Cadmore media player playing video Getting to the Next Level: An Exploration of Career Development for Early-Career Professionals in Scholarly Communications
Video Player
Accessibility
Using forms mode, you can utilize keyboard shortcuts to make usability more efficient.
Space bar will play and pause the video. Pressing escape will close all displays and pressing it again will jump to the end of the player.
You can press A to open the Keyboard Shortcut Dialog which also provides an audio description of the player and all of its features.
Language
1x
Play Speed
Adjust Volume
Transcript
Search
Result Count
of
Click to jump to result
Search
Re-center
Segments
Result Count
of
Click to jump to result
Search
Name:
Getting to the Next Level: An Exploration of Career Development for Early-Career Professionals in Scholarly Communications
Description:
Getting to the Next Level: An Exploration of Career Development for Early-Career Professionals in Scholarly Communications
Thumbnail URL:
https://cadmoremediastorage.blob.core.windows.net/c7d18932-00e7-4fbb-b4a4-81890b6b78f7/thumbnails/c7d18932-00e7-4fbb-b4a4-81890b6b78f7.jpg
Duration:
T00H55M55S
Embed URL:
https://stream.cadmore.media/player/c7d18932-00e7-4fbb-b4a4-81890b6b78f7
Content URL:
https://cadmoreoriginalmedia.blob.core.windows.net/c7d18932-00e7-4fbb-b4a4-81890b6b78f7/GMT20220809-150108_Recording_1760x900.mp4?sv=2019-02-02&sr=c&sig=SYROGsgV0wBIp%2FEwW1SiqPme7TafhVaDvMSMplJWWec%3D&st=2024-11-19T19%3A23%3A38Z&se=2024-11-19T21%3A28%3A38Z&sp=r
Upload Date:
2024-02-23T00:00:00.0000000
Transcript:
Language: EN.
Segment:0 .
Thank you and welcome to today's SSP early career subcommittee webinar. Getting to the next level an exploration of career development for early career professionals in scholarly communications.
We are very pleased that you can join us today. My name is Rebecca Benner and I am a member of the SSP early career subcommittee. I have just a few housekeeping items to review before we get started. Phones have been muted, so please enter questions for the panelists in the Q&A box. We will leave time at the end to address them. You can also use chat to say Hello or to alert us to any technical problems you are having.
This one hour session will be recorded and made available to all following today's broadcast. A quick note on sp's code of conduct and today's meeting. We are committed to diversity, equity and providing an inclusive meeting environment, fostering open dialogue, free of harassment, discrimination and hostile conduct. We ask all participants whether speaking or in chat to consider and debate relevant viewpoints in an orderly, respectful and fair manner.
It is now my pleasure to introduce our moderator today, Josephine Martineau. Josephine is managing editor at Canadian science publishing, where she manages a team of scientific publishing and production editors for eight scientific journals. She also teaches a class at George Washington University called the professional editor. She has worked in scholarly publishing for over 20 years with various biomedical societies and the management of their specialty journals, including the Canadian Urological Association journal, as the inaugural managing editor and the Canadian Medical Association journal.
Josephine, over to you. Thanks, Rebecca. Thanks for that intro. And hi, everybody. Thanks for joining us today. We've got an accomplished group of speakers today. Their bios are pretty impressive and illustrate the range of positions they've had throughout their career so far.
So I'll get into their bios and then we'll start with the Q&A with the questions. So first person, Tiffany Clarke, she's a digital publication specialist at the American Society of Hematology. She started her publishing career six years ago in editorial, but now works with the journals digital products, including the blood podcast, weekly journal newsletters and other digitally based products.
She also manages the social media strategy for the society's journals, blood and blood advances. Next, we have Christine Krebs. She's the managing editor at the American Society for microbiology, where she oversees the daily operations of a portfolio of journals. And she also collaborates with her editors in chief on special projects for new initiatives. Before joining ACM in December 2021, she was with the American Association of Colleges of pharmacy for five years, where she learned the nuts and bolts of society publishing and led several initiatives for the Association's journal, the American Journal of pharmaceutical education.
Next, we have Sara Levine. She's a journalist publisher at Oxford University press, where she manages a list of 15 society owned social science journals, her responsibility center on relationship development and maintenance. And in her role, she advises societies and editors on evolving publishing trends, including journal sales models, funding policies, analyses, analysis of competitive positioning.
And she prepares bids for journal acquisitions. Prior to joining Oxford in January of this year. She worked for eight years at the American Academy of religion, where she was initially hired as a publishing and external relations associate and eventually ran the Academy small publications department. And last but not least, we have Ashley Warren. She's currently marketing Communications Manager at Sage publications.
She leads a team within the open access department to bring original research for approximately 150 journals. She was recently appointed to spearhead the communications strategy for all of sage's always special collections, working closely with the editorial team to effectively discover and disseminate research across the globe. Before joining sage, Ashley worked in communications and focused roles in T.V and multimedia, and she also served as managing editor for the George Washington journal of ethics and publishing.
All right, so here we go. We've got the bios. Let's start with the questions. The first one will go to Christine. Could you tell us about a career move that was particularly memorable for you and that you learned a lot from? Sure Christine sure. But before I go to that, I just wanted to Thank the cesp organizers for inviting me to be part of this panel, and it's an honor to be invited for this panel.
So to your question, I discovered scholarly publishing at my previous employer, the American Association of Colleges of pharmacy. That was a memorable move for me because prior to that I was working at a small, similar size organization. But that Association was not publishing journals. It was publishing reports, papers on employee benefits. So I served as a copy editor there in a set and as a staff editor, just copy editing everything, marketing materials, content that goes on to the website.
So from there I jumped on to SAP and that's pretty much where I learned the basics of journal publishing, because SAP is a small organization. There was only one person devoted to running its journal, and that person was me. So I it was basically a one stop shop for our authors, editors and reviewers. And so I learned how to screen manuscripts, copy, edit, accepted manuscripts, navigate the submission and peer review system, get the issues published, promote the articles and social media, and then manage the different vendors and learn what their roles were.
And then also manage my editors and editorial board because it was just me. It was very it was great in a sense, because I learned everything. I touch that manuscript from day one, but it was extremely exhausting and demanding and isolating for me because I couldn't take a proper vacation without carrying my laptop with me, because if I did, the journal processes would stop, right?
I couldn't really take a sick leave or anything. So that was memorable. So I always believed that banks will talk about were totally immersed in that environment and you learn so much with prepared you for your aasm position now, which is fantastic. Thanks for that, Christine. Ashley, over to you. The same question, so memorable career move and what you learned from it.
Sure something that was really an interesting transition was when I first went from being an individual contributor to managing people, and it's something that I'm continuing to learn about every day. But it was tricky to go from only focusing on my own work and what needs to happen there to also considering everybody else's personalities and duties and where they want to go in their career to move them forward.
So I think that balancing it is tricky. And I also think that it's important to remember that not everybody has to manage people. Some people are better at project management. Some people are people managers, and neither is better than the other in terms of career progression. What's important is that you're actually thriving in the role that you're doing and you're enjoying it and you're able to be successful there 100% Know yourself, right and know where you can move forward.
Thanks, Ashley, for that. The next question, will, we'll start with Tiffany for this one. What resources did you consult when preparing for change. And what do you consult in general when you're preparing for a change? So I'll always say that the best resources are your peers. Publishing, especially scholarly publishing, is such a small community and usually you'll find that whatever situation or decision that you're debating with someone else is probably gone through the same thing.
So I always like to get perspective from, you know, different colleagues that, you know, I have a good rapport with that know me pretty well. And then also maybe just some, you know, some friends or family that are a little bit on the outside that can kind of give you a different perspective. And also, this is not a plug, but the cesp mentorship program was really invaluable to me because right when I was in the middle of the program, I was actually debating on a lateral shift.
So my mentor kind of helped me navigate that, you know, try to take away some of the fear and, you know, embrace a new opportunity. I think a lot of times, especially, you know, early in your career, you kind of second guess whether you're making the right decision or not. And honestly, the only way you'll know is to jump in. So just for that reason alone, I would recommend the mentorship program to anybody.
Thanks so that's a great plug. Of course, Sara, we'll post that same question to you. What resources are in your. Yeah, go ahead. So I think like many people, I sort of fell into scholarly publishing or scholarly communications. I was hired at the professional learned society of the area that I studied in right out of my graduate degree and just kind of fell into publishing.
So I was a little bit siloed. I felt I felt like there was this world of publishing and I was on the very outside of it, and I wanted to figure out how to get in because I thought it was exciting. So I joined MSSP because I just wanted to feel like there was a community there. Like Tiffany, I did a cesp mentorship, which was very valuable, just helping me understand the different kinds of roles better.
I was able to go to an cesp conference, which was really useful in terms of meeting people as well. And going to different kinds of sessions. Scholarly Kitchen blog was really important as well, just to feel like you are understanding the developments in the field. And then I would say what was important is that in my role at the society, I was still in contact with all kinds of book editors and journals, publishers, just because of my job.
