Scholarly publishing has always created a forum for a variety of stakeholders that play a vital role in the community. As the industry has evolved, so too have the relationships publishers have with members of the community. These changes can be transformative, offering opportunities as well as challenges in meeting mutual needs. Recognizing and embracing these changing relationships can help publishers and societies promote engagement with their communities and reframe how they will look in the future. With that in mind, Maverick is launching a new Community Engagement initiative to help facilitate interaction among stakeholders.
The ability to adapt is key to ensuring the ongoing sustainability of scholarly publishing and those who support and nurture it. This dynamic is resulting in major strategic pivots, from committing to fully open access or other models, to transforming publishers into curators of knowledge and information, to making creative use of data and technology. These initiatives have an impact on the roles of those involved, highlighting the interrelationship of communities in the publishing environment. As new priorities emerge, all members of the community are faced with challenges that require flexibility, innovation, and increased awareness:
Researchers
- Outreach and content marketing to attract high-quality science
- OA options and funder mandates
- Research integrity and build trust
- Education and support of open data/open science implications
Authors
- Support the writing and submission process
- Promote engagement to increase usage and submissions
- Tools to empower authors to increase visibility, citations, and reach
- Effective use of preprints and repositories
Librarians
- Role of librarians in communication, faculty engagement, and content promotion
- Open access business models
- Data management/open science/institutional repositories
- Reproducibility
- Managing transformative agreements
Societies and Associations
- Member engagement and recruitment
- eLearning products
- Maximizing revenue through workflow automation, product development
- Partnerships with publishers and third-party service providers
Corporate
- Enterprise applications and the role of text and data mining
- Market research
- Managing IP issues
All of these members of the community interact meaningfully and collectively have a dynamic impact on scholarly publishing. They are all faced with the need to change “business as usual” and to learn new ways to meet the goals of their stakeholders. One way to do this is by acquiring knowledge, a time-honored tradition in scholarly publishing for responding to new challenges.
Maverick’s Community Engagement initiative is designed to help publishers create a new narrative about their value so they can understand and support their individual communities through outreach, messaging, and education. Following is a representative sample of the type of topics that will be covered in forthcoming blog posts about this initiative, which we hope will evolve as new issues arise:
Researcher Engagement and Outreach are key to attracting and publishing quality science and promoting a journal’s value and brand. Avenues to success include reaching new audiences with messaging that resonates and produces results.
Research Integrity is a vital interest of researchers, authors, and publishers. Tactics to ensure research integrity and avoid issues early in the process are in everyone’s best interest.
Author Engagement can empower authors to share their work and take an active role in promoting it to colleagues and the public.
Market Research provides insight into the needs of stakeholders and how to address them. The librarian community in particular is facing changing roles and challenges, so having access to thought leaders can provide valuable direction and support for new initiatives and branding.
eLearning products and programs allow societies and associations to reuse valuable content from meetings, journals, and books for members as well as for use as a recruitment tool.
Workflow Automation can help all publishers become more efficient and productive. A seamless integration throughout the publishing cycle—from submission to downstream delivery to financial management—can accommodate new business models and enhance scalability.
Communication Strategies can automate marketing and community-building tools, including effective use of social media to reach global markets and identify emerging trends.
Text and Data Mining is emerging as a way to work with corporate partners in new product development as well as creating new sources of revenue.
Maverick’s global network of publishing professionals is working in all of these areas and is pleased to share knowledge of emerging trends and solutions that evolve from the enterprising scholarly publishing community. Contact your Maverick representative or info@maverick-os.com for a free consultation.
By Rebecca Rinehart
Maverick CEO and Head of US Operations
Rebecca Rinehart is a publishing professional with over 40 years’ experience in all aspects of scientific, technical, and medical publishing. Her extensive industry experience encompasses all aspects of scientific, technical, and medical publishing across books, journals, periodicals, and digital. She is the former publisher of American Psychiatric Publishing, a division of the American Psychiatric Association, and the world’s leading publisher on psychiatry, mental health, and behavioral science. Her other prior experience includes senior level positions overseeing publications at The Endocrine Society, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and Harper & Row Publishers.
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