Mentorship that Inspires: Personal Stories from the ALPSP Mentorship Programme

Liz Malnar, Clelia Petracca and Martina Sollai, mentees on the 2024 ALPSP Mentorship Scheme

Martina

The ALPSP Mentorship Scheme came along at the right time for me. At this career stage, I wanted to dedicate more time to strengthening my network, comparing experiences with seasoned professionals, reflecting on my choices, and gaining external insights into my plans.

I value opportunities to understand publishing from different perspectives, thus in my application, I tried to convey how my interests were diverse. I admit that somehow, I was a bit concerned about finding a match who could relate to this – other careers often look linear from the outside, while mine has been touching on several sides of the industry so far.

With this premise, the experience in the scheme was even more rewarding because I found a great match of views and approaches in my mentor: an expert, caring professional who loves mentoring early career colleagues and enjoys exploring the industry, just like me.

Since our first meeting, I felt energized by our exchanges: the shared process of setting up goals and reviewing them made me feel empowered to follow up and act.

I have a great appreciation for the generosity shown by my mentor in introducing me to other professionals in the industry, which led to interesting and inspiring opportunities like becoming part of one of ALPSP Special Interest Groups.

One sentence my mentor told me sums up very well the sense of the ALPSP mentorship experience for me: this is a space for you to take control over things you would like to do for your own professional development.

Liz

I joined the ALPSP mentorship program because I was relatively new to the world of publishing, a field that is both dynamic and ever-evolving. I was eager to expand my professional network and gain a deeper understanding of current industry trends. The goal was to equip myself with the knowledge and insights needed to grow and progress in my career effectively.

At first, I was uncertain about what to expect and felt a little intimidated, but those concerns quickly faded after our initial meeting. My mentor’s passion and expertise were immediately apparent, creating an environment that put me at ease. We developed a strong working relationship through a structured yet flexible approach that was tailored to my specific needs. Each session offered practical advice and insightful feedback, making the experience both engaging and rewarding.

The focus wasn't on receiving direct answers; instead, I was encouraged to independently find solutions, fostering a proactive mindset and the courage to act on my own. This empowering approach now allows me to confidently tackle challenges and see them as opportunities for growth.

The tasks assigned were deliberately outside my comfort zone, designed to push me into new experiences and activities not typically part of my daily routine. This strategy effectively highlighted areas where I needed further development while also affirming the strengths I already possessed.

Overall, this mentorship experience significantly broadened my perspective on the publishing industry and instilled a newfound confidence in my abilities. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to learn from a seasoned professional and am excited to continue applying these insights as I advance in my career.

 

Clelia

I came across the ALPSP Mentorship Scheme by chance and, when I decided to apply, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I was in that odd stage of my career where I did not have an immediate goal to reach nor a clear understanding of my next move. Curiosity prompted me, and I approached this scheme as an opportunity to learn more about the publishing industry and expand my network beyond my usual circle.

Filling out the application was an enriching experience itself. It forced me to think of the professional I want to become and how to develop new skills spendable outside my role. Being a better editor and leader is a (never ending) journey -an aspiration rather than a measurable goal-, and I was a bit worried about setting unrealistic expectations before meeting with my mentor.

Starting the programme shucked any doubt and my mentor was extremely supportive from the very first day. We met monthly and talked about all things publishing: our jobs and the day-to-day challenges, our career journeys and the inspiring people we met along the way, how the industry has changed over the years (from dress code to hybrid work and DEI). To me, it never felt like a mentor-mentee relationship: we were peers exchanging ideas and empowering each other in ways we did not expect.

This mentorship scheme is a gift to yourself: a wonderful opportunity to reclaim the time and mind space to focus on what really matters to you.

 

About the ALPSP International Mentorship Scheme

The scheme aims to connect colleagues across the publishing industry and provide a wider network of expertise and skills to help foster development and progression. Open to ALPSP members (as mentees and mentors) as well as non-members (mentors only), the scheme was the winner of a ‘Most Impactful Mentoring Award’ in 2024. For more information and to register visit our website.

The ALPSP International Mentorship scheme is sponsored by Publishers' Licensing Services.

 

About the Authors

Liz Malnar, Senior Journal Specialist, Frontiers

Liz Malnar is a Senior Journal Specialist at Frontiers, serving as the primary liaison for authors, editors, and reviewers. She collaborates with them to develop impactful article collections and ensure successful outcomes at every stage of the editorial process.

