Regional Recap | SSP’s First Denver-Boulder Regional MeetUp

On March 4, 2020, a small group of SSP members who live in the Denver area gathered together for an informal meetup at a local brewery. It was an interesting time to get together in this way. We met in a public establishment and shook hands to greet each other in a way that none of us would think of doing just one week later; less than two weeks later, such a gathering would not even be allowed, due to the governor’s measures aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus.

Naturally, coronavirus was one of the first topics to come up. Only seven of us had come to the gathering, and of course, some of us wondered whether others had declined because of worries about this new virus. There was also discussion of whether the SSP Annual Meeting, scheduled for late May, might end up being canceled. The London Book Fair had just been canceled, and various high-profile organizations had begun to restrict travel. At the time, it was a reasonably open question; no one knew how this virus situation was going to play out, and only a handful of states were known to have people who had tested positive for COVID-19. Within the space of a few weeks, numerous conferences would be canceled (including CSE), and even the Olympics would be postponed for a year.

Another topic that arose was Plan S. Although this initiative has been under discussion for a couple of years (with its implementation postponed by a year), it’s still difficult to work out the full scope of its impact. What seemed to be more worrisome to some at this small gathering was the looming threat of a U.S. Executive Order mandating that all federally funded research articles be freely available immediately upon publication. With fewer details known about this possible order, including if and when it might come into effect, the anxiety level seems to be higher over this than over Plan S.

Whatever happens with this potential Executive Order and/or Plan S, many of us at this meetup seemed to agree that scholarly publishing as a whole was likely on the verge of some fundamental changes. Apart from various possible models of paying for the publication of research, one attendee noted that some preprint servers are presenting their content in such a way as to resemble peer-reviewed journals (though with no Impact Factor). Another thread of discussion, following the money, noted that it might become increasingly difficult to justify to students that some of their tuition money is going toward paying for journals that are funded by their colleges. It was also noted that many publishers operate offices in areas where rents and salaries are high, and that one avenue they might consider is relocation to less costly areas. One attendee suggested that for publicly funded research, it should be mandated by the funding agencies that a portion of the money be set aside specifically to cover publication costs (it’s one thing for taxpayers to say that they should be able to access research that they’ve paid for, but it’s another thing to say that they should be able to access it in a curated and organized form).

The gathering may have been small and relatively brief, but featured a lot of good conversation. Being Colorado, someone even noted having seen two startup journals focused on cannabis research. As we all parted ways, there were some expressions along the lines of “See you at the Annual Meeting—maybe?” It seemed like a reasonable possibility, a week or so before we first started hearing of “stay at home” orders being issued in some U.S. locations.

Event recap written by SSP Denver-Boulder regional group member, Dan Moran.