimilar in the challenges we face as a global community. More than ever it’s important that we come together and exchange ideas and information about challenges that we all face, regardless of where we may live. My hope is that by attending the
ISMTE Global Event you’ll see that we can indeed be unified in our progress and that we’re moving forward, together, in scholarly communications. Don’t delay,
register now! Erin Landis, Co-Chair, American Gastroenterological Association Asia Pacific Planning Committee European Planning Committee June 2021 As editorial office professionals, we often operate independently—for many of us, we do everything related to the publishing process, including manuscript processing, peer review, production, and social media. It can be overwhelming, but also, it can be isolating. That’s where organizations like ISMTE come in—we provide you with a global network of peers from whom you can learn, exchange information, and—let’s be honest—commiserate from time to time. Sometimes, issues crop up in our jobs that we simply don’t have time to explore in depth, yet we know we should be aware of them. What can we do in these cases? I’m happy to share with you that ISMTE has a new offering to help you with this. Next week we are launching a program called “ISMTE Office Hours.” These are virtual, one-hour informal events where a single topic is discussed by the attendees. ISMTE Office Hours are facilitated by an ISMTE member who has an interest in the topic at hand—in the case of next week’s discussion, Phaedra Cress, Executive Publisher, Journals, from the Aesthetic Society will host “Navigating ResearchGate and other academic social networking sites: Creating balance and boundaries for your editorial office.” In this session, you’ll have the chance to share your knowledge about these sites, ask questions about them, and hear suggestions for protecting your journal content and reputation. Other topics for discussion will include how to avoid copyright breaches, understanding what can be shared on these sites, and valuable resources you can use to train your team and editors. I encourage you to join this first ISMTE Office Hours event—you’re sure to learn something you didn’t know or, get some clarity on a matter you are somewhat familiar with. Whatever the case, you’ll walk away more knowledgeable and feeling much less alone. You can even consider hosting a future Editorial Office Hours yourself—please email us at info@ismte.org with your ideas. Staying on top of the latest advances in the scholarly publishing sector can be tough—especially when your days are chock full of dozens of tasks. I know from personal experience, however, that taking time out to connect with colleagues and exchange information on a similar topic is worth the time. In this new age of Zoom, now, more than ever, you can see how common issues are handled by your counterparts from all over the globe. I hope to see you there! May 2021
Our thought process began to change, however, with the release of the 2013 Holdren Memo, released by the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, mandating increased access to research that was federally funded. More specifically, the new policy stated that research supported by federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, must be made freely available within one year after publication. Suddenly, we were very much thinking about open access and the possible consequences for our journals. For several years after that memo, there seemed to be incremental progress in the OA movement, with various funding bodies, agencies, and national governments from around the world adopting myriad policies to increase access to research, even though the growth of both open access articles and open access journals was on a steady upward trajectory (Figure 1). Then, in September 2018, cOAlition S attempted to accelerate that incremental progress into an exponential development by proposing Plan S, an open access plan requiring all research based on funding from its signatories to be published in full OA journals—hybrid journals (such as ours at AGA)—would not be compliant. Additionally, the plan stipulated, such research could not be monetized in any way. Of course, hearing about Plan S gave us pause for concern. And we were also confused by its various principles, despite pouring over the materials on the cOAliition S website. Plan S has continued to evolve over the last few years, as the coalition has received and responded to community feedback and discussions with various stakeholders. But if Plan S is still confusing to you, you are not alone. Fortunately, there are a wealth of experts who can guide us on the complexities of Plan S, and on the various OA solutions that exist. If you missed it, I highly encourage you to watch a recent ISMTE webinar aptly titled “Addressing Confusion Around Plan S and Open Science Funder Policies” featuring Victoria Eva, VP of Global Policy at Elsevier, Sybille Geisenheyner, Director Open Science Strategy & Licensing at the American Chemical Society, and Brian Cody, Co-Founder and CEO of Scholastica. These panelists provided a broad overview of Plan S, details on the different routes for compliance, and a general review of recent updates around open access policies beyond Plan S. (For a listing of future ISMTE webinars, click here.) Open access and its associated business models are here to stay. If anything, the coronavirus pandemic has solidified the position of OA proponents that unrestricted access to research advances scientific advancement and is necessary to combat disease
(e.g., COVID-19). As Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik states, “Of all the ways the current coronavirus crisis has upended commonplace routines—such as disrupting global supply chains and forcing workers to stay at home—one of the most positive is how it demonstrates the value of open access to scientific research.”