 

Clelia Petracca, Commissioning Editor, Palgrave Macmillan

Clelia Petracca is Commissioning Editor in Creativity Studies and Disability Studies at Palgrave Macmillan. At Springer Nature she also co-chairs the ‘SDG 5 Working Group: Gender Equality’, a company-wide initiative to support Springer Nature’s goal of becoming the SDG publisher of choice with internal and external initiatives and partnerships.

 

Martina Sollai, Account Development Specialist, Frontiers

Originally a researcher in marine microbiology and paleoclimate studies, Martina Sollai moved to academic publishing in 2018, working in content commissioning at Frontiers. After a stint in project management for marine conservation, Martina returned to Frontiers in 2022, now focusing on institutional partnerships in the EMEA region.

Reflections on the ALPSP International Mentorship Scheme

Anna Hubbard, mentee on the 2024 ALPSP Mentorship Scheme

Since beginning my journey into scholarly publishing in 2022, I have continuously sought to learn more about the industry’s vast scope and hone my professional skills. So, when I heard about the ALPSP International Mentorship Scheme, it felt like an incredible opportunity to obtain new insights from other people’s career experiences.

The mentorship scheme commenced with a well-considered matching process, which I found to be particularly impressive. Before being matched, I was encouraged to share what I wanted to achieve from the programme by filling out a form with my background and interests so that I could be paired with a suitable mentor to match my goals.

Soon after, I was introduced to my new mentor, Emma. Emma has a wealth of professional management experience in STM and society publishing and shares similar interests to me regarding Open Access initiatives. What I found particularly exciting about our match was that while some aspects of our experiences overlapped, some also differed — thus creating numerous opportunities for me to expand my understanding of the profession as a whole.

Emma and I set clear goals for our mentoring sessions, including covering ongoing industry trends, developing strategies for overcoming common editorial challenges, and considering long-term career growth. We met regularly throughout the year, with each meeting covering a chosen agenda of topics we wanted to mutually discuss. Our conversations on AI and open research were particularly fascinating and have enabled me to better understand the industry’s varied responses as well as consider future trajectories.

Emma also challenged me to push myself out of my comfort zone. The belief she had in my abilities often exceeded my own, encouraging me to strive for my full potential in the professional sphere. Her guidance also helped me implement actionable goals to advance my career aspirations and develop confidence while transitioning between job roles.

The wider mentoring team also played an active role throughout the mentoring scheme, hosting numerous meetings that provided an excellent opportunity to connect with other mentees and grow my professional network internationally. The programme coordinators were also wonderfully proactive in giving mentees advice on navigating mentoring relationships, enabling me to benefit fully from the scheme. This additional support was especially useful for me as I had not been part of a mentoring initiative before.

The ALPSP International Mentoring Scheme provided me with the space to grow my professional self actively, receive feedback, and expand my understanding of the publishing industry. I am incredibly grateful for the positive experience!

About the ALPSP International Mentorship Scheme

The scheme aims to connect colleagues across the publishing industry and provide a wider network of expertise and skills to help foster development and progression. Open to ALPSP members (as mentees and mentors) as well as non-members (mentors only), the scheme was the winner of a ‘Most Impactful Mentoring Award’ in 2024. For more information and to register visit our website.


The ALPSP International Mentorship scheme is sponsored by Publishers' Licensing Services.

About the Author

Anna Hubbard is an Editorial Assistant at Cambridge University Press & Assessment. She is responsible for organising key content workflows and provides operational and administrative support within the psychology books team. Anna began working in scholarly publishing in 2022 as an Editorial Coordinator at the European Consortium for Political Research.

Stepping out of the comfort zone to help others in publishing by Lorna Berrett, Fiona Carr & Louise Marie Hutton

Lorna Berrett, Fiona Carr and Louise Marie Hutton, mentors on the 2024 ALPSP Mentorship Scheme

For many mentors in the ALPSP International Mentorship Scheme this year, it was their first time taking part. However, our mentor cohort is varied in levels of professional experience. Taking part in the mentorship scheme is not just about what you can do for your mentee, but also what you can gain from them. Whether you’re still early in your career or are well-established, the mentorship scheme can help you meet new people, expand your networks, and gain fresh insight into a familiar industry with the support of the ALPSP behind you.

Expanding horizons by Louise Marie Hutton

Since I began my publishing career in 2019, I feel very lucky to have worked with some incredibly thoughtful and kind colleagues who mentored me across various aspects of my career. Due to their impact, I decided to join the ALPSP Mentorship Scheme as a mentor, rather than a mentee. Despite my worries that my lack of managerial or professional mentoring experience would be a hindrance, I wanted to offer constructive advice or even just a sympathetic ear to a fellow publishing professional. The benefits to joining the award-winning ALPSP mentorship scheme are plentiful, but for me personally, I relished the opportunity to work with someone outside my usual networks.