So I would talk to them as much as possible. I would take any meeting I could to just learn about their jobs, to figure out what my next move might look like. I started organizing panels for conferences that my society hosted, and I wasn't even a panelist on these, but I would introduce myself to people in the field and say, will you join a panel about finding the right publisher for your book? And that way I was able to talk to people.
It was really low pressure. Pressure I made a list of Twitter followers that I thought was important, and I could just consult to see like, what was a buzz in the field. And then I would say probably the most important thing I started doing was really paying attention to people who worked in ways that I admired, especially in the field of publishing. And that was really huge for me to be able to ambulate and put into practice skills that I observed other professionals had, particularly women.
And, you know, eventually my shift was from a society who partnered with Oxford University Press to publish. And I never thought that that would be a place I would end up. But looking back now, it makes so much sense that I had developed relationships there and they felt that they could trust me and see me as a colleague.
Thank you. Thank you for that, Sarah. Christine, we'll have you answer this one as well. And then we'll move on to the next question. Go ahead. Sure so for me, there were three things or buckets that I would consider that I used. One was I went back to school. I went back to get my publishing degree at George Washington University.
Many of the folks here on this panel are from there. So that really helped me because I learned a lot about book publishing and journal publishing from that span of two years, just studying everything about the industry through GW. I also was able to network with more people in the publishing industry. I got to know my professors and some of them, and I also met with my met with GW career coach who helped me finish my résumé and help me practice for interviews.
So besides gw, I also continued attending industry conferences and webinars like cses and SSPS, and that was really instrumental because at my work at ACP, where I was the only person tasked with the journal, I didn't really have anyone to touch base with. So the people that I connected with at those industry conferences helped me a lot in learning publishing as a whole.
And then third, it was true, esp that I also learned about the fellowship that they were providing for early career professionals. And so I applied for the 2021, 2022 program year, and I was lucky enough to be selected. That helped me because I was matched with someone like a Beyonce in the field of journal publishing. She was a titan, really in the field of publishing.
I'm not going to name names, but she's really big. Let's keep it at that. And then that also helped me. That experience helped me work in a group to create a poster. Prior to that, I had no idea why posters were such a big deal at conferences. And because of that, now I know why, because it's a lot of work. So I would say those three things going back to school, continuing attending industry conferences, and then applying for that.
SBE early career fellowship. Thank you, Christine. Thank you. Next question. This one's going to go to you, Sarah. So what kind what kind of risks did you identify during your career journey and how did you manage those? Yeah so in my prior role, somewhere along the lines of working and reading and becoming more conversant in scholarly publishing, I found that I was really interested in evolving journals, sales models and the marketplace created by the demands of researchers and librarians and funders.
And I became like a little obsessed with the dynamics of that marketplace and various negotiation failures between library customers and for profit publishers. Like this stuff really interested me, but at the same time, I felt like one of my weaknesses was always in finance and feeling conversant in anything having to do with profit and loss. My portfolio responsibility at my current job had been pretty small and I knew I wanted to go into sort of the business of journals, publishing, and I needed to feel more confident.
That said, I have always been a school person, love going to school, and I was really kind of lucky because I found that my employer was affiliated with Emory university, which provided me the benefit of enrolling in any degree program. I wanted. And it covered about 75, 80% So I went back and I started a working professionals MBA and that was and I'm still I'm on my last semester now starting next week.
But it helped me feel much more confident. Talking about money, talking with different kinds of people gave me a much better idea of what it is to walk into more of a purely business world and that not everybody in there is the same. That was sort of my fear going into an MBA program was that it would be filled with one type of person. Isn't one type of person that. No, that wasn't true at all.
And so since I started my job at UPI, I feel incredibly grounded. When I talk about finance. I feel very grounded when I talk about an acquisition and the benefits it might have for both the society and for AUP. And I'll just say this, I don't think going back to school is for everyone. You'll hear some of us talk about that.
I don't think have to do it. I think it can provide you with a great network, whether it's within publishing or more broadly, but it's not something that you can always do. And I don't think it's required either. But if you have the support and I stress this, if you have support from your employer, I would say. It might be worth your time and energy to just expand your horizons.
Thank you for that. Thank you. So let's. Christine, this question is going to be for you and Ashley. So both of you have had some changes in your career. So can you talk about who initiated the move? How did you look for your next role? How did that come about? Why don't we start with you, Christine, and then we'll go to you, Ashley.
Sure so for me, I definitely initiated the move. So my move from a small Association that published one journal to a bigger Association that publishes 16 journals, basically because I was exhausted, just to be honest with you. And so to this, I would say be curious, always be curious. Take good, calculated risks to the extent that you're comfortable because it's easy to stay at a place that you already know, that you've already mastered.
Right but and the unknown is scary. But and if you're happy and you feel fulfilled at that place, then by all means, stay there. For me, though, I knew I wanted to go to a bigger place that had journal publishing folks who whom I could converse with. So, yeah, cultivate an attitude of curiosity, be flexible, be adaptable, always be open to learning new things, and also be know yourself.
So yeah, make the jump when you feel that you should, but just know yourself basically. Thanks, Christine. Ashley, what's your take on that? I agree with that. I was actually taking a break to be home with my kids and was in grad school full time at GW publishing program. I still had a semester and a little bit more left, so I wasn't actually planning to go back to work just yet.
I was to wait until I finished and graduated. But it happened to be a time when there were a lot of really good opportunities out there. And I saw a couple that I thought, you know, I'm just going to apply to these anyways, even though I'm not quite ready just to see how this goes. And ended up getting a couple of different offers and choosing sage because it was pretty much exactly what I wanted to do.
It's a great job, so it involved a little bit of juggling at first as I finished my degree, but it was worth it. And I think that it's important that even if you're not necessarily ready to start something right this second, keep an eye out on the market, see what's see what's out there. And it just it doesn't hurt to know what else is out there and what's going on.
Good point. Good point. And just to add to that, too, if you are interested in doing something different at your current job and you kind of like that environment, do approach your manager to try a different project and to just try something new.
I'm sure they'd be open to that. So just to kind of complement your answers. Thank you. Thank you both. The next question, Sarah, this will go to you. So the esp, they have a professional skills map and I think Rebecca is going to put that link in the chat. And this map identifies technical and soft skills that we need and that we use all the time in scholarly publishing.
What skills do you call on most in your role and how did you develop those skills? Go ahead, Sarah. Yeah I would say in my role as a journalist publisher, especially one that works with society owned journals, relationship management as the most important skill that you have and being trusted by your partners to be sort of a straight shooter. And I think coming from a society directly has really helped with that.
I remember filling out the professional skills map the first year that I joined esp and I was surprised by just how many of my skills working in a learn society were reliant on relationship cultivation and management, which is essential when you're dealing primarily with volunteers to carry out portions of strategic goals. So I would say that that remains probably my most important day to day skill.
Managing expectations, sometimes exceeding expectations, being trusted and communicative are essential. But I've found that more and more email to strategic planning work that I was part of at my prior role is coming into play, into discussions I have with partners at society owned journals. It's not even that I'm the best strategic planner because I am not. But I'm able to ask bigger questions about how the publications of a society can help meet the broader goals of the organization.
And I can communicate the understanding that revenues from publications are important to funding the mission of the organization as a whole. So I would say sort of relationship management has been the most important problem solving. Anyone that works in journals knows that day to day problem solving is extremely important because something is always coming up. And then I think if you're looking for your next step.
And you're feeling like, I don't know, like I'm in I'm in role and I don't know how to get to role be just like Ashley said, just start looking at jobs like and it will just make you feel comfortable with thinking about yourself in a different role. You don't have to start applying right away. You can just start getting comfortable with, OK, how do I think about myself? What I do day to day and what's transferable to this bulleted?
You know, 12 bullet posts that I see posted online, you'll start to feel like you can do these things. And so I think the professional skills map is one way to reassure yourself that what you're doing now is applicable elsewhere. Thank you. That's a great map. Do do check out. Do check it out.
The link is in the chat. We're going to step back and go a little bit to the beginning now. So thinking how did you break into publishing? I'm going to start this question with Tiffany. Let me, me, myself. So before I began working in publishing, I was employed at a nonprofit organization that was focused on building rural housing.
So I was there for several years, right out of undergrad. It wasn't the job that I wanted at all, but at that time we were in a recession and it was just really hard to secure any kind of job, let alone one in your field. So I knew I wanted to get into publishing. So what I did was I started focusing on building skills that I thought would be attractive, things that I could put on my resume.
So I started taking classes in the evening. I started taking copywriting classes, copy editing, just writing classes, anything that I thought would be helpful on my resume. So I think that's kind of what got me in the door. But what I didn't expect was that some of those skills that I tried to downplay, like the administrative skills experience, the customer service experience, it was really helpful when it came to peer review, because peer review was all about helping the authors, helping the editors.
So that was an unexpected thing for me. I love that you said that because even if you don't have a job in publishing and you want in, you can mind that the tasks that you've done in your current job for those transferable skills. I think one of you mentioned that earlier that can use into publishing. So Thanks for mentioning that, Tiffany. Next, we'll move on to.
