The Society for Scholarly Publishing by Barbara E. Meyers

Scholarly Publishing, April 1979, pages 271-274
© University of Toronto Press, reproduced with permission

A new organization, building on past associations,
has been started to close the gaps in communication
between professionals in all areas of scholarly publishing.

The community of professionals engaged in scholarly publishing is currently examining a new organization which has been established in its name. The Society for Scholarly Publishing speaks to, and one hopes for, all those involved in the production and use of scholarly works — whether in commercial, academic, societal, or governmental settings. We share many problems and interests. We can learn a great deal from each other. But in the past most of our information exchanges have been, of necessity, informal and restricted. Communication among professionals in the various areas has been fragmentary, and diverse in direction. There has not been one unified organization to sponsor meetings and publish information geared towards the interests of the community as a whole.

The Society for Scholarly Publishing builds on the histories and intents of past groups within the scholarly publishing community. It is based, in part at least, on attempts to continue and expand the activities of two groups that have been dissolved, the Association for Scientific Journals (fostered by George Schindler, John Phillips, Charlie Thompson, Jim Lufkin, and others) and the Innovation Guide Project.

The first of these was predicated on the belief that communication and interaction among professionals could bring about a heightened awareness and sensitivity to important issues and problems of the day. The ASJ existed from 1973 to 1977. It was informal in structure, based on a network of people who knew each other and who were actively involved in the daily operations of publishing. Under the aegis of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the ASJ carried out its mission primarily through biennial conferences and a sporadic but highly informative newsletter. It did bring segments of the community together, but it was not enough.

The Innovation Guide Project was a more formal activity, funded from 1974 to 1978 by the U.S. National Science Foundation, and conducted by Capital Systems Group, Inc. Its major purpose was to carry out research into, and inform the community about, the latest techniques, methods, and technologies available for use in achieving greater efficiency and effectiveness in publishing operations and in solving problems in those areas. It did this mainly through consulting/referral services and its looseleaf publication Improving the Dissemination of Scientific and Technical Information: A Practitioner’s Guide to Innovation. An interdisciplinary advisory panel provided feedback from the community and direction for research. The project’s activities were severely limited, however. It dealt primarily with journal publishing in the technical and scientific disciplines.

Both these groups realized that they were covering only a portion of the types and forms of scholarly publication, and when the organizations ceased to exist the people involved in them sought to continue the exchange of information. Thus, like its predecessors, the new society has communications, research, and interaction among professionals as its raisons d’etre. It seeks to provide forums and facilities to assist authors, publishers, manufacturers, distributors, and users of materials in every area of scholarly knowledge in finding out what their counterparts are doing. In all this, it intends to complement and supplement the activities of currently existing groups.

The society can serve as a catalyst for such activities for several reasons. First, it has been planned towards benefiting the individual member, as opposed to many existing organizations which allow an individual access only through his or her employer’s affiliation. Second, it is interdisciplinary in nature; it will examine the problems and interests of publishing professionals in all areas of science, engineering, the arts, and the humanities. Third, it is multifaceted. It is gearing its activities to increase communication across all functional areas within scholarly publishing, from the initial research and writing to the end use by readers. Thus, the society welcomes abstracters and indexers, administrators, authors, booksellers, circulation and promotion managers, compositors, editors, graphic artists, information scientists, librarians, printers, production managers, publishers, and reviewers. In short, the scope of the SSP encompasses all individuals interested in the future well-being of scholarly publishing.

As mentioned earlier, the society recognizes the important roles played by existing organizations in each of these functional areas. Its intent is to serve as an avenue for timely, productive, and meaningful communication among these diverse elements. To each group, the SSP offers an opportunity to engage in forums with professional counterparts in other disciplines. It will also provide a mechanism for each group to meet with professionals from areas which impinge on their own activities and upon which they have an effect.