Other than ALPSP, I don’t belong to any other professional organisations or networks where my connections stretch beyond my immediate colleagues. The benefit of networking through the ALPSP Mentorship Scheme is that not only was I paired with someone in a different area of publishing – journals vs books – my mentee worked for a society in a different subject area. Throughout the course of our mentorship, it was fascinating to hear about how different our roles could be despite working in the same industry. I established a very easy rapport with my mentee; it felt like a really mutually beneficial relationship where it seemed we both wanted to connect with someone outside of our daily ‘work bubble’.

Beyond the relationship with my mentee, I really enjoyed the connections made with other mentors. I’ve been fortunate to be part of a super inspiring group of mentors and feel my horizons have been expanded even further by my inclusion in the mentorship programme.

Beating imposter syndrome by Lorna Berrett

I signed up for the ALPSP mentoring program because I wanted to get more involved in the publishing community beyond my own company and get some new perspectives. However, even with many years in the industry, I still wondered if I had what it took to be a mentor. Classic imposter syndrome!

My assigned mentee was from a different function within publishing and was growing in their career. What did I have that could support this bright and dedicated individual, I thought? But I recalled when I moved from managing people doing a job I had done, to managing people who did something else, it meant I learned new things and so did they. This was mirrored in my mentoring experience.

Although my mentee and I have different jobs, I realised that the experience I had in managing teams, managing upwards and exposure to business strategy was useful and transferrable. Discussing specific scenarios also helped me reflect on what I’d done in the past, what I’d learned, and how I might deal with those issues again in the future. Sharing experiences of both what can work and what can go wrong is always useful and even just talking them through can be helpful.

The opportunity to see another point of view, in depth, from a different department was incredibly valuable to me. Hearing their perspective on publishing issues and learning about the demands and priorities of another role gave me some new insights. I probably appreciate some of my colleagues and their challenges a little better as a result!

The Mentorloop platform and the practical focus on goals and real-world issues provided a great structure. This framework was especially helpful at the start to set goals and expectations, to reflect, and to build in transparency and trust. This helped us create a safe space for both mentor and mentee to ask questions and test out solutions to the various issues that we discussed. It was a positive experience for us both that we plan to continue.   

New perspectives from an old hat! by Fiona Carr

I first joined the world of scholarly publishing quite unwittingly at the age of 21 when I just needed a job right out of university to pay the bills. That first job was a Permissions Assistant at Elsevier, back when rights departments churned through piles and piles of written requests that arrive by post (or fax!) to reproduce content from books and journals. Fast forward to now some 29 years later and I’m very fortunate to have worked for some incredible companies, have met and built up relationships with lots of great colleagues and peers across the industry.

So, how could I possibly benefit from joining the ALPSP Mentoring Scheme now? Well, I actually benefited from this experience immensely and it only served to remind me how invaluable such an opportunity to take part as a mentee right back when I started would have been very helpful! As a mentor in this year’s program, I really enjoyed working with and getting to know both of my mentees. It was clear that both were at very different stages in their careers and had diverse perspectives and goals, but I enjoyed sharing my experiences and (I hope) giving some guidance and useful tips and tricks that will help them as they progress. While not continuing with the program in any formal capacity, I plan to keep in touch with both mentees informally from time to time.

It also illustrated what an immense challenge it is to come into this industry now. Not only is the pace of change within the industry moving at an exponential rate – AI, research integrity, open access to name but a few challenges. But anyone coming into this industry now is tasked with the added challenge of what is predominantly a home-working culture. Gone (on the most part) are the impromptu chats around the photocopier, in the kitchen while making a brew and just bumping into each other in the corridor! We now have the daily challenges of working remotely, endless Zoom and Teams calls. Establishing yourself and getting to know colleagues and peers in this industry is even more difficult now than it ever was. That the ALPSP Mentoring Scheme can play a part in helping to overcome these additional challenges will prove to be one of its biggest strengths.  

Testimonial quotes:

Louise Marie:

“It was such a joy to be a part of the ALPSP Mentorship Scheme as a mentor. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to connect with other industry professionals and it really helped to remind me that we all learn from each other, regardless of whether you’re a mentor or a mentee. I enjoyed collaborating alongside some very inspirational mentors and really value the connections made with my mentee, too.”