So same question, Ashley. How did you break in? So as you were just saying, the transferable skills were a huge piece of it. I worked in T.V and video creation, so the journalism piece, it's easy to see how that connects. But just like Tiffany was saying, there are parts that you don't quite realize are part of what we do day to day in scholarly publishing as well.
It helped to, of course, grad school help, but you can get the same kind of interactions with a mentor or just doing informational interviews to find out what everybody does day to day, wherever it is that you want to be. So that when you're building your resume and deciding what kind of position you want, what you want to emphasize there. So working working at my previous jobs, because they were communication jobs made easier to go into communications at a publisher.
Obviously, something like editorial would take a different skill set. And you'd want to emphasize different things on your resume. But even with editorial, there were parts of what I did that were a good fit in publishing as well. So a lot of people think they don't have experience when in reality they have more than they think they do.
Absolutely Thank you, Ashley. Christine, how did you break in? Yeah, so? Well, my undergraduate degree was in journalism and international studies, so I learned to write news articles how to copy edit using APA style. But it wasn't until I worked at my previous job wherein I really learned the journal publishing business.
I think the editor in chief there hired me because they needed someone who knew am style, who someone who knew how to copy edit. And so I think that was my that was one of the major reasons why they hired me. So I wouldn't dismiss luck as well. And being at the right place at the right time, I would suggest if you wanted to if you want to break into journal publishing, learn a style, a style guide, whether it be Chicago style or am style.
Several of my colleagues at ACM started as copy editors, and that's how they got a bird's eye view of the publishing process, because that's how they were able to touch the manuscripts and shepherd it from submission to publication. So Yeah. Thank you for that. And Sarah. Just just so that it's on the recording, there's a chat.
Sarah so you mentioned, I know a few people who shifted from editorial to of journals from customer service and author support. So there are lots of ways in. So, yeah, a lot of points of entry. Thank you for mentioning that. So this next question, it's for those who've transitioned to different areas of publishing. So the question is, what did you and this is going to be for Tiffany, we'll start off with you on this one.
What were some of the unexpected challenges and benefits when you transitioned into different roles within publishing? So my transition was I moved from peer review to kind of the Digital Publishing side of my department. So honestly, I didn't really experience any challenges because I was already kind of doing duties that was pushing me in that direction.
And I think it speaks to what Josephine mentioned earlier about when you have an interest, you know, just reach out to your manager, let them know what you're interested in. So I kind of did a little bit of that and it kind of just naturally started shifting me in that direction. So I didn't really have any challenges, but some of the benefits were that I was starting to see, kind of like the whole picture. So I had already I was working in peer review and I've seen the manuscript from pre submission to submission to revisions to acceptance.
Now I'm seeing the paper at it's published state and we're and I'm helping to strategize how we're going to market that paper or how we're going to give that paper more exposure or how we're going to help the authors reach their potential with their research. So that was a benefit and it's really nice to kind of see that full picture and kind of understand completely what's going on from beginning to end.
Not for sure for sure. That helped you kind of do your job now really. Well, Thank you. Thank you for that. Sarah, over to you. So benefits, challenges when you transition? Go ahead. Yeah, I would say the biggest challenge coming from a 16 person staff at a nonprofit learned society to AUP was just the number of systems to navigate and the number of people that you might have to snake your way through in order to find an answer or even to identify the next step of a question that you need an answer in order to solve a bigger problem.
So my first few months were just figuring out how systems talk to each other, why I needed to be on x and y of x told me this many things that was really difficult. I would say that there are always problems to solve in the role that I'm in now. And as the journalist, business becomes more complex with relations among funders, researchers, librarians, publishers, editors, journal owners, figuring out the right approach to any single problem can take time and probably more input from more people than you think.
So allowing yourself a little bit more time to get things done. I would say that from that there's been an unexpected benefit in that my role is a little bit of being a hub and a hub and spoke arrangement. So for editors and society contacts, I'm a hub for questions, which means I have to spoke out and find answers. So I'm in this role in editorial.
I learn a lot more about production, about digital content, down streaming, about funders and funder policy than I thought would be the case. So there's a lot of opportunity to learn. And when you move into a larger company as well, there's the opportunity to shift around a little bit more internally. So you're able to learn a lot more about the publishing world.
I have a lot of colleagues who came from either higher Ed or books and came into journals publishing. So there's that way in and way out when you're able to kind of navigate a larger pool. Thank you. Thank you. So the next question, actually, this one will be for you. You talked about moving into a people manager role.
So this one, what did you wish you knew before making that move? And what resources do you use daily in your role as people manager in this? This role in particular? Something that I wish I had a little bit more knowledge of in advance was how to manage an international team. I have two reports that are in the UK and two that are here in the Uc and learning about some of the differences in-laws and regulations.
As far as what's different for my employees there versus here, that was an experience, but it was worthwhile because now I feel a lot more comfortable understanding the requirements there. And I know what to expect. That wasn't something that I had done in previous management roles, so learning about that was really helpful. I think also that as far as resources go, in addition to just keeping in touch via Teams and any other chat opportunity that we have and doing 1 to 1 each week, something that I like to do is talk with them about their career paths and something that sage has is very clear, very clear career path from one position to the next, which I think is a great thing to have as an employee, because you feel like you have some control over your career progression and what kind of milestones and skills you need before you can go there.
So I do use that often when talking with them about where they want to go in their jobs. And sage also has education courses that are fantastic. And so those are something that I'm constantly recommending them to my reports, but also taking them myself. They are separated out by management courses, basic skills. There are just lifestyle. What is like meditation?
So I think anywhere that you go that has something like that you can take advantage of is incredibly helpful. I love that. Thanks thanks, Ashley. We've got some questions in the chat. So I'm going to I'm going to go to those and panelists. I'll if you feel your well positioned to answer those, please go ahead. I'm going to move it to my other monitor here.
So this one is from Maria. Thanks, Maria, for your question. Have you ever experienced not being able to think what you would like to do next? If so, how did you get through it? So when you're in that, that phase wants to take. That's a good question. Who wants to take that one?
Yeah go ahead, Sarah. Yeah, I went through so many stages. And many of them were grief oriented when it came to trying to figure out my next move. I think it probably took me. 2 to three years of thinking that I wanted to move to actually moving. And partly that was fear based because I was still in the first I would call professional job that I had had.
I had moved positions internally, but I was still at the same organization and I felt like I was extremely niche and didn't have any skills to move forward. So I, you know, I think a lot of folks here mentioned doing lots of various kinds of professional development, I think is somewhat helpful. So getting involved with the professional society of the field that you think you're interested in and really immersing yourself as much as you can.
And the literature and the conversation, you know, I thought I wanted to go into like books commissioning and editing, and I realized over time, like, that's not really where my passion or interests lie so much like I'm much more interested in, in journals, publishing. So that took some time to think about. But I think if you feel stuck, just any movement is as good. So if it means joining a society, if it means going back to school, which again, I don't think have to do, but if that's meaningful to you, you can do that.
But any sort of movement is going to help you unstuck yourself. Mm-hmm So Yeah. So any movement doesn't have to be a major job shift, but any involvement, any, any change at all. Yeah, that's good advice. Thanks, Sarah. The next question from John. Hey, John.
John Warren. He's the director at the George Washington University publishing program. It's great to see you all. Question as you know, a masters in publishing is not a requirement to work in publishing. What do you see as the value of the NPS or the master's and Professional Studies and publishing degree at GW or any other publishing program?
So for those of you on the panel, I think three of you have gone through the program. If you want to talk about that a little bit. Talk a little bit about that. Yeah for me, one of the main benefits of it was that even though I'd worked in marketing and communications before, the program gave me a really solid foundation to understand the editorial side.
And that is something that has given me new opportunities within my current role, because I do understand that piece of the puzzle a little bit better than most other people coming in from marketing would. There's also the networking opportunities, obviously, that were really wonderful and the fact that it kind of bridged a little bit of a gap for me from coming back to work after being home and then going into this field.
But I'd also add that it's not necessarily just this degree that's helpful. There's, as I was saying, a lot of different professional development that you can do that is useful. One of my reports is actually in the midst of getting her MBA and she's focused on HR. So in her role with us, we've developed a place for her within the team where she can kind of help the rest of our team develop their skills.
So she's using that professional that professional degree within her role in marketing, even though that's not necessarily what it is for. So there's a lot of ways that you can apply things from various graduate programs. For sure. For sure. Thanks for that, Ashley. Anyone else want to add to that?
I would echo a lot of the things that Ashley mentioned. For me, that publishing degree exposed me to the foundational aspects of publishing. It pushed me to take courses that I would normally avoid, like anything that involved math or numbers. So I took the finance and accounting class and now I can read a profit and loss statement.
It's not as scary as I imagined it to be. I also took a production management class. That was a hard class. It was tough because it made the professor ask us to really scrutinize a product, a published product from cover to cover. And I felt like I never really appreciated a magazine as much as, you know, since I attended that class.
So one is just being exposed to all the other sites of publishing that for me I would normally avoid. And second is also the networking aspect of it. Getting to meet a lot of professors and classmates who are knee deep in the publishing industry was instrumental. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Thanks, Christine.