Focus on Early-Career Professionals 2021 Awards Enhancing Your Benefits New! Global Virtual Event 2021 As always, if you have any feedback for the ISMTE BOD or would like to volunteer for any of our committees, please contact us at: info@ismte.org. March 2021
As I’ve gotten older (and hopefully wiser) I have found it increasingly important to understand what my personal values are. I don’t mean understanding them in a general sense—I mean taking deliberate action to identify my values, capture them in writing, and practice them routinely in both my personal and professional lives. When I was younger (and naïve) the types of decisions I made and the circumstances I faced seemed simpler. Now, many of the decisions I make and the situations I encounter are complex and myriad factors are at play—therefore, having a set of values to help guide my decisions and serve as a compass has allowed me to stay focused and centered. Such complex decision making came to bear last year for the ISMTE board of directors as we faced a historic pandemic, grappled with the racial and social justice issues that rocked the world, and contemplated the harsh economic realities that resulted from COVID-19. These were (and continue to be) incredibly challenging, uncertain, and confusing times—it was hard to make sense of it all. It was within this context that the board decided to develop a set of values to help us navigate these unprecedented times. Using the book “Dare to Lead” by Brené Brown, a highly regarded researcher on leadership, the board engaged in an activity to help us identify our core values. Brown explains that a value is a way of being or believing that we hold most important. Values are a support tool—they guide our intentions, words, and behaviors throughout our lives. She cites diverse examples of values including “accountability,” “wisdom,” and “excellence,” among others. As the board dived into the values exercise, we discovered that our leadership and the society itself have many values, including service, stewardship, knowledge, trust, integrity, and inclusion, among others. The challenge for us was to narrow those values to our top three, ensuring that we lead the organization with a strong focus and that the decisions we make align with what’s most important to us. After a lot of discussion and careful thought, we landed on three values that we have since used as our North Star for decisions big and small, helping us arrive at answers and solutions using a common framework. These values are (see figure):
Hopefully you’ve seen, and will continue to see, how the ISMTE board of directors leans into these values. As we plan our upcoming menu of webinars and our first-ever Global Virtual Event, learning is top of mind—we aim to bring you the best education possible to help you inform the decisions you make for your journals. Leadership in the scholarly communications space is paramount for us and our development of the new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Council speaks to that, as we aim to not only look inward at our own practices and policies, but also to look outward so that we have a seat at the table for industry-wide discussions around DEI. We also continue to focus on community—for example, we are helping to connect our next generation of editorial office professionals. Our Early Career Committee just hosted its first virtual meet-up and discussed salient topics such as recently learned skills and favorite resources for learning about the scholarly communications industry. The coming year, while likely more hopeful and optimistic than 2020, will continue to challenge us as we navigate moving forward into a new normal. The board will continue to return to our values throughout the year and beyond as we chart a new course—learning, leadership, and community will help us lead the way. With these values as our North Star, we are confident our path is headed in the right direction. Be safe and be well. February 2021
Every February for the last 50 years, the U.S. has celebrated Black History Month, also known as African-American History Month. In more recent years, other countries such as Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have begun celebrating Black History Month (Canada observes it in February whereas Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom observe it in October). Although Black History Month has been a part of the American calendar since the 1970s, it had its beginnings in 1926 when Carter G. Woodson and the Association of the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) established Negro History Week during the second week of February. Woodson, a Harvard-trained historian, and member of the ASNLH, chose that week because it coincided with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Scholars believe the impetus for the week was “recognition and importance” and Woodson hoped that ultimately, the week-long celebration would evolve into an annual observance. The primary emphasis for the week was educational in nature—public schools across the nation were encouraged to teach the history of Black Americans. By the 1970s, the week-long celebration was expanded to a month. In its 50 years of observance, Black History Month has expanded beyond its original educational focus to include music, art, theater, libraries, museums, and businesses. It is a time when the culture and contributions of Black Americans are honored and celebrated. The U.S.’s new president, Joseph Biden, has issued a proclamation for this year’s Black History Month. In reading his words, I was struck by this statement: “I am proud to celebrate Black History Month with an Administration that looks like America—one that reflects the full talents and diversity of the American people and that heralds many firsts, including the first Black Vice President of the United States and the first Black Secretary of Defense, among other firsts in a cabinet that is comprised of more Americans of color than any other in our history.” These powerful words resonated with me—this is the direction we are heading with ISMTE. With the formation of our new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Advisory Council, we are seeking to fully realize our vision of being an organization that supports editorial office professionals of all races, ethnicities, genders, and creeds around the world. We can only achieve this by critically examining our leadership, governance, practices, and policies around DEI. Like the sentiment of President Biden, our aim is to cultivate an organization that reflects our global community. It is within this context that I am so excited to share with you the ISMTE members who have agreed to serve on the DEI Advisory Council. They are: Sarah McCormack, American Society for Nutrition, Co-Chair The council’s charge is two-fold—to advise the Board of Directors and committees on practical opportunities to cultivate DEI within the ISMTE leadership, programming, and membership; and explore how ISMTE can have a voice in the scholarly communications industry on issues of DEI. ISMTE’s voice on these matters is already under way. At the end of last year, we became official members of C4DISC—the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications. C4DISC’s mission is to work with organizations and individuals to build equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications. As a member of C4DISC, ISMTE will have a hands-on opportunity in directing the organization’s efforts. I encourage ISMTE members to become involved with C4DISC—if you’re interested in volunteering, please email us at info@ismte.org. As President Biden states in the closing paragraphs of his proclamation, “We must change. It will take time.” This rings true for ISMTE and for the scholarly publishing ecosystem overall. We must change. It will take time. But, I will add, we must not delay. We must act urgently. Be safe and be well.