Lorna Berrett:

“It was a great experience to get outside the “four walls” of one company and get the opportunity to talk about the challenges and opportunities we face across publishing. I’ve learned from my mentee’s experience, reflected on my own, and built my knowledge and understanding of our business. I’ve already recommended to colleagues to sign up for 2025.”

Fiona Carr’s mentee:

“The ALPSP mentorship program was incredibly valuable for my career progression. It provided an opportunity to set goals collaboratively, and I often left sessions with a new lease of motivation to focus on my career development and clarify what I seek in a role. My mentor offered invaluable advice during challenging conversations in my own organisation and shared practical tips specific to my current role that I still use today.”

 

About the ALPSP International Mentorship Scheme

The scheme aims to connect colleagues across the publishing industry and provide a wider network of expertise and skills to help foster development and progression. Open to ALPSP members (as mentees and mentors) as well as non-members (mentors only), the scheme was the winner of a ‘Most Impactful Mentoring Award’ in 2024. For more information and to register visit our website.

The ALPSP International Mentorship scheme is sponsored by Publishers' Licensing Services.

 

About the Authors:

Lorna Berrett, Director of Marketing, Partner Acquisition & Retention, Taylor & Francis

Lorna leads the Partnerships Marketing team at Taylor & Francis working  to attract and engage publishing partners and editors. Lorna has 30+ years of experience in academic publishing at T&F, Wiley and Blackwell working across digital product management, marketing and communications.

 

Fiona Carr, Sales Director – Ringgold, Copyright Clearance Center

Fiona is responsible for global sales and account management of Ringgold Solutions. With 29 years’ experience in scholarly publishing, Fiona’s background is in rights, licensing, sales and business development having worked at Elsevier, Oxford University Press and OCLC among others.

 

Louise Marie Hutton, Commissioning Editor (Books), John Wiley & Sons

Louise Marie is responsible for commissioning book content in Dermatology, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Paediatrics, Medical Biosciences and other areas within Clinical Medicine. Louise Marie is also a member of Wiley’s Women of Wiley group, designed to elevate and amplify the voices of our colleague community, deliver impactful events and programs, and engender a more connected workforce.

 

Your diversity is our strength: encouraging first-time mentors to make a difference by Miranda Ashby-Wood, Christina Emery & Marios Karouzos

Miranda Ashby-Wood, Christina Emery & Marios Karouzos, mentors on the 2024 ALPSP Mentorship Scheme

The close of 2024 saw the official wrap up of the 2024 ALPSP Mentorship Scheme that attracted more than 119 mentees from at least 18 different countries, mentored by 103 mentors over the course of eight months, from May to December 2024. The programme provided mentees with a wide network of expertise and skills to help foster their skill development and career progression. It also encouraged collaborative learning between mentors and mentees, both benefitting from the shared dialogue and experience.

Let us take stock of 2024’s mentor/mentee cohort. Most mentees self-identified as female (80%). While the same was true for mentors, the gender ratio was slightly less skewed (75% female) - you can see the full distribution below. Under the assumption that mentors are likelier to be more senior in their careers than mentees, this difference illustrates the well-known leaky pipeline effect, where women are less represented in more senior roles.

In terms of regional diversity, perhaps unsurprisingly, most mentors and mentees were based in Europe and the UK, reflecting the ALPSP membership. Interestingly, while the geographic distributions of mentors and mentees broadly matched, we note a clear dearth of mentor representation from the Asia Pacific region, which includes the Indian sub-continent.

So, what do these numbers tell us? We are not as diverse as we would like, especially lacking in male representation – something which we hope will improve for the 2025 scheme. The numbers may also imply that certain groups of people within our industry may not feel as empowered (or welcomed) to step forward as role models and mentors. What can we do about it? This and other similar mentoring programmes are great tools to increase skills and senior leadership capacity across the industry with mentees of today becoming the mentors of tomorrow.

This blog post also aims to dispel some myths about what a mentor can look like and seeks to empower those of you considering taking up the mentor mantle in the 2025 iteration of ALPSP mentorship scheme.

What does a mentor look like?

Many people may immediately generate an image of a very senior professional – perhaps a senior manager or head of department, or even a CEO – when asked to visualise a mentor, but this is a common misconception.

Anyone can be a mentor, and in fact having a range of individuals at different stages of their careers can benefit a programme such as this. It isn’t necessarily a senior individual mentoring a more junior individual; you could mentor someone at the same career level as you or even someone more senior. One example of how this could work is the scenario where you are perhaps at an earlier stage in your career, but you may have experience in a particular project or area that someone more senior is new to, or is looking to move into. Another scenario is where an early career individual may provide a different perspective to a common problem that is complementary, thereby providing new insights and diversifying established views.

