Charting New Directions in Scholarly Publishing: SSP’s Fall Seminar

By Janaynne Carvalho do Amaral (Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Lettie Conrad (Product Experience Architect, LibLynx)

Almost 200 speakers and attendees gathered online and in person at the AGU Conference Center in Washington, DC, on October 1 & 2, 2024 to explore New Directions in Scholarly Publishing. As SSP’s annual fall seminar, hosted in a hybrid format, this year’s event looked beyond future trends and abstract projections, focusing on practical solutions for current challenges facing publishers, libraries, researchers, professors, and funders, such as the use of AI in the workplace, research, publishing, and teaching, transparency in research, challenges to build partnerships, technologies in scientific publishing, library led-initiatives, and more. The goal was to generate actionable insights and practical ideas we can use in our everyday work to address the realities of the next 5 years.

The seminar kicked off with a keynote address by Michele Avissar-Whiting, Director of Open Science Strategy at HHMI, who outlined emerging traits in scholarly publishing. Michele shared her observations of benefits found in post-publication peer review and curation — a model she believes is best suited to revolutionize scholarly communication and empower researchers to disseminate their work more quickly and establish a public peer-review record. She painted a picture of a “new world of research communication,” which “allows scientists to showcase not just static representations of their findings but the full richness of their work.”

Unsurprisingly, AI (artificial intelligence) was a topic of discussion in panel topics ranging from Adapting Your Workforce to New Paradigms in the Shift to Publishing-as-a-Service. Speakers and attendees engaged in vigorous conversations about responsible uses of AI, including information ethics (e.g., keeping human biases out of training models) and environmental impacts (e.g., the energy and water consumption required for high-volume data centers). There were hearty debates about the relative hopes and fears of potential solutions to improve repetitive or pattern-detection tasks where humans do not excel, while not undermining the unique value of editors and their instincts, common sense, and value-based judgments.

One of the most popular activities was an interactive session called Reverse Roundtables, where expert moderators circulated topics for discussion within the seminar room and Zoom room.

Attendees and speakers enjoyed the opportunity to engage in small-group conversations about the seminar’s focus on new paradigms of research communication and adapting to new demands from authors, editors, reviewers, and other stakeholders. It was such a hit, the organizers are considering an extended roundtable session for the 2025 seminar.

Day 2 began with a panel discussion about Changing Research Landscapes where Dr. Anna Hatch, Program Officer at Open Science Strategy at HHMI, discussed shifting research assessment to quality over journal prestige, citing DORA and CoARA as solutions. Dr. Maurice Johnson, a Social Scientist at the FDA, highlighted AI’s transformative role as well as data-sharing challenges, researcher recognition, and valuing reproducibility and null results. Jennifer Kemp of Stratos emphasized the expanding scholarly publishing community, with preprints and open-access models enabling greater integration of research outputs. Jenny Peng of OUP addressed diverse publisher partnerships and challenges in the research ecosystem, including geopolitical tensions, the publish-or-perish culture, and journal brand trust. Together, they underscored the need for transparency, collaboration, and a broader view of research impact and value.

The seminar concluded with a lively dialogue among scholars at diverse career stages sharing their first-hand experiences with publishing their research. The two doctoral students spoke of their program requirements for participation in both authorship and peer review, as well as what guidance they have received regarding the use of AI and other ethical considerations. The more seasoned scholars discussed challenges with securing timely expert reviews and were eager to hear suggested solutions from publishers in the audience. All panelists were interested in greater support from publishers when it comes to marketing their work and assessing the usage and impact of that work.

The New Directions program demonstrates that the background of the invited speakers was as diverse as the audience of the seminar. The seminar considered not only giving voice and listening to the perspectives of all scholarly communication stakeholders but included industry professionals and academic professionals at different career stages. In this sense, the seminar was a great opportunity for the exchange of expertise and experiences among different players of scholarly communications to solve common problems that we are better able to address together.

The organizers hope to continue fostering dialogue and encouraging cooperation and partnerships among scholarly communication stakeholders, in particular early career researchers, from undergraduate to post-graduate students. New Directions is a hybrid seminar, increasing its affordability and accessibility to students, researchers, librarians, publishers, and other communities in and outside the U.S. Organizers were attentive to online attendees by sending instructions on how to join the lobby on Zoom and sending simple tips for a better online experience, such as putting a sign on your office door to

allow uninterrupted time for online attendance. Some speakers were also able to present remotely, bringing in new voices and perspectives; virtual moderators also increased the positive online experience.

While hybrid events are a challenge, New Directions aims to bridge gaps across our community’s leading conferences, allowing for deeper discussion and collaboration across constituencies. We hope to see you at a future seminar, either online or in DC, as SSP invites your contributions to the 2025 seminar and beyond!