Anyone else want to add to that? We've got a few more questions left. Hello So let's hit the next one. Thanks thanks, John, for that question. Kevin, we're up to your question next. This 1 May be for you, Sarah, but open to the other panelists as well. How did you how do you learn about the trends in various scientific scholarly fields in order to help advise societies or editors without having an academic degree in the scientific field the journals are in?
Man, that's a good question. Thanks, cami. Sarah, you want to start us off and other panelists, feel free to jump in. That is a good question. And what I have to always remind myself is that it is my job to advise societies about publishing, and it is the society and editors job to advise me about the field and the topics.
So I look to them for their expertise and they look to me for my expertise, which is helping maintain the stability of the journal over time. So in some cases, for instance, I'm at the American Sociological Association Conference right now. So for a society, for an organization like that, it's easy enough for me to walk into some sessions and get a sense of what's hot in the field medical that that would be not being the case.
Right that's a little bit above where I can go. But what I say there's lots of tools at our disposal in order to help us understand what's happening in the field. So the Web of Science dimensions, those are two different kinds of applications you can use to see what are happening in trends and keywords. If you've got a journal that's not attracting the kind of authors that it likes, you can talk to the editor about the scope of the journal.
You can see what's really getting the highest impact in the past couple of years that maybe this journal isn't participating in or isn't doing conference calls for papers for. So you don't have to be an expert. You just need to know where to look and to bring information to the people who are experts and say, what can we learn about this together?
Yeah now. Thank you for that. Kristine Ashley, Tiffany. But I really like your focus on you're the publishing person and you're trusting them in their lane for content. Thank you for that. Christine, Ashley, Tiffany, do you want to add to that? No OK.
And just as a little sidebar, you'll notice everybody that the panelists and me, we'll be adding our LinkedIn information to the chat. So feel free to just connect with us on LinkedIn and we'll be happy to share more information. We've got more questions. So this is from an anonymous entity. So Thanks for your question. How to initiate.
So how do you initiate a discussion about a job switch with your current manager, especially if you're willing to move within that same organization into a different team? How was it perceived by the manager, especially if you want to move for career growth? That's that's a good question. Yeah Tiffany. Yeah, I can speak to that because I've done it twice within the same department.
And honestly, I was just honest with my supervisor and I've been really lucky to have had several supervisors that have been very supportive, especially with professional development and career goals. So I just basically went to them and said, hey, I'm kind of interested in this. You know, I'm thinking about pursuing it and just we just have that conversation. I don't think there's any harm in just letting your manager know where your head is at.
And if you feel like this might be a good fit for you, then then that's that. Yeah, I agree. Being, being honest about where you want to go. So Yeah. Has always worked for me as well. So Thanks for that. Anyone want to add to that? That's a great question.
I'll ask that, of course. Consider your supervisor and their personality and how you would expect them to react before anything. But if they're a good manager, they're going to want to help you develop and they'll look for ways to get you into the position that you want to be in, even if that means a different department or otherwise. There may also be routes to build that skill that you're looking to move forward within your current role.
So that's another way to get more prepared. While also keeping them involved in your development. So yeah, but don't be afraid to talk to them about it because chances are they're going to want to they're going to want to be there for you. Yeah Yeah. Thank you. Now the next question oc also from anonymous. So I currently work for a scholarly publisher based on a University that does not have a master's and publishing program.
Do you have any suggestions for other master's degrees that would be valuable, valuable to someone in scholarly publishing? that's a tough one. Anyone from the group want to actually go ahead. What are your thoughts on that? I think it depends on what kind of position you want to be in.
At at a publisher. I mean, if you want to be in finance, get a degree in that. If you want to if you want to work on a specific type of journal. Having a PhD is useful when you get up to the highest levels. But yeah, I think that that entirely depends on what kind of position you're looking for. Yeah and there's some comments in the chat. So, John, Thanks.
So there's an NBA idea and that goes to you, Sarah. You did that as well. Communications, public policy, that may be some different avenues. Sarah, do you want to add? Yeah, I would just I would echo what Ashley said. It really does depend on where you want to go. So I would maybe think about that first. And you will anything that requires you dealing with contracts or finances or having to deal with, you know, income, even if you're not directly in finance, but having to look over our portfolio.
I think an MBA could be extremely helpful because it kind of covers the wide range. So from finance over to leadership and relationship management, I think communications make sense. Yeah and depending where you want to be at a publisher, public policy can also be helpful, like John said. Yeah Yeah. Thank you. Also comment.
Alison, Thanks for your comment here in the chat. You have a master's degree. It's been helpful. You understand the academic side as well as the inner workings of your employer as a society, not for profit. Thank you. And John, your degree in international management, of course, involved in finance, public policy language.
Thank you. Our last question, I believe here in the Q&A section from Rowan. Thanks for that question. What advice would you give to an early career copy editor trying to network on linkedin? Who wants to start us off on that one?
I guess I would start us. Maybe we could decide on who you. What companies you want to follow, I guess. Start with that and don't be afraid to comment on other people's posts and network and reach out. I will say one thing in terms of reaching out to people on LinkedIn, always, always include a personal note. Don't assume someone's going to want to connect with you. Always say, look, either I saw you all on a webinar or I know I heard your talk right here, like some kind of link that will make them want to say yes.
Just a blanket. Please connect. Yeah, that that usually I don't like that. That doesn't really work. Yeah and there's a suggestion here. Yeah I enjoyed seeing your panel today. Thanks for that suggestion, John, in the chat. So that's how I would kind of think about answering that question.
Panelists I'm not sure if you have anything else to add to that. I mean, I think if you've done some copyediting for folks who would be willing to put out a testimonial, I think having that can be really useful. I think if you do freelance copy editing and you'd like to move internally, I think that's harder these days, but be. Make sure that you're maybe working with authors who are commissioned with presses that you are interested in because that again, like you just want to see what are my ways in and sometimes that's through authors you've developed a really trusting relationship with and they can recommend you to their peers, but also more broadly.
And you've got a real good base of support when you're looking for your next role. Yeah, and I think that's a nice segue into our next question in the chat. Have any of you freelanced as copy editors, even as a side hustle, and do you have any advice for doing so? So I like six degrees of separation, so to speak, of speaking to someone who knows someone.
And getting a gig that way. I've not freelanced as a copy editor, but I think my number one bit of advice is to make sure you're priced at what you're worth. I think too often copy editors underpriced themselves, and that's bad for you personally, but also for the world of copy editors. So I would say, you know, that's hard work. You're the person who's probably going to have like other than the author, the most eyes and deepest, deepest knowledge about a manuscript.
And you should be paid for that work. Yes I agree, definitely. I've never freelanced as a copy editor myself, but I would suggest looking at CSC and SBS website, they have resources there for freelancers that you could check out and network with other freelance copy editors. Yep Thank you both.
Ashley I freelanced and did copy editing and proposal writing during my maternity leave, and I don't have a lot of advice for networking because I did it through my previous employer. But with that I would say, make sure you keep good relationships, don't burn any bridges, and continue staying in touch with people that you've worked with before. Because a lot of times those are the first people that will give you some work to do.
And it did it did help during the time when I was out to keep something on my resume and to keep moving forward in my career. And it just kind of kept me sharp and aware of what was going on in the industry. Good advice. Thank you all. All right.
I think that is it for the questions in the Q&A. Rebecca, Thanks for that. So Rebecca added another wonderful resource in the chat, the Editorial Freelancers Association. So please check them out and check out their space on Twitter as well. Great, great resource. So panelists should do any final word for the attendees piece of advice.
Any anything final you want to leave us with. No yes, sir. I would just say I have found publishing as a field to be very friendly and very open, and everyone is willing to take a meeting to chat with you about their career, how they got there, what they're thinking they want to do next. And so I would suggest don't be afraid to reach out to any one of us or anyone who, like I said, who you really admire in their role because they will talk to you.
And chances are like if there's a job opening and you need, you know, just an extra push to get perhaps an interview, that person can help you. So that would be probably my one bit of advice is that this is a friendly field. So take advantage of that. Yes yes. 100% all right. Well, Rebecca, I think we're done as a group of panelists here.
Thank you. I'll pass it over to you. Great thanks, Josephine, and Thank you, everyone for participating in today's presentation. And Thank you, of course, to our panel for this great, engaging discussion. So evaluation request will be sent by email and we would encourage our attendees to provide feedback to help us shape future programming.
So please visit the cesp website for information on upcoming programs. Our new direction seminar is September RA21 two 20 second in Washington, DC and online. The deadline for early bird registration is August 19, so this discussion was recorded, and I'll registrants will receive a link when posted on sp website. This concludes our session today. Thank you, everybody.
Thank you. Thank you, panelists. A lot of fun. Thank you. Bye Thank you, Jose. Great job.
Segment:0 .
Thank you and welcome to today's SSP early career subcommittee webinar. Getting to the next level an exploration of career development for early career professionals in scholarly communications.