Each mentor-mentee relationship is different, and every individual will have different goals. The aim of the ALPSP Mentorship Scheme is to pair individuals together to ensure both meet their goals. If you have been considering signing up but don’t feel experienced enough or are concerned you don’t have enough knowledge, fear not. We can guarantee there is a mentee out there who would love to learn from your experience and would really value your insight!

Embrace the leap: first-time mentorship matters

First-time mentors often underestimate the impact they can have. Some new mentors expressed an initial hesitancy to participate, fearing that they might not know enough to help their mentee. However, after completing the programme, they shared positive feedback with ALPSP that everything worked well and that they felt their contributions were worthwhile.

Tips for first timers

·        The mentee sets their own goals and meeting agendas, so just by having regular meetings you can guide them through their goals which helps them find motivation and be accountable.

·        You’re not expected to know everything, but you may be able to help your mentee help themselves. You could share useful links, provide them with training resources, or connect them to others who may be able to help.

·        Just by providing another perspective or asking provocative questions, you can challenge your mentee to see things in another light and consider other routes or solutions.

·        There is support available to guide you through the process. The Mentorloop platform has many useful resources on being a mentor, and there is a group chat where mentors can support each other. This adds a real community feel to the programme, and some mentors utilise the chat to ask others for advice or to meet at conferences.

·        In addition, the ALPSP team holds check in sessions at the beginning, during and at the end of the programme to help prepare you.

It’s time to take action

So, apart from helping others, why should you sign up? Being a mentor is extremely rewarding, with benefits including personal growth, increased confidence, learning from your mentee, and expanding your network.

To summarise, the ALPSP mentoring programme needs you! We need diverse perspectives from all regions, genders, backgrounds and levels of seniority, so consider signing up today. To learn more about the benefits of participating, we will be releasing a second blog post focusing on the advantages for mentors.

Testimonial quotes:

Miranda:

“Being part of the ALPSP Mentorship Scheme was an extremely rewarding experience. I developed my mentoring skills and gained confidence in my own abilities and knowledge, and also learnt a lot from my mentee – it was always refreshing to hear another perspective on many aspects of publishing. It was great to see my mentee grow in skills and confidence and reach their goals, and I thank them for their time, commitment and enthusiasm. I encourage anyone reading this to sign up as a mentor!”

Marios:

“Every mentorship is unique in its challenges and rewards. All of them, however, catalysed growth and development for my mentee and myself. I am very proud of my mentee’s achievements and their thoughtful engagement with our mentorship. Sign me up for 2025!”

Christina:

“Being a mentor was very fulfilling; after a great experience being a mentee the prior year, it was rewarding to give something back by helping someone else in need. It also helped me gain confidence through appreciating my own knowledge and skill set. Connecting with others in the industry was a bonus.”

About the ALPSP International Mentorship Scheme

The scheme aims to connect colleagues across the publishing industry and provide a wider network of expertise and skills to help foster development and progression. Open to ALPSP members (as mentees and mentors) as well as non-members (mentors only), the scheme was the winner of a ‘Most Impactful Mentoring Award’ in 2024. For more information and to register visit our website.

The ALPSP International Mentorship scheme is sponsored by Publishers' Licensing Services.

About the Authors:

Miranda Ashby-Wood, Co-Head of Publishing, British Institute of Radiology

Miranda is responsible for the strategic development of the BIR journal portfolio and leading the publishing department at the BIR. She is also responsible for the commissioning and development of BIR video courses and content within the BIR journal portfolio, working with members of the community to deliver relevant and high-quality material. Miranda is Co-Chair of the ALPSP Education Committee and a Director on the ALPSP Board.

Christina Emery, Head of Thought Leadership Programmes, Springer Nature

Christina is Head of Thought Leadership Programmes at Springer Nature, where she is responsible for both the development and execution of the organisation's thought leadership strategy. Christina is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit.

 

Marios Karouzos, Head of Publishing Strategy – Reviews, News & Opinion, Nature Portfolio,
Springer Nature

Marios is responsible for the strategy of the Reviews, News & Opinion content published in the Nature Portfolio. In addition to his role, Marios is a member of the editorial steering committee and a judge for the Inspiring Women in Science Nature Awards and co-chairs the Springer Nature SDG 5 "Gender equality" working group and the Springer Nature Women Employee Network.