Erin Landis, ISMTE Board President January 2021 Happy New Year and welcome to 2021! Perhaps more than any other new year in recent history, the start to 2021 feels like a time to reflect, renew, and find hope for a different kind of year. Like so many, I’ve asked myself a series of questions: how can I make the next 12 months different than the last? How can I grow and improve? How can I take what I learned from 2020 and use it to build a better year? Of course, this sounds a lot like making New Year’s Resolutions, which so many of us do when the calendar tips from December into January. This age-old tradition is thought to have started over four thousand years ago with the Babylonians and their 12-day annual celebration around crop planting in March. It was during this celebration that they crowned a new king or reaffirmed their allegiance to the reigning king. It was also during this time that they promised their gods that they would repay their debts and return objects they had borrowed. The spirit of New Year’s Resolutions was furthered by Julius Caesar around the year 46 BC when he re-established the new year as January 1. The month of January was named after the two-faced god Janus, whose spirit was thought to rest in doorways and arches and thus looked backward into the previous year and ahead to the new year. Romans offered sacrifices to Janus and promised good behavior for the coming year. The tradition of New Year’s Resolutions continued into the Middle Ages with knights renewing their vows of chivalry at the turn of the year and even became part of Methodism in the 18th century with the advent of the Covenant Renewal Services—here followers would think of their past mistakes and resolve to do better in the coming year. New Year’s Resolutions have persisted in the modern era, although now they tend to be secular in nature. The idea, however, remains the same—we make a promise for good things in the coming year. It is with that spirit that ISMTE and its leadership looks toward 2021—we are making several promises, to you, our membership, and to the greater scientific publishing community—for good things. We promise to deliver you a variety of virtual events, connecting you to your peers and educating you on the latest developments in the industry. Our menu of virtual offerings will include a new Global Virtual Event (to replace our North American and European Events), virtual regional group meet-ups, webinars in your local time zone, and a virtual workshop. It is our strategic focus for 2021 that these events will draw forth at least 1,000 additional registrations—it is our promise to you that we continue to expand your professional network. We also promise to provide you with a newly organized library of resources, making it easier than ever for you to find the guidance you need to effectively run your editorial offices. Our website will be your one-stop-shop for practical information on a variety of topics from author support to journal promotion to policies and procedures for your journals. Another significant promise is our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion—this year we will establish our DEI Advisory Council, which will help guide both our internal and external efforts, ensuring that we are a diverse and inclusive organization and that we make a positive impact on the scientific publishing community as it answers the call to correct years of inequity. Above all else, we renew our continued promise to empower editorial offices around the world. As in all years past, our promise is to connect, educate, and provide resources for professionals who are passionate about the operations of peer-reviewed publications. New Year’s Resolutions can be a beacon of hope and offer an optimistic outlook on the year ahead. Of course, they can be hard to keep—but if they are framed as promises, doesn’t that give them a little more reason to achieve? So, what promises for 2021 will you send forth into the universe?