We are very pleased that you can join us today. My name is Rebecca Benner and I am a member of the SSP early career subcommittee. I have just a few housekeeping items to review before we get started. Phones have been muted, so please enter questions for the panelists in the Q&A box. We will leave time at the end to address them. You can also use chat to say Hello or to alert us to any technical problems you are having.
This one hour session will be recorded and made available to all following today's broadcast. A quick note on sp's code of conduct and today's meeting. We are committed to diversity, equity and providing an inclusive meeting environment, fostering open dialogue, free of harassment, discrimination and hostile conduct. We ask all participants whether speaking or in chat to consider and debate relevant viewpoints in an orderly, respectful and fair manner.
It is now my pleasure to introduce our moderator today, Josephine Martineau. Josephine is managing editor at Canadian science publishing, where she manages a team of scientific publishing and production editors for eight scientific journals. She also teaches a class at George Washington University called the professional editor. She has worked in scholarly publishing for over 20 years with various biomedical societies and the management of their specialty journals, including the Canadian Urological Association journal, as the inaugural managing editor and the Canadian Medical Association journal.
Josephine, over to you. Thanks, Rebecca. Thanks for that intro. And hi, everybody. Thanks for joining us today. We've got an accomplished group of speakers today. Their bios are pretty impressive and illustrate the range of positions they've had throughout their career so far.
So I'll get into their bios and then we'll start with the Q&A with the questions. So first person, Tiffany Clarke, she's a digital publication specialist at the American Society of Hematology. She started her publishing career six years ago in editorial, but now works with the journals digital products, including the blood podcast, weekly journal newsletters and other digitally based products.
She also manages the social media strategy for the society's journals, blood and blood advances. Next, we have Christine Krebs. She's the managing editor at the American Society for microbiology, where she oversees the daily operations of a portfolio of journals. And she also collaborates with her editors in chief on special projects for new initiatives. Before joining ACM in December 2021, she was with the American Association of Colleges of pharmacy for five years, where she learned the nuts and bolts of society publishing and led several initiatives for the Association's journal, the American Journal of pharmaceutical education.
Next, we have Sara Levine. She's a journalist publisher at Oxford University press, where she manages a list of 15 society owned social science journals, her responsibility center on relationship development and maintenance. And in her role, she advises societies and editors on evolving publishing trends, including journal sales models, funding policies, analyses, analysis of competitive positioning.
And she prepares bids for journal acquisitions. Prior to joining Oxford in January of this year. She worked for eight years at the American Academy of religion, where she was initially hired as a publishing and external relations associate and eventually ran the Academy small publications department. And last but not least, we have Ashley Warren. She's currently marketing Communications Manager at Sage publications.
She leads a team within the open access department to bring original research for approximately 150 journals. She was recently appointed to spearhead the communications strategy for all of sage's always special collections, working closely with the editorial team to effectively discover and disseminate research across the globe. Before joining sage, Ashley worked in communications and focused roles in T.V and multimedia, and she also served as managing editor for the George Washington journal of ethics and publishing.
All right, so here we go. We've got the bios. Let's start with the questions. The first one will go to Christine. Could you tell us about a career move that was particularly memorable for you and that you learned a lot from? Sure Christine sure. But before I go to that, I just wanted to Thank the cesp organizers for inviting me to be part of this panel, and it's an honor to be invited for this panel.
So to your question, I discovered scholarly publishing at my previous employer, the American Association of Colleges of pharmacy. That was a memorable move for me because prior to that I was working at a small, similar size organization. But that Association was not publishing journals. It was publishing reports, papers on employee benefits. So I served as a copy editor there in a set and as a staff editor, just copy editing everything, marketing materials, content that goes on to the website.
So from there I jumped on to SAP and that's pretty much where I learned the basics of journal publishing, because SAP is a small organization. There was only one person devoted to running its journal, and that person was me. So I it was basically a one stop shop for our authors, editors and reviewers. And so I learned how to screen manuscripts, copy, edit, accepted manuscripts, navigate the submission and peer review system, get the issues published, promote the articles and social media, and then manage the different vendors and learn what their roles were.
And then also manage my editors and editorial board because it was just me. It was very it was great in a sense, because I learned everything. I touch that manuscript from day one, but it was extremely exhausting and demanding and isolating for me because I couldn't take a proper vacation without carrying my laptop with me, because if I did, the journal processes would stop, right?
I couldn't really take a sick leave or anything. So that was memorable. So I always believed that banks will talk about were totally immersed in that environment and you learn so much with prepared you for your aasm position now, which is fantastic. Thanks for that, Christine. Ashley, over to you. The same question, so memorable career move and what you learned from it.
Sure something that was really an interesting transition was when I first went from being an individual contributor to managing people, and it's something that I'm continuing to learn about every day. But it was tricky to go from only focusing on my own work and what needs to happen there to also considering everybody else's personalities and duties and where they want to go in their career to move them forward.
So I think that balancing it is tricky. And I also think that it's important to remember that not everybody has to manage people. Some people are better at project management. Some people are people managers, and neither is better than the other in terms of career progression. What's important is that you're actually thriving in the role that you're doing and you're enjoying it and you're able to be successful there 100% Know yourself, right and know where you can move forward.
Thanks, Ashley, for that. The next question, will, we'll start with Tiffany for this one. What resources did you consult when preparing for change. And what do you consult in general when you're preparing for a change? So I'll always say that the best resources are your peers. Publishing, especially scholarly publishing, is such a small community and usually you'll find that whatever situation or decision that you're debating with someone else is probably gone through the same thing.
So I always like to get perspective from, you know, different colleagues that, you know, I have a good rapport with that know me pretty well. And then also maybe just some, you know, some friends or family that are a little bit on the outside that can kind of give you a different perspective. And also, this is not a plug, but the cesp mentorship program was really invaluable to me because right when I was in the middle of the program, I was actually debating on a lateral shift.
So my mentor kind of helped me navigate that, you know, try to take away some of the fear and, you know, embrace a new opportunity. I think a lot of times, especially, you know, early in your career, you kind of second guess whether you're making the right decision or not. And honestly, the only way you'll know is to jump in. So just for that reason alone, I would recommend the mentorship program to anybody.
Thanks so that's a great plug. Of course, Sara, we'll post that same question to you. What resources are in your. Yeah, go ahead. So I think like many people, I sort of fell into scholarly publishing or scholarly communications. I was hired at the professional learned society of the area that I studied in right out of my graduate degree and just kind of fell into publishing.
So I was a little bit siloed. I felt I felt like there was this world of publishing and I was on the very outside of it, and I wanted to figure out how to get in because I thought it was exciting. So I joined MSSP because I just wanted to feel like there was a community there. Like Tiffany, I did a cesp mentorship, which was very valuable, just helping me understand the different kinds of roles better.
I was able to go to an cesp conference, which was really useful in terms of meeting people as well. And going to different kinds of sessions. Scholarly Kitchen blog was really important as well, just to feel like you are understanding the developments in the field. And then I would say what was important is that in my role at the society, I was still in contact with all kinds of book editors and journals, publishers, just because of my job.
So I would talk to them as much as possible. I would take any meeting I could to just learn about their jobs, to figure out what my next move might look like. I started organizing panels for conferences that my society hosted, and I wasn't even a panelist on these, but I would introduce myself to people in the field and say, will you join a panel about finding the right publisher for your book? And that way I was able to talk to people.
It was really low pressure. Pressure I made a list of Twitter followers that I thought was important, and I could just consult to see like, what was a buzz in the field. And then I would say probably the most important thing I started doing was really paying attention to people who worked in ways that I admired, especially in the field of publishing. And that was really huge for me to be able to ambulate and put into practice skills that I observed other professionals had, particularly women.
And, you know, eventually my shift was from a society who partnered with Oxford University Press to publish. And I never thought that that would be a place I would end up. But looking back now, it makes so much sense that I had developed relationships there and they felt that they could trust me and see me as a colleague.
Thank you. Thank you for that, Sarah. Christine, we'll have you answer this one as well. And then we'll move on to the next question. Go ahead. Sure so for me, there were three things or buckets that I would consider that I used. One was I went back to school. I went back to get my publishing degree at George Washington University.
Many of the folks here on this panel are from there. So that really helped me because I learned a lot about book publishing and journal publishing from that span of two years, just studying everything about the industry through GW. I also was able to network with more people in the publishing industry. I got to know my professors and some of them, and I also met with my met with GW career coach who helped me finish my résumé and help me practice for interviews.
So besides gw, I also continued attending industry conferences and webinars like cses and SSPS, and that was really instrumental because at my work at ACP, where I was the only person tasked with the journal, I didn't really have anyone to touch base with. So the people that I connected with at those industry conferences helped me a lot in learning publishing as a whole.
And then third, it was true, esp that I also learned about the fellowship that they were providing for early career professionals. And so I applied for the 2021, 2022 program year, and I was lucky enough to be selected. That helped me because I was matched with someone like a Beyonce in the field of journal publishing. She was a titan, really in the field of publishing.