Reflections on the ALPSP Annual Conference 2024 by Anna Savage

 ALPSP Rising Star Awards Winner, Anna Savage, Publishing Executive at BMJ Group, looks back at the conference.

The keynote speech of this year’s ALPSP conference introduced the two fundamental challenges with which the scholarly publishing world is undeniably grappling: open access, and Generative AI. The former is perhaps more familiar territory, though far from a worn-out topic. The latter has more recently emerged, however it is nonetheless already deeply embedded in the discourse, debates and decision-making taking place within research institutions, academic publishers, libraries, and funding bodies worldwide.

The keynote was delivered by Jake Okechukwu Effoduh and was entitled ‘Scholarly Publishing in the Era of Open Access and Generative AI’. As an opening to the conference, the session suitably considered that which is on everybody’s minds, and attempted to make sense of the tangled issues inherent in the title. If it were not obvious to conference attendees before they entered, it was soon clear that this is a pivotal time in scholarly publishing. The final impression we were left with, however, was one of optimism, and in my mind this theme pervaded the rest of the conference.

It can be easy to feel pessimistic about the current challenges. The keynote, along with several other conference sessions, highlighted concerns about the potentially underwhelming impact of open access as a funding model, and of the adoption of Generative AI tools so far. Both have been favourably regarded as solutions: the former to address inequity; the latter to tackle inefficiency. Instead we have been presented with new problems which must somehow be addressed. The keynote did not propose to have the answers. What it did was recognise the complexity of the current landscape. The concluding call to action invited us to envision how we can harness the potential of open access and Generative AI tools, empowering us to shape their role rather than being shaped by them.

From the variety of sessions and speakers that followed during the rest of the conference, it became clear that a one-sided approach would likely be ineffective. Solutions must not be sought from scholarly publishers alone because the challenges are not exclusive to scholarly publishers. Yes, open access poses challenges for sustainable revenue for publishers, but it also leads to inequities for researchers - as highlighted in the keynote -  and encourages predatory publishing practices, impacting all stakeholders in the publishing community. Likewise, Generative AI has the potential to exacerbate concerns around integrity, authenticity and bias. There is a risk of undermining the scholarly communication system as a whole, and this cannot be addressed by publishers alone.

The contributions to the conference were, accordingly, highly varied. Speakers included representatives from both large and small publishers, funding bodies, technology providers, consultants and recruitment services, who offered a wide range of perspectives on the current landscape. Many sessions focused on emerging innovations and advancements positioned to address key challenges, such as equitable funding models (e.g., S2O), integrity checks, and sustainable solutions. It was evident that multiple approaches to the same issue can coexist, and that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Collaboration between publishers and the broader academic publishing community will be essential as we continue to innovate and overcome emerging challenges.

I am particularly pleased that the Rising Star Award will continue to offer opportunities for early-career professionals to engage with this conference, and to be part of these critical conversations that will no doubt shape our careers in scholarly publishing.

About the ALPSP Rising Star Award 2024

This award aims to recognise potential in early career individuals. The winners are given the opportunity and financial support to attend the ALPSP Annual Conference in person and write a short review of their experiences of the meeting. The ALPSP Rising Star Award is sponsored by Publishers' Licensing Services.

The winners of this year's Rising Star Award are:

• Hazel Rowland, IOP Publishing
• Anna Savage, BMJ
• Ella Gibbs, Bristol University Press
• Heather Townsend, Bristol University Press
• Melody (Zhuxin) Zhang, Wiley

ALPSP Annual Conference and Awards

Thank you to all our speakers, sponsors and attendees for making the ALPSP 2024 Conference and Awards such a success. We will be returning to the Hilton Manchester Deansgate Hotel next year from 10-12 September 2025. The call for topics is open until 1 December. For more information, visit our website.

About the author

Anna Savage is a Publishing Executive at BMJ Group. 

She works on the day-to-day management and strategic development of a portfolio of hybrid and open access specialist medical journals, collaborating closely with journal editors and partner societies. She is also involved in exploring the potential applications of Generative AI tools at BMJ and the implications for academic journals.

ALPSP Annual Conference 2024: A Review by Ella Gibbs

ALPSP Rising Star Awards Winner, Ella Gibbs, Journals Executive at Bristol University Press & Policy Press

Being relatively new to the world of scholarly publishing, the ALPSP Conference was my first proper industry conference experience and I was initially very uncertain about what to expect. On the day of the conference I travelled to Manchester with my colleague who was also attending for the first time, which eased my nerves slightly. Any remaining nerves were quickly assuaged when I arrived at the conference venue and was struck by how welcoming everyone was.

