SSP’s Most Popular News Items of 2019

See what you may have missed with this list of our most-read news items of 2019!

1 – SSP 41st Annual Meeting | Shaping the New Status Quo: Global Perspectives in Scholarly Publishing
2 – SSP 42nd Annual Meeting | Rethink, Reimagine, & Revolutionize the Future of Scholarly Communication
3 – Webinar Recap | Plan S: Opportunities for the Future of Scholarly Publishing
4 – The rise of the freelance biostatistician
5 – October Issue of Learned Publishing is Now Available
6 – SSP Operational Changes for 2019
7 – Society for Scholarly Publishing Awards Twelve Fellowships for 2019
8 – Paper Digest wins SSP Previews Session People’s Choice Award
9 – Cabells Surpasses 10,000 Journals Indexed on the Journal Blacklist
10 – SSP Announces Newly Elected Board Members for 2019-2020 Term

Read your favorite item now or learn more below.

SSP 41st Annual Meeting | Shaping the New Status Quo: Global Perspectives in Scholarly Publishing
The Society for Scholarly Publishing headed back to the west coast for its 41st Annual Meeting. Looking out into the vast Pacific in San Diego was a good opportunity to reflect on the (literal) wide world of publishing. Scholarly publishing is flourishing in new and exciting ways across the world, including Asia, India, and the Global South. As we move together into new eras of sharing research, it is important to make efforts to shrink the distance among stakeholders in publishing, enabling coordinated discussion and problem-solving. This year’s meeting represented a focused effort on inviting new voices into our ongoing conversations—not just geographically but with any new perspectives that help us move together toward a new age of scholarly communication. 

SSP 42nd Annual Meeting | Rethink, Reimagine, & Revolutionize the Future of Scholarly Communication
Our world is changing rapidly, and scholarly communication is no exception. The rich history of SSP’s 2020 host city of Boston inspired the concept of “revolution” in this year’s theme, and we hope to explore a broad range of interpretations of this concept as they apply to our community. How will we as scholarly communication professionals reimagine ourselves to respond to the changes happening across the industry? Subjects such as equity and inclusion, ethics, artificial intelligence, and open access mandates provide both opportunities and challenges for the community as a whole. How do we ensure the inclusion of different perspectives and experiences as we forge a future path? In the past decades, great shifts in revenue models, technology, and market changes have forced revolutions in our industry. This spring in Boston, we will challenge ourselves to drive the change that we think is necessary to ensure that scholarly communication continues to thrive.

Webinar Recap | Plan S: Opportunities for the Future of Scholarly Publishing
Plan S promises to reshape the way scholarly publishing is accomplished, affecting authors, publishers, libraries, and everyone in between. In a refreshing twist, SSP delivered a webinar discussion that took Plan S and the movement toward Open Access (OA) as a given. The speakers were then charged with offering business models that would suit the new access landscape, presenting a frank, positive discussion of the potential opportunities that might exist or are yet to be created by societies and commercial publishers to support a shift to open publication and transform their revenue streams.

The rise of the freelance biostatistician
The uberisation of the healthcare industry has seen an increase in the number of freelance biostatisticians, who are offering their services on platforms like Kolabtree. The gig economy has transformed not just industries and businesses but has also revolutionized science and research. As an increasing number of scientists turn to freelancing, industries have a rich pool of expertise readily available to them, on-demand. Data from Kolabtree, a platform with over 4,100 registered freelance scientists, reveals how companies can overcome research and business challenges with the help of PhD-level experts.

October Issue of Learned Publishing is Now Available
Befitting an October issue, Learned Publishing featured an article on medical ghostwriting, as well as a bone-chilling evaluation of the future of academic publishing. The experiences of new entrants to the publishing ecosystem returned to the journal – with a fascinating marketing study on early-career researchers and reflections on how editors and publishers can best support their work. This issue’s Editorial offered ideas for how publishers can support early-career journal editors, written by Megan Ainsworth, one of the newest members of LP’s editorial board! All articles in the October issue are online and available to all SSP and ALPSP members for free.

SSP Operational Changes for 2019
2019 brought a number of changes to the way in which SSP manages its operations. We ended our relationship with Kellen and partnered with another AMC, Association Headquarters (AH), to provide membership management, event registration, customer service, accounting, and database management. This expanded our existing relationship with AH, adding Membership Coordinator, Becky Carroll, to our team alongside Christina DeRose, who has served as our Industry Relations Specialist. We also partnered with Tracy Mitchell of Conference Direct to manage our Annual Meeting event needs. Our Program Director, Mary Beth Barilla, expanded her role to event manager for all SSP events other than the Annual Meeting, including webinars, seminars, regional events, and adjacent events. As a result of ending our relationship with Kellan, we also created a new Marketing and Operations Manager position and welcomed Jacklyn Lord to our team, giving SSP more control over these functions.

Society for Scholarly Publishing Awards Twelve Fellowships for 2019
SSP announced that twelve students and early-career professionals were awarded highly competitive Fellowships for 2019. The Career Development Committee received more than 90 applications for these coveted positions from students and early-career professionals in publishing, librarianship, and information science. This year’s recipients were chosen based on their high level of engagement in their fields and represent a diverse range of skills in scholarly publishing and librarianship.  

Paper Digest wins SSP Previews Session People’s Choice Award
At our 41st Annual Meeting held on May 29-31, in San Diego, CA, Paper Digest was awarded a People’s Choice Award for their artificial intelligence (AI) tool for scholarly communications during the SSP Previews Session, New and Noteworthy Product Presentations. In his presentation, Paper Digest co-founder, Dr. Yasutomo Takano demonstrated how Paper Digest uses AI to generate an automatic summary of an open-access research paper. The user provides a DOI (digital object identifier), or the url to a PDF file, then Paper Digest will return a bulleted summary of the paper. The tool allows researchers to quickly grasp the core ideas of a paper, reducing reading time and supporting researchers where is English is a second language.

Cabells Surpasses 10,000 Journals Indexed on the Journal Blacklist
Cabells has now investigated and verified over 10,000 individual titles for inclusion into its Journal Blacklist. Launched in June 2017, Cabells’ Journal Blacklist is still the only database available to scholars of deceptive and predatory academic journals. The Blacklist is compiled by specialists who analyze suspected journals against 65 behavioral indicators to keep the community abreast of growing threats and to protect researchers and institutions from exploitative operations. It is complemented by the Journal Whitelist, a curated list of over 11,000 verified and reputable academic journals spanning 18 disciplines, which guides researchers and institutions in getting the most impact out of their research.

SSP Announces Newly Elected Board Members for 2019-2020 Term
This year we welcomed President-Elect, Lauren Kane, and Members-at-Large, Lisa Hinchliffe, Rebecca McLeod, Miranda Walker, and Isabel Thompson, These new board members began their terms at the end of the SSP 41st Annual Meeting in San Diego, in May. They replaced former Board members, Jennifer Pesanelli, David Crotty, Alice Meadows, and Lori Carlin who concluded their terms at that time.