I'm not going to name names, but she's really big. Let's keep it at that. And then that also helped me. That experience helped me work in a group to create a poster. Prior to that, I had no idea why posters were such a big deal at conferences. And because of that, now I know why, because it's a lot of work. So I would say those three things going back to school, continuing attending industry conferences, and then applying for that.
SBE early career fellowship. Thank you, Christine. Thank you. Next question. This one's going to go to you, Sarah. So what kind what kind of risks did you identify during your career journey and how did you manage those? Yeah so in my prior role, somewhere along the lines of working and reading and becoming more conversant in scholarly publishing, I found that I was really interested in evolving journals, sales models and the marketplace created by the demands of researchers and librarians and funders.
And I became like a little obsessed with the dynamics of that marketplace and various negotiation failures between library customers and for profit publishers. Like this stuff really interested me, but at the same time, I felt like one of my weaknesses was always in finance and feeling conversant in anything having to do with profit and loss. My portfolio responsibility at my current job had been pretty small and I knew I wanted to go into sort of the business of journals, publishing, and I needed to feel more confident.
That said, I have always been a school person, love going to school, and I was really kind of lucky because I found that my employer was affiliated with Emory university, which provided me the benefit of enrolling in any degree program. I wanted. And it covered about 75, 80% So I went back and I started a working professionals MBA and that was and I'm still I'm on my last semester now starting next week.
But it helped me feel much more confident. Talking about money, talking with different kinds of people gave me a much better idea of what it is to walk into more of a purely business world and that not everybody in there is the same. That was sort of my fear going into an MBA program was that it would be filled with one type of person. Isn't one type of person that. No, that wasn't true at all.
And so since I started my job at UPI, I feel incredibly grounded. When I talk about finance. I feel very grounded when I talk about an acquisition and the benefits it might have for both the society and for AUP. And I'll just say this, I don't think going back to school is for everyone. You'll hear some of us talk about that.
I don't think have to do it. I think it can provide you with a great network, whether it's within publishing or more broadly, but it's not something that you can always do. And I don't think it's required either. But if you have the support and I stress this, if you have support from your employer, I would say. It might be worth your time and energy to just expand your horizons.
Thank you for that. Thank you. So let's. Christine, this question is going to be for you and Ashley. So both of you have had some changes in your career. So can you talk about who initiated the move? How did you look for your next role? How did that come about? Why don't we start with you, Christine, and then we'll go to you, Ashley.
Sure so for me, I definitely initiated the move. So my move from a small Association that published one journal to a bigger Association that publishes 16 journals, basically because I was exhausted, just to be honest with you. And so to this, I would say be curious, always be curious. Take good, calculated risks to the extent that you're comfortable because it's easy to stay at a place that you already know, that you've already mastered.
Right but and the unknown is scary. But and if you're happy and you feel fulfilled at that place, then by all means, stay there. For me, though, I knew I wanted to go to a bigger place that had journal publishing folks who whom I could converse with. So, yeah, cultivate an attitude of curiosity, be flexible, be adaptable, always be open to learning new things, and also be know yourself.
So yeah, make the jump when you feel that you should, but just know yourself basically. Thanks, Christine. Ashley, what's your take on that? I agree with that. I was actually taking a break to be home with my kids and was in grad school full time at GW publishing program. I still had a semester and a little bit more left, so I wasn't actually planning to go back to work just yet.
I was to wait until I finished and graduated. But it happened to be a time when there were a lot of really good opportunities out there. And I saw a couple that I thought, you know, I'm just going to apply to these anyways, even though I'm not quite ready just to see how this goes. And ended up getting a couple of different offers and choosing sage because it was pretty much exactly what I wanted to do.
It's a great job, so it involved a little bit of juggling at first as I finished my degree, but it was worth it. And I think that it's important that even if you're not necessarily ready to start something right this second, keep an eye out on the market, see what's see what's out there. And it just it doesn't hurt to know what else is out there and what's going on.
Good point. Good point. And just to add to that, too, if you are interested in doing something different at your current job and you kind of like that environment, do approach your manager to try a different project and to just try something new.
I'm sure they'd be open to that. So just to kind of complement your answers. Thank you. Thank you both. The next question, Sarah, this will go to you. So the esp, they have a professional skills map and I think Rebecca is going to put that link in the chat. And this map identifies technical and soft skills that we need and that we use all the time in scholarly publishing.
What skills do you call on most in your role and how did you develop those skills? Go ahead, Sarah. Yeah I would say in my role as a journalist publisher, especially one that works with society owned journals, relationship management as the most important skill that you have and being trusted by your partners to be sort of a straight shooter. And I think coming from a society directly has really helped with that.
I remember filling out the professional skills map the first year that I joined esp and I was surprised by just how many of my skills working in a learn society were reliant on relationship cultivation and management, which is essential when you're dealing primarily with volunteers to carry out portions of strategic goals. So I would say that that remains probably my most important day to day skill.
Managing expectations, sometimes exceeding expectations, being trusted and communicative are essential. But I've found that more and more email to strategic planning work that I was part of at my prior role is coming into play, into discussions I have with partners at society owned journals. It's not even that I'm the best strategic planner because I am not. But I'm able to ask bigger questions about how the publications of a society can help meet the broader goals of the organization.
And I can communicate the understanding that revenues from publications are important to funding the mission of the organization as a whole. So I would say sort of relationship management has been the most important problem solving. Anyone that works in journals knows that day to day problem solving is extremely important because something is always coming up. And then I think if you're looking for your next step.
And you're feeling like, I don't know, like I'm in I'm in role and I don't know how to get to role be just like Ashley said, just start looking at jobs like and it will just make you feel comfortable with thinking about yourself in a different role. You don't have to start applying right away. You can just start getting comfortable with, OK, how do I think about myself? What I do day to day and what's transferable to this bulleted?
You know, 12 bullet posts that I see posted online, you'll start to feel like you can do these things. And so I think the professional skills map is one way to reassure yourself that what you're doing now is applicable elsewhere. Thank you. That's a great map. Do do check out. Do check it out.
The link is in the chat. We're going to step back and go a little bit to the beginning now. So thinking how did you break into publishing? I'm going to start this question with Tiffany. Let me, me, myself. So before I began working in publishing, I was employed at a nonprofit organization that was focused on building rural housing.
So I was there for several years, right out of undergrad. It wasn't the job that I wanted at all, but at that time we were in a recession and it was just really hard to secure any kind of job, let alone one in your field. So I knew I wanted to get into publishing. So what I did was I started focusing on building skills that I thought would be attractive, things that I could put on my resume.
So I started taking classes in the evening. I started taking copywriting classes, copy editing, just writing classes, anything that I thought would be helpful on my resume. So I think that's kind of what got me in the door. But what I didn't expect was that some of those skills that I tried to downplay, like the administrative skills experience, the customer service experience, it was really helpful when it came to peer review, because peer review was all about helping the authors, helping the editors.
So that was an unexpected thing for me. I love that you said that because even if you don't have a job in publishing and you want in, you can mind that the tasks that you've done in your current job for those transferable skills. I think one of you mentioned that earlier that can use into publishing. So Thanks for mentioning that, Tiffany. Next, we'll move on to.
So same question, Ashley. How did you break in? So as you were just saying, the transferable skills were a huge piece of it. I worked in T.V and video creation, so the journalism piece, it's easy to see how that connects. But just like Tiffany was saying, there are parts that you don't quite realize are part of what we do day to day in scholarly publishing as well.
It helped to, of course, grad school help, but you can get the same kind of interactions with a mentor or just doing informational interviews to find out what everybody does day to day, wherever it is that you want to be. So that when you're building your resume and deciding what kind of position you want, what you want to emphasize there. So working working at my previous jobs, because they were communication jobs made easier to go into communications at a publisher.
Obviously, something like editorial would take a different skill set. And you'd want to emphasize different things on your resume. But even with editorial, there were parts of what I did that were a good fit in publishing as well. So a lot of people think they don't have experience when in reality they have more than they think they do.
Absolutely Thank you, Ashley. Christine, how did you break in? Yeah, so? Well, my undergraduate degree was in journalism and international studies, so I learned to write news articles how to copy edit using APA style. But it wasn't until I worked at my previous job wherein I really learned the journal publishing business.
I think the editor in chief there hired me because they needed someone who knew am style, who someone who knew how to copy edit. And so I think that was my that was one of the major reasons why they hired me. So I wouldn't dismiss luck as well. And being at the right place at the right time, I would suggest if you wanted to if you want to break into journal publishing, learn a style, a style guide, whether it be Chicago style or am style.
Several of my colleagues at ACM started as copy editors, and that's how they got a bird's eye view of the publishing process, because that's how they were able to touch the manuscripts and shepherd it from submission to publication. So Yeah. Thank you for that. And Sarah. Just just so that it's on the recording, there's a chat.
Sarah so you mentioned, I know a few people who shifted from editorial to of journals from customer service and author support. So there are lots of ways in. So, yeah, a lot of points of entry. Thank you for mentioning that. So this next question, it's for those who've transitioned to different areas of publishing. So the question is, what did you and this is going to be for Tiffany, we'll start off with you on this one.