An old Janus sculpture in Reggio Emilia, Italy Be safe and be well. November 2020 Diversity, equity, and inclusion—or DEI as it is also known—has been a topic of conversation in scientific publishing for a number of years; however, it was the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others that finally compelled our community to discuss, on a wide-reaching scale, how we might put action behind our words. Simply saying that we encourage DEI in our journals is not enough. Words don’t result in change. What does change look like? For the journals we publish where I work, the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), we have strived for years to ensure our boards of editors are representative of gender, racial, ethnic, and geographic diversity—these are factors we ask applicants for editor-in-chief positions to consider when developing their boards. This is a straightforward step toward DEI. Building diversity among our authors and peer reviewers is less so. Presently, we don’t collect data on race or ethnicity for either group; while we do ask users of our manuscript tracking system to identify their gender, we do not require it. In fact, our tracking system has made it challenging to collect demographic data of any kind. Such paucity of data makes for a very incomplete look at the composition of our reviewers and authors. The problem has been more recently compounded by GDPR, the EU law requiring organizations to safeguard personal data and uphold privacy rights. Even if it were easy to collect demographic data, we would have to provide users the ability to opt out of providing it. Our journals at AGA are just one example of the widespread challenge the scholarly publishing community faces. We are certainly not alone. As was detailed in a recent article in The New York Times titled “Scientific Journals Commit to Diversity but Lack the Data”, Katherine J. Wu reports that big-name journals such as Cell Press, JAMA, the Lancet, PLoS, PNAS, and NEJM don’t monitor metrics around the racial and ethnic diversity of researchers publishing on their platforms. Those that do, such as the AAAS or the Royal Society, have only done so through voluntary surveys. Some of these journals point toward recent efforts around prioritizing the collection of demographic data but acknowledge that rules around privacy will impede progress. The question then becomes , how can we make significant change within our journals and within the scientific publishing community at large if collecting this important data presents such a challenge? Organizations like ISMTE, who is looking to form a DEI Advisory Council (applications are due Dec. 15), as well as other groups in our space like the Council of Science Editors and Society for Scholarly Publishing could give this problem serious thought, pulling together our vast knowledge, expertise, and points of view to develop solutions. Already this question has been posed to the Publishing Professional Peer Group of the Council of Medical Special Societies at their recent annual meeting. Perhaps representatives from these groups could work in concert to develop guidance on how best to move forward. Changing the composition of the scientific publishing ecosystem—both from the perspective of the researchers who provide us with content and the professionals and organizations who publish that content—is long overdue. The time is now to put action
behind words. October 2020 For those of you familiar with U.S. history, you’ll likely have heard of The Great Chicago Fire. Rumored to have started by a cow kicking over a lantern in a barn, the fire raged for three days in 1871, scorching over three-square miles of land, destroying
thousands of buildings, and killing more than 300 people. It cost $200M in damages and resulted in utter devastation. What you may not know is that this calamity led to one of the greatest innovations in urban history—the skyscraper. This is the argument posed in a recent article I read in The Atlantic: “How Disaster Shaped the Modern City”. Author Derek Thompson explains that the smoldering Chicago fire paved the way for skyscrapers by ushering in mandates for fire-resistant construction and spurring young architects to see who could design the tallest building. It was these tall buildings, with their ability to house more people in a single space than ever before, that changed urban landscapes forever. This article got me thinking: how will the current global disaster—the COVID-19 pandemic—stir us to action to permanently shape the modern scholarly publishing ecosystem for the better? Already there are glimpses of accelerated change that might persist. For example, rapidly reviewing COVID-19 research has become an imperative. An initiative led by eLife, PLOS, F1000, and others, pools together researchers with expertise relevant to COVID-19 and then adds their names to a “rapid reviewer list”—that list is then shared with participating publishers and journals. Could this model be applied to other disciplines where rapid, yet high-quality peer review is critical to urgent scientific discovery? And although it’s already been around for a while, the Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium is another example of a collaborative review system; perhaps COVID-19 will show how cross-publisher alliances such as these can reduce the time and effort involved in peer-review. Preprints, especially in the health sciences, have solidified their position in scholarly publishing during the pandemic. COVID-19 submissions to preprint servers such as bioRxiv, medRxiv, and SSRN have surged. Yet with this explosion of content come the challenges of managing preprint citations. This problem has been identified by Inera, a publishing technology company. They are leading an effort to better recognize, link, and retrieve preprints, with the goal of better integrating them into the permanent research record. In a recent post on the Scholarly Kitchen, they put forth a series of recommendations to achieve this goal; an outcome that could permanently situate preprints as a key player in peer-review publishing. Finally, while transparency and openness in research has found its way into scholarly publishing over the last several years with calls for data sharing, open peer-review, and open access to research, adoption has been slow going. COVID-19 is changing that—publishers have made much of their COVID-19 content freely available and initiatives such as COVID-19 Data Portal and OpenData/COVID-19 have sprung up. These efforts aim to share data and findings in a coordinated and meaningful way; could they show the way for other types of research in the future to be shared quickly, accelerating our understanding of health and disease? The theme of hope has woven its way into most of my ISMTE letters over the last several months and this one is no different. Great catastrophe can inspire great change. Let’s all consider how we can contribute to enduring improvements in our own slice of the research enterprise. Be safe and be well.