A key theme of the conference was undoubtably AI and how the industry is responding to rapid changes and general uncertainty brought about in a world of generative AI. It was interesting to hear some of the conversations on AI that’ve been ongoing at my own workplace play out amongst the conference speakers and delegates: fears of the threat to research integrity, copyright concerns in an open access landscape, the implicit bias of Large Language Models (LLMs) and, more positively, the potential of AI to assist with tasks that are increasingly falling out of budget. 

The session on ‘The role of human editors in an AI world’ explored the role of editorial decision making and how this could develop in the future due to the increased use of AI tools by both authors and editors. One of the questions that was discussed was whether publishers have given authors enough guidance on how or when to use AI tools when preparing their research for publication. This is problematised by the fact that the industry hasn’t arrived at a single standard that authors should adhere to, which could lead to confusion. Although it was clear from the discussion that as an industry we do not yet have all the answers where AI is concerned, there was a clear sense that it should be embraced for its potential to support aspects of the editorial workflow and decision making rather than replace them.

One of my personal highlights from the conference was watching the award finalists lightning presentations. It was truly inspiring to hear about some of the innovative projects taking place within scholarly publishing communities. I was particularly impressed with the Forest of Biologists initiative which partners with the Woodland Trust to plant a tree in a UK forest for every research or review article published by The Company of Biologists. It was great to hear how this initiative aims to combat the loss of biodiversity within the UK and also how it directly involved young people from the local community. 

I am very grateful for the opportunity to attend the ALPSP conference. The conference really helped me understand more about the scholarly publishing industry as a whole, outside of my day-to-day role. It was great to be able to talk to people from a range of different publishers and  at various stages within their careers. The conference ultimately made me feel very excited for my future in scholarly publishing and I hope to be able to attend again in the future.

About the ALPSP Rising Star Award 2024

This award aims to recognise potential in early career individuals. The winners are given the opportunity and financial support to attend the ALPSP Annual Conference in person and write a short review of their experiences of the meeting. The ALPSP Rising Star Award is sponsored by Publishers' Licensing Services.

The winners of this year's Rising Star Award are:

• Hazel Rowland, IOP Publishing
• Anna Savage, BMJ
• Ella Gibbs, Bristol University Press
• Heather Townsend, Bristol University Press
• Melody (Zhuxin) Zhang, Wiley

ALPSP Annual Conference and Awards

Thank you to all our speakers, sponsors and attendees for making the ALPSP 2024 Conference and Awards such a success. Catch up on the session recordings. We will be returning to the Hilton Manchester Deansgate Hotel next year from 10-12 September 2025. For more information, visit our website.

About the author

Ella Gibbs is the Journals Executive at Bristol University Press. 

She is the primary editorial contact and development lead for a number of journals, supporting editors, authors and reviewers. Ella began working in scholarly publishing in 2021 as an Editorial Assistant.

Strength in numbers: the power of collaboration for research integrity

by - Gráinne McNamara, Research Integrity / Publication Ethics Manager, Karger - Silver sponsor of the ALPSP Annual Conference and Awards 2024.

In scholarly publishing, the term ‘research integrity’ is increasingly discussed and its significance to the ecosystem is growing. With the dominance of paper mills in the consciousness of research integrity professionals, matched only by the emerging threat posed by Generative AI, a reoccurring theme has emerged in these discussions: collaboration. 

Increasingly, no longer are research integrity teams operating largely in isolation within their respective publishers, interacting only in specific contexts, such as COPE forums or webinars, or when a multi-journal complaint necessitates alignment. Particularly in the last three years, we have seen a diversification in the venues at which research integrity teams interact. In the spirit of the infamously misattributed proverb “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together”, this expansion of touchpoints between publishers’ research integrity teams should be expected to have a positive effect on the trustworthiness of the scholarly publishing landscape. 

As a medium-sized publisher publishing over 90 journals in the health sciences, with a small research integrity team, Karger Publishers is particularly well placed to see how this growth in collaboration can be beneficial. Reflecting on how this has impacted us and the industry overall, we can see that great progress has been made as well as several trends and areas for growth.