What were some of the unexpected challenges and benefits when you transitioned into different roles within publishing? So my transition was I moved from peer review to kind of the Digital Publishing side of my department. So honestly, I didn't really experience any challenges because I was already kind of doing duties that was pushing me in that direction.
And I think it speaks to what Josephine mentioned earlier about when you have an interest, you know, just reach out to your manager, let them know what you're interested in. So I kind of did a little bit of that and it kind of just naturally started shifting me in that direction. So I didn't really have any challenges, but some of the benefits were that I was starting to see, kind of like the whole picture. So I had already I was working in peer review and I've seen the manuscript from pre submission to submission to revisions to acceptance.
Now I'm seeing the paper at it's published state and we're and I'm helping to strategize how we're going to market that paper or how we're going to give that paper more exposure or how we're going to help the authors reach their potential with their research. So that was a benefit and it's really nice to kind of see that full picture and kind of understand completely what's going on from beginning to end.
Not for sure for sure. That helped you kind of do your job now really. Well, Thank you. Thank you for that. Sarah, over to you. So benefits, challenges when you transition? Go ahead. Yeah, I would say the biggest challenge coming from a 16 person staff at a nonprofit learned society to AUP was just the number of systems to navigate and the number of people that you might have to snake your way through in order to find an answer or even to identify the next step of a question that you need an answer in order to solve a bigger problem.
So my first few months were just figuring out how systems talk to each other, why I needed to be on x and y of x told me this many things that was really difficult. I would say that there are always problems to solve in the role that I'm in now. And as the journalist, business becomes more complex with relations among funders, researchers, librarians, publishers, editors, journal owners, figuring out the right approach to any single problem can take time and probably more input from more people than you think.
So allowing yourself a little bit more time to get things done. I would say that from that there's been an unexpected benefit in that my role is a little bit of being a hub and a hub and spoke arrangement. So for editors and society contacts, I'm a hub for questions, which means I have to spoke out and find answers. So I'm in this role in editorial.
I learn a lot more about production, about digital content, down streaming, about funders and funder policy than I thought would be the case. So there's a lot of opportunity to learn. And when you move into a larger company as well, there's the opportunity to shift around a little bit more internally. So you're able to learn a lot more about the publishing world.
I have a lot of colleagues who came from either higher Ed or books and came into journals publishing. So there's that way in and way out when you're able to kind of navigate a larger pool. Thank you. Thank you. So the next question, actually, this one will be for you. You talked about moving into a people manager role.
So this one, what did you wish you knew before making that move? And what resources do you use daily in your role as people manager in this? This role in particular? Something that I wish I had a little bit more knowledge of in advance was how to manage an international team. I have two reports that are in the UK and two that are here in the Uc and learning about some of the differences in-laws and regulations.
As far as what's different for my employees there versus here, that was an experience, but it was worthwhile because now I feel a lot more comfortable understanding the requirements there. And I know what to expect. That wasn't something that I had done in previous management roles, so learning about that was really helpful. I think also that as far as resources go, in addition to just keeping in touch via Teams and any other chat opportunity that we have and doing 1 to 1 each week, something that I like to do is talk with them about their career paths and something that sage has is very clear, very clear career path from one position to the next, which I think is a great thing to have as an employee, because you feel like you have some control over your career progression and what kind of milestones and skills you need before you can go there.
So I do use that often when talking with them about where they want to go in their jobs. And sage also has education courses that are fantastic. And so those are something that I'm constantly recommending them to my reports, but also taking them myself. They are separated out by management courses, basic skills. There are just lifestyle. What is like meditation?
So I think anywhere that you go that has something like that you can take advantage of is incredibly helpful. I love that. Thanks thanks, Ashley. We've got some questions in the chat. So I'm going to I'm going to go to those and panelists. I'll if you feel your well positioned to answer those, please go ahead. I'm going to move it to my other monitor here.
So this one is from Maria. Thanks, Maria, for your question. Have you ever experienced not being able to think what you would like to do next? If so, how did you get through it? So when you're in that, that phase wants to take. That's a good question. Who wants to take that one?
Yeah go ahead, Sarah. Yeah, I went through so many stages. And many of them were grief oriented when it came to trying to figure out my next move. I think it probably took me. 2 to three years of thinking that I wanted to move to actually moving. And partly that was fear based because I was still in the first I would call professional job that I had had.
I had moved positions internally, but I was still at the same organization and I felt like I was extremely niche and didn't have any skills to move forward. So I, you know, I think a lot of folks here mentioned doing lots of various kinds of professional development, I think is somewhat helpful. So getting involved with the professional society of the field that you think you're interested in and really immersing yourself as much as you can.
And the literature and the conversation, you know, I thought I wanted to go into like books commissioning and editing, and I realized over time, like, that's not really where my passion or interests lie so much like I'm much more interested in, in journals, publishing. So that took some time to think about. But I think if you feel stuck, just any movement is as good. So if it means joining a society, if it means going back to school, which again, I don't think have to do, but if that's meaningful to you, you can do that.
But any sort of movement is going to help you unstuck yourself. Mm-hmm So Yeah. So any movement doesn't have to be a major job shift, but any involvement, any, any change at all. Yeah, that's good advice. Thanks, Sarah. The next question from John. Hey, John.
John Warren. He's the director at the George Washington University publishing program. It's great to see you all. Question as you know, a masters in publishing is not a requirement to work in publishing. What do you see as the value of the NPS or the master's and Professional Studies and publishing degree at GW or any other publishing program?
So for those of you on the panel, I think three of you have gone through the program. If you want to talk about that a little bit. Talk a little bit about that. Yeah for me, one of the main benefits of it was that even though I'd worked in marketing and communications before, the program gave me a really solid foundation to understand the editorial side.
And that is something that has given me new opportunities within my current role, because I do understand that piece of the puzzle a little bit better than most other people coming in from marketing would. There's also the networking opportunities, obviously, that were really wonderful and the fact that it kind of bridged a little bit of a gap for me from coming back to work after being home and then going into this field.
But I'd also add that it's not necessarily just this degree that's helpful. There's, as I was saying, a lot of different professional development that you can do that is useful. One of my reports is actually in the midst of getting her MBA and she's focused on HR. So in her role with us, we've developed a place for her within the team where she can kind of help the rest of our team develop their skills.
So she's using that professional that professional degree within her role in marketing, even though that's not necessarily what it is for. So there's a lot of ways that you can apply things from various graduate programs. For sure. For sure. Thanks for that, Ashley. Anyone else want to add to that?
I would echo a lot of the things that Ashley mentioned. For me, that publishing degree exposed me to the foundational aspects of publishing. It pushed me to take courses that I would normally avoid, like anything that involved math or numbers. So I took the finance and accounting class and now I can read a profit and loss statement.
It's not as scary as I imagined it to be. I also took a production management class. That was a hard class. It was tough because it made the professor ask us to really scrutinize a product, a published product from cover to cover. And I felt like I never really appreciated a magazine as much as, you know, since I attended that class.
So one is just being exposed to all the other sites of publishing that for me I would normally avoid. And second is also the networking aspect of it. Getting to meet a lot of professors and classmates who are knee deep in the publishing industry was instrumental. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Thanks, Christine.
Anyone else want to add to that? We've got a few more questions left. Hello So let's hit the next one. Thanks thanks, John, for that question. Kevin, we're up to your question next. This 1 May be for you, Sarah, but open to the other panelists as well. How did you how do you learn about the trends in various scientific scholarly fields in order to help advise societies or editors without having an academic degree in the scientific field the journals are in?
Man, that's a good question. Thanks, cami. Sarah, you want to start us off and other panelists, feel free to jump in. That is a good question. And what I have to always remind myself is that it is my job to advise societies about publishing, and it is the society and editors job to advise me about the field and the topics.
So I look to them for their expertise and they look to me for my expertise, which is helping maintain the stability of the journal over time. So in some cases, for instance, I'm at the American Sociological Association Conference right now. So for a society, for an organization like that, it's easy enough for me to walk into some sessions and get a sense of what's hot in the field medical that that would be not being the case.
Right that's a little bit above where I can go. But what I say there's lots of tools at our disposal in order to help us understand what's happening in the field. So the Web of Science dimensions, those are two different kinds of applications you can use to see what are happening in trends and keywords. If you've got a journal that's not attracting the kind of authors that it likes, you can talk to the editor about the scope of the journal.
You can see what's really getting the highest impact in the past couple of years that maybe this journal isn't participating in or isn't doing conference calls for papers for. So you don't have to be an expert. You just need to know where to look and to bring information to the people who are experts and say, what can we learn about this together?
Yeah now. Thank you for that. Kristine Ashley, Tiffany. But I really like your focus on you're the publishing person and you're trusting them in their lane for content. Thank you for that. Christine, Ashley, Tiffany, do you want to add to that? No OK.
And just as a little sidebar, you'll notice everybody that the panelists and me, we'll be adding our LinkedIn information to the chat. So feel free to just connect with us on LinkedIn and we'll be happy to share more information. We've got more questions. So this is from an anonymous entity. So Thanks for your question. How to initiate.