September 2020
Sadly, instead of touching down on the tarmac at Tullamarine, I’m seated firmly at my desk in my home office in Frederick, MD, in the United States, where I’ve been for the last six months. My typically hectic travel schedule was grounded when COVID-19 hit the US with a vengeance back in March. In some ways, this has been a nice reprieve from the frequent travel I do for business meetings—rushing to airports, racing to gates, and inevitably forgetting something back home. Luckily, technology has made it possible to still attend these meetings, albeit from the much-less glamorous location of suburbia. That’s true for this year’s ISMTE Asia Pacific Virtual Event—we’ve been lucky that the planning committee was able to convert the in-person conference to a virtual event that anyone, from any part of the world, can attend. So while perhaps I won’t be able to share a meal or a drink with my fellow attendees, I’ll certainly be able to chat with them and share information over the Whova app—the platform we’re using to host the event. I can say from personal experience with the very successful North America (NA) Virtual Event, the app is enormously useful for connecting with others. For that event we had 1,500-plus answers to polls, over 1,700 messages posted to the community board, and more than 900 private messages shared between attendees. It’s still not too late to register—I hope you check out the agenda and consider attending. The fact that ISMTE has continued to hold its regularly planned conferences has been reassuring to me during these uncertain times. I’m finding that it’s important to identify some predictability among the general chaos, knowing that my trusted resources, such as ISMTE, are still trucking along (albeit with some adjustments) and even thriving! The NA Virtual Event boasted a record-high attendance of nearly 260 individuals from across the globe. Frankly, organizations that are persevering during this time make everything a bit less frightening. Listening to a fitness app I was running to the other day, the instructor said “Lean into the space. Do not be afraid.” Now of course, she was talking about the run we were doing and well, I was a bit afraid I would keel over. But it made me think about the times we’re in—the pandemic, racial and social injustice, devastating wildfires—and how we all need to lean in and not be afraid. And be reassured that together, with collaboration, compassion, and a little ingenuity, we’ll see ourselves to the other side. Be safe and be well.
During the last several weeks, the catastrophic consequences of systemic racism in the U.S. have come to the fore in the minds and hearts of Americans, and of those who live around the world. The tragic deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, among those before them, shine a light on the continued atrocities and inequities that exist in a nation that claims to be “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” These heinous acts show that we are divisible, to a fatal degree. We in the scholarly publishing community are not immune to the discriminatory behaviors and racist mindsets that have infiltrated every facet of life. Research has shown a lack of diversity and inclusion in scholarly communications at all levels – from the research that is conducted, to the reviewers who evaluate manuscripts, to the individuals who lead journals and sit on editorial boards, to the composition of publishing organizations. We have been woefully inadequate in our efforts to make the publishing enterprise a truly inclusive endeavor. We at ISMTE firmly support the public outcries denouncing racism and calling for real change. We are an international organization that is built on the collective wisdom of people from all over the world, uniting diverse points of view and input from all individuals, regardless of race, color, gender, or creed. We know such inclusion maximizes the success of any initiative, drawing on the creativity, skills, and viewpoints of many. We stand together with many other societies in the scholarly publishing industry in our participation with the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Publishing (C4DISC), which comprises 10 trade and professional organizations and was formed to discuss and address issues of diversity and inclusion. A core outcome of C4DISC is its Joint Statement of Principles, of which ISMTE is a signatory. Key to this statement is the notion that “To ensure sustainability and growth, our industry must commit to long-term efforts to curb the deeply ingrained patterns of exclusion and inequities in our practices, policies, and frameworks.” ISMTE is fully committed to these principles and the mission of C4DISC. Part of this commitment is acknowledging where we fall short, and we pledge to continue to improve the diversity in our governance and leadership. It is our sincere hope that you and your editorial teams take time to reflect on the events of the last several weeks and on the history of racism, considering how you might contribute to change or take action. We offer you here resources and organizations for learning about racism and ways you can become involved. Reading List Organizations The Innocence Project NAACP ACLU With hope for peace and understanding,
Speaking of preprints, our group debated their value during the pandemic. We acknowledged their ability to accelerate the dissemination of research around COVID-19, providing essential data relevant to the pandemic. But we also remarked on their downsides – the potential to promote false information, the development of policies around misleading or inaccurate information, and their power to sow public panic.
|
6/27/2025ISMTE June Newsletter
4/15/2026 » 4/17/2026
ISMTE Virtual Career Symposium
4/23/2026 » 4/24/2026
GW Student Journal Symposium for Literary and Research Publications 2026
6/2/2026 » 6/4/2026
2026 EASE Summer Symposium
7/22/2026 » 7/24/2026
2026 North American Virtual Event
Empowering editorial offices around the world