Technology

The most obvious advantage of combining forces for a publisher the size of Karger or for smaller emerging or society publishers is the enhanced availability of new technologies. The STM Integrity Hub was established to foster collaboration “between publishers of all sorts, shapes and sizes”. The development of tools through the hub has enabled the detection of manuscript submission irregularities faster than for each participant operating in isolation. For example, the first-of-its-kind detection of duplicate submissions across publishers via the STM Hub allowed publishers to discover violations of our Editorial Policies early in peer review. By having this information, we ensure peer review resources are directed to compliant submissions, critical at this point when peer reviewer time is limited. Inter-publisher collaboration for duplicate submission detection received a boost recently with the announcement that Elsevier’s full text analysis for matching manuscripts would be made available to the STM Integrity Hub, making it more difficult for infracting submissions to evade detection. According to this August 2024 announcement, 12 publishers were using this tool, including Karger. The maximum effectiveness of this tool can only be realised by full adoption across publishers, and we hope to see this number grow.

This year we have seen more examples of publishers working together to improve integrity tools. In March 2024, Wiley announced that Sage and IEEE would be partnering in the testing of their Papermill Detection service. While neither Sage nor IEEE could be classified as a small or medium-sized publisher, this collaboration perpetuates the growing trend of technology sharing between publishers for mutual benefit that we can expect to see continue.

Information 

A challenge for any research integrity team in 2024 is keeping up to date with the latest developments and threats across the industry. Here again, we are seeing how collaboration is supporting the work, particularly of smaller teams, allowing them to focus on maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record while staying informed. The COPE and STM study into the scale and impact of paper mills on publishers in 2022, to which Karger contributed data and information, marked the beginning of an increasingly collaborative effort to combat paper mills. This translated into a COPE working group on the topic, of which Karger is a member, continuing to this year’s at the World Conference of Research Integrity where paper mills were one of the key topics of discussion. Open communication between affected parties about paper mills will need to continue as long as the threat exists as publishers of all sizes try to stay ahead through the newest information and trends.

An abundance of new research integrity tools have become available in the last 3 years to help publishers uphold the highest integrity standards, no matter their scale of operation. However, testing and piloting new technologies is a time-consuming necessity for research integrity teams. In addition to the collaborative information sharing we’ve seen through the STM Integrity Hub duplicate submission detection, the Hub's Image Alteration and Duplications Working Group supports the community by providing an overview of the available image integrity tools and their features, allowing publishers to make informed decisions and comparisons between available products. In a sea of information, crowd-sourcing trusted information can make the difference for a small or medium-sized publisher to save time that can be invested into misconduct detection.

Expertise 

A product of information and technology sharing is the enhanced expertise of research integrity professionals at publishers, as well as in those working more broadly in the scholarly communication ecosystem with an interest in research integrity. COPE has long been a hub of experience sharing between members and in 2024 this continued with the launch of formal Advisor roles for volunteers to share knowledge and expertise. We have also started to see the development of subject-specialised expertise-sharing collaboration. In the physical sciences, three publishers established the ‘Purpose-led Publishing’ initiative in which participants defined and committed to “a set of industry standards that underpin high-quality, ethical scholarly communication”. Whether we will see more examples of subject-specialised publishers of various sizes coming together to define standards for their area remains to be seen. 

On the other end of the specialisation spectrum, the United2Act initiative, of which Karger is a signatory and member of Working Group 2, is a prime example of the wider research integrity community coming together and translating expertise and leveraging technology into tangible outcomes to combat the threat of paper mills. Furthermore, many of the groups’ outputs, for example, educational resources and trust marker development, are likely to have benefits far beyond the initial scope of paper mills.

Taking the lessons learned from publisher-publisher communication to the wider research integrity community is an integral step in embedding research integrity throughout the scholarly communication cycle. At Karger, we have seen the benefits of collaborating with larger and smaller publishers in improving our detection capabilities and expertise. We plan to continue, with our colleagues across publishers and other organizations with an interest in research integrity, collaborating to advance upholding research integrity standards. Naturally, the benefits of collaboration are not limited to strengthening research integrity. A recent blog in this series provided a view from the publishing systems perspective on the necessity and benefits of collaboration. We will undoubtedly see publisher-publisher and publisher-systems collaboration grow in the coming years as bad actors continue to pose a threat to the integrity of the scholarly record. By actively seeking collaboration, publishers of all sizes can build on each other’s technology, information and expertise of each other and go far and fast, together.

About the author

Dr. Gráinne McNamara is the Research Integrity / Publication Ethics Manager at Karger Publishers, where she and her team are engaged in developing research integrity policies, conducting investigations and advising researchers on best practice.

She has worked in research integrity in publishing since 2017 and is grateful to all the researchers and colleagues who have, and continue to, share their experience and expertise in that time.

www.karger.com