Connecting with our Audience: SSP 2019 Recap
In May, the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) held its 41st annual meeting in San Diego. The meeting always provides an excellent opportunity to learn in-depth about issues affecting scholarly publishing, upcoming trends and products and meet current and prospective customers. In every regard, this year’s meeting was a tremendous success.
The theme for this year was “Shaping the New Status Quo: Global Perspectives in Scholarly Publishing”. Dr. Mariamawit Yeshak, a researcher from Addis Ababa University, effectively framed the sessions and conversations to come with her eye-opening keynote “Scholarly Publishing in Africa: Impact Factor vs. Societal Impact.” Her talk encouraged the audience to rethink how the influence of published research can be quantified and valued. In many ways, it was a continuation of last year’s address by Dr. Safiya Noble’s keynote on putting a commitment to greater diversity into action and daily practice.
Of course, Plan S was a topic of conversation in and outside of the SSP sessions. Many of our clients have publishers pondering the future consequences of Plan S and its ramifications. A session addressing Plan S and how Humanities Publishing might accommodate the initiative was a highlight of the meeting. The concept of “subscribe to open” outlined a fascinating and promising approach.
As a provider of publisher services, our personal highlight of this and every meeting is the opportunity to meet with current and prospective clients as well as our vendor partners.