So how do you initiate a discussion about a job switch with your current manager, especially if you're willing to move within that same organization into a different team? How was it perceived by the manager, especially if you want to move for career growth? That's that's a good question. Yeah Tiffany. Yeah, I can speak to that because I've done it twice within the same department.
And honestly, I was just honest with my supervisor and I've been really lucky to have had several supervisors that have been very supportive, especially with professional development and career goals. So I just basically went to them and said, hey, I'm kind of interested in this. You know, I'm thinking about pursuing it and just we just have that conversation. I don't think there's any harm in just letting your manager know where your head is at.
And if you feel like this might be a good fit for you, then then that's that. Yeah, I agree. Being, being honest about where you want to go. So Yeah. Has always worked for me as well. So Thanks for that. Anyone want to add to that? That's a great question.
I'll ask that, of course. Consider your supervisor and their personality and how you would expect them to react before anything. But if they're a good manager, they're going to want to help you develop and they'll look for ways to get you into the position that you want to be in, even if that means a different department or otherwise. There may also be routes to build that skill that you're looking to move forward within your current role.
So that's another way to get more prepared. While also keeping them involved in your development. So yeah, but don't be afraid to talk to them about it because chances are they're going to want to they're going to want to be there for you. Yeah Yeah. Thank you. Now the next question oc also from anonymous. So I currently work for a scholarly publisher based on a University that does not have a master's and publishing program.
Do you have any suggestions for other master's degrees that would be valuable, valuable to someone in scholarly publishing? that's a tough one. Anyone from the group want to actually go ahead. What are your thoughts on that? I think it depends on what kind of position you want to be in.
At at a publisher. I mean, if you want to be in finance, get a degree in that. If you want to if you want to work on a specific type of journal. Having a PhD is useful when you get up to the highest levels. But yeah, I think that that entirely depends on what kind of position you're looking for. Yeah and there's some comments in the chat. So, John, Thanks.
So there's an NBA idea and that goes to you, Sarah. You did that as well. Communications, public policy, that may be some different avenues. Sarah, do you want to add? Yeah, I would just I would echo what Ashley said. It really does depend on where you want to go. So I would maybe think about that first. And you will anything that requires you dealing with contracts or finances or having to deal with, you know, income, even if you're not directly in finance, but having to look over our portfolio.
I think an MBA could be extremely helpful because it kind of covers the wide range. So from finance over to leadership and relationship management, I think communications make sense. Yeah and depending where you want to be at a publisher, public policy can also be helpful, like John said. Yeah Yeah. Thank you. Also comment.
Alison, Thanks for your comment here in the chat. You have a master's degree. It's been helpful. You understand the academic side as well as the inner workings of your employer as a society, not for profit. Thank you. And John, your degree in international management, of course, involved in finance, public policy language.
Thank you. Our last question, I believe here in the Q&A section from Rowan. Thanks for that question. What advice would you give to an early career copy editor trying to network on linkedin? Who wants to start us off on that one?
I guess I would start us. Maybe we could decide on who you. What companies you want to follow, I guess. Start with that and don't be afraid to comment on other people's posts and network and reach out. I will say one thing in terms of reaching out to people on LinkedIn, always, always include a personal note. Don't assume someone's going to want to connect with you. Always say, look, either I saw you all on a webinar or I know I heard your talk right here, like some kind of link that will make them want to say yes.
Just a blanket. Please connect. Yeah, that that usually I don't like that. That doesn't really work. Yeah and there's a suggestion here. Yeah I enjoyed seeing your panel today. Thanks for that suggestion, John, in the chat. So that's how I would kind of think about answering that question.
Panelists I'm not sure if you have anything else to add to that. I mean, I think if you've done some copyediting for folks who would be willing to put out a testimonial, I think having that can be really useful. I think if you do freelance copy editing and you'd like to move internally, I think that's harder these days, but be. Make sure that you're maybe working with authors who are commissioned with presses that you are interested in because that again, like you just want to see what are my ways in and sometimes that's through authors you've developed a really trusting relationship with and they can recommend you to their peers, but also more broadly.
And you've got a real good base of support when you're looking for your next role. Yeah, and I think that's a nice segue into our next question in the chat. Have any of you freelanced as copy editors, even as a side hustle, and do you have any advice for doing so? So I like six degrees of separation, so to speak, of speaking to someone who knows someone.
And getting a gig that way. I've not freelanced as a copy editor, but I think my number one bit of advice is to make sure you're priced at what you're worth. I think too often copy editors underpriced themselves, and that's bad for you personally, but also for the world of copy editors. So I would say, you know, that's hard work. You're the person who's probably going to have like other than the author, the most eyes and deepest, deepest knowledge about a manuscript.
And you should be paid for that work. Yes I agree, definitely. I've never freelanced as a copy editor myself, but I would suggest looking at CSC and SBS website, they have resources there for freelancers that you could check out and network with other freelance copy editors. Yep Thank you both.
Ashley I freelanced and did copy editing and proposal writing during my maternity leave, and I don't have a lot of advice for networking because I did it through my previous employer. But with that I would say, make sure you keep good relationships, don't burn any bridges, and continue staying in touch with people that you've worked with before. Because a lot of times those are the first people that will give you some work to do.
And it did it did help during the time when I was out to keep something on my resume and to keep moving forward in my career. And it just kind of kept me sharp and aware of what was going on in the industry. Good advice. Thank you all. All right.
I think that is it for the questions in the Q&A. Rebecca, Thanks for that. So Rebecca added another wonderful resource in the chat, the Editorial Freelancers Association. So please check them out and check out their space on Twitter as well. Great, great resource. So panelists should do any final word for the attendees piece of advice.
Any anything final you want to leave us with. No yes, sir. I would just say I have found publishing as a field to be very friendly and very open, and everyone is willing to take a meeting to chat with you about their career, how they got there, what they're thinking they want to do next. And so I would suggest don't be afraid to reach out to any one of us or anyone who, like I said, who you really admire in their role because they will talk to you.
And chances are like if there's a job opening and you need, you know, just an extra push to get perhaps an interview, that person can help you. So that would be probably my one bit of advice is that this is a friendly field. So take advantage of that. Yes yes. 100% all right. Well, Rebecca, I think we're done as a group of panelists here.
Thank you. I'll pass it over to you. Great thanks, Josephine, and Thank you, everyone for participating in today's presentation. And Thank you, of course, to our panel for this great, engaging discussion. So evaluation request will be sent by email and we would encourage our attendees to provide feedback to help us shape future programming.
So please visit the cesp website for information on upcoming programs. Our new direction seminar is September RA21 two 20 second in Washington, DC and online. The deadline for early bird registration is August 19, so this discussion was recorded, and I'll registrants will receive a link when posted on sp website. This concludes our session today. Thank you, everybody.
Thank you. Thank you, panelists. A lot of fun. Thank you. Bye Thank you, Jose. Great job.
Form Title Download
Transcript
Form Title Bookmark
Entire Media
Segment(s)
Custom Clip
Start At:
End At:
Form Title Share
Entire Media
Segment(s)
Custom Clip
Start At:
End At:
Form Title Accessibility and Keyboard Shortcuts
The cadmore media player is a professional video and audio player experience designed to deliver media as well as relevant transcript, segmentation, and metadata. On the screen is a traditional html video player with buttons such as play, pause, forward, captioning, language and play speed selection and more. Adjacent to the video player are generally tabs, one of which shows a scrolling transcript of the video and the other shows any segmentation of the media, sometimes referred to as chapters. At the top of the video is a menu bar containing an Explore button and Tools button. The Explore button allows you to dig deeper into the video by opening up an explore dialog which contains tabs for a visual navigation of the video using thumbnails, an about tab which contains rich metadata about the media, a segments tab which contains further information about the video, and a related tab which contains links to other media related to this media. The tools button opens a menu with options for sharing the media on social media, creating bookmarking links, creating embed codes for your website, generating citations, and more.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts only work while you are in forms mode. By entering forms mode, you will be able to quickly access portions of the media player with single key commands.
Spacebar: Play/Pause Toggle
I: Info Menu,
O: Tools Menu
T: Transcript Tab,
S: Segments Tab
F: Forward 15,
R: Rewind 15
L: Languages,
P: Playspeed
M: Mute Toggle,
V: Volume Bar
N: Video Only Toggle,
B: Full Screen Toggle
C: Captions Toggle
Escape: Closes dialogs and menus / Exits Player
Z: Next Transcript Chapter
X: Previous Transcript Chapter
Q: Next Transcript Paragraph
W: Previous Transcript Paragraph
Entire Media
Segment(s)
Custom Clip
Start At:
End At:
Embed Size
-
You Size - Responsive
-
We Size - Responsive
-
Picture Overlay Popup
-
400 x 225
-
512 x 288
-
400 x 700
-
768 x 1024
-
1024 x 512
-
1280 x 608
Form Title Cite
No citation provided.
Info
Segments
Related
Thumbnails
Exit Clip Mode
You have requested to see a portion of the video outside of the clip.
Click OK to switch to the full video or click if you would like to stay inside the clip. You can always go back to the clip with Tools and Clip Mode