Enago attends the 37th Annual SSP Meeting to increase collaborations with journals, publishers, and academic societies
Arlington, VA: The New Big Picture: Connecting Diverse Perspectives—with this fascinating theme, the SSP Annual Meeting held in Arlington was a great success. A fantastic line-up of pre-meeting seminars, keynotes, concurrent sessions, and networking opportunities along with some refreshing, fun activities saw more than 900 attendees partaking of the SSP experience! Literally sketching the “New Big Picture” was an illustrator and graphic recorder who brought to life the theme and essence of the meeting.
The program this year focused on examining the ways in which the “big picture” is shifting in scholarly publishing. Resonating with the program’s theme, the meeting had three wonderful keynotes.
- Charles Watkinson, University of Michigan, gave a terrific talk on changes in monograph publishing in the digital age. Emphasizing on the “edge effect,” he encouraged scholarly professionals to work at the edges of their fields and explore innovative opportunities.
- Ken Auletta, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 1977, shared insights from his journey in the media industry during the keynote interview. Talking about his experiences and sharing personal anecdotes, he touched upon the “human factor” and its role in most major businesses.
- Jennifer Lawton, an executive and serial entrepreneur, gave an inspirational, delightful talk on leadership and success. Drawing from her personal experiences, she shared excellent top tips for a successful and fulfilling career.
In addition to the keynotes, Amy Brand from Digital Science shared the results of a recent survey on the Demographics and Education of Scholarly Publishing and Communication Professionals. This data on the scholarly community is the first of its kind. The program addressed a diverse set of topics:
- The Researchers’ New Big Picture: A panel of researchers, professors, and students shared their views on publishing and where it fits in their lives.
- New and Noteworthy Product Presentations: Publishers and vendors showcased their newest and most innovative products, authoring systems, and platforms.
- Future of Scholarly Communication according to the Professionals who will Shape it: Early-career professionals gave their opinions on publishing as a career and their vision for the future.
- APIs in Scholarly Publishing—It’s a Marketing Thing: The panel discussed APIs and how they are using it in publishing.
- “How Much Does it Cost?” versus “What are you Getting for/Doing with the Money?”: The panel exchanged views and details on the Open Access Journal Business Model.
- Mind the Gap: Addressing the Need for More Women Leaders in Scholarly Publishing: The panel discussed the lack of women leaders in scholarly publishing and explored answers to how women can pave their way for success.
With all the learning, there were also ample opportunities for networking with peers. The exhibitor hall featured 47 vendors offering a wide variety of services. Encouraging the young and budding talent, 13 Travel Grant Award winners participated in the meeting this year. For such a great event and line-up of focused activities, kudos to the planning committee for these delightful initiatives!
For Enago, it was a great opportunity to exhibit at the event, meet professionals from the industry, and exchange ideas with peers. There have been numerous takeaways from the meeting. SSP had a wonderful meeting this year. We congratulate the organizers on their success and hope to see everyone at Vancouver next year!
About Enago
Enago is the flagship brand of Crimson Interactive Inc., an award-winning language solutions company that serves academia and industry through three main entities: Enago (English Editing and Publication Support), Ulatus (Translation) and Voxtab (Transcription). Enago employs one of the market’s largest team of editors (850+) who are proven language and subject-matter experts in more than 1,100 disciplines. To date, the company’s talented pool of specialists has helped more than 81,000 authors share their research in the most impactful journals across the globe. Crimson has a local presence in Japan, China, Taiwan, Turkey, Korea, Brazil, Germany, Russia, India, and the United States.
