The Morressier team is getting ready - packing, checking the weather, planning our programs - and we can’t wait to learn, network, and enjoy all of those spontaneous moments that moved virtual during the early days of COVID-19.
The theme of SSP 2022 is “Building a More Connected Scholarly Community.” There are so many ways to explore this topic. We immediately think about diversity and equity initiatives and how we ensure access is truly global and available for everyone who needs science. We think about partnerships between societies, industries, the media, publishers, and even technology companies like Morressier, and how we all work together to make sure research has the impact it deserves. Here are a few questions on the top of our minds - questions we’re excited to answer over the course of SSP 2022:
1. What does the future look like at the intersection of technology, artificial intelligence, and community in scholarly communications?
The answer to this question is probably “if you can dream it, you can create it.” From our perspective, AI has the power to help validate and evaluate research, running integrity checks on top of peer review. AI also has the power to translate research for a variety of audiences and use cases, helping bridge the research-to-practice gap. But we also see reports of AI writing journal articles or AI helping to evaluate whether an experiment is worth doing based purely on methodology. We’re ready to think big and harness all the power of technology to make research publishing more efficient, more accurate, and more effective at communicating ideas.
2. How will the scholarly communications industry bring in new stakeholders and expand its impact?
Our world is constantly becoming more interconnected. Collaborations are not just encouraged, they are a foundational part of virtually every process. Science, and the communication of that science, are no different. But there remains isolation in this industry, whether that’s because so much research is still not accessible to the general public, or the research that is accessible has a hard time rising above the noise or being understood by people outside of very niche disciplines. Science is at the heart of so many global challenges, from climate change to public health. Finding the right partners who can use discoveries and breakthroughs to build solutions, or ensure that the public has the right information to make informed decisions about their health, is more important than ever.
3. What is the scholarly publishing community doing to build flexible infrastructure that empowers the industry to move faster and embrace change?
It's no secret that the scholarly publishing industry moves cautiously, even though it is full of creativity and innovation. By broadening the stakeholder map for the community - more industry and technology partnerships can take place, thereby, bringing in new perspectives and new ideas. How will this industry evolve? We will have to sit back and watch how that unfolds. With a diverse community, we are confident that we can create a system that’s agile, infrastructure that is flexible, and processes that are inclusive and welcoming of change. We’re excited to meet new SSP members, the next generation of leaders, and anyone who sees a problem and thinks, “I have an idea to fix that.”
Conferences are a whirlwind: three days with multiple simultaneous sessions that we’re excited to attend and many people that we can’t wait to meet. We’re excited to learn, and in the spirit of the theme, we’re excited to connect. If you’re attending SSP, be sure to stop by booth #212 and say hello. Tell us what questions you’re asking during the sessions, and what you’re excited to take home and apply to your professional lives.
We’ll be back after SSP to recap the most interesting things we learned.
Follow us on Twitter to see some of our live reactions to SSP!
