The Scholarly Kitchen

The Scholarly Kitchen is a moderated and independent blog. Opinions on the Scholarly Kitchen are those of the authors, not necessarily those held by the Society for Scholarly Publishing.

It is registered with BlogCatalog.

The Society for Scholarly Publishing established the Scholarly Kitchen blog in February 2008 to:

1. Keep SSP members and interested parties aware of new developments in publishing
2. Point to research reports and projects
3. Interpret the significance of relevant research in a balanced way (or occasionally in a provocative way)
4. Suggest areas that need more input by identifying gaps in knowledge
5. Translate findings from related endeavors (publishing outside STM, online business, user trends)
6. Attract the community of STM information experts interested in these things and give them a place to contribute

Our bloggers are:

• Kent Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of the Scholarly Kitchen, an SSP Member, and a former Board member. Kent has a BA in English and an MBA. He is currently CEO/Publisher for the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. Prior to this, he worked in the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Publishing Division in Product Development and International Business and as Publishing Director for the New England Journal of Medicine. He’s been a publisher, managing editor, copy editor, graphic designer, typesetter, editor, and author. He’s worked at the American Academy of Pediatrics, Medical Economics, and 3M, in addition to other odd jobs here and there (notice, this construction makes all the jobs odd). He also writes mystery novels in his spare time.

• Phil Davis, Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. His work has focused on the dissemination of scientific information, rewards and incentives in academic publishing, and economic issues related to libraries, authors, and publishers.  He is currently working on a four-year study of readership and citation performance of open access articles. Before returning to graduate school, Phil served as a life sciences librarian at Cornell University.

• Joseph J. Esposito is CEO of GiantChair (http://giantchair.com), the creator of a software platform that facilitates direct marketing services for the publishing industry on the Internet.  Prior to joining GiantChair, Joe served as a management consultant focusing on digital media and publishing.  His clients ranged across all segments of the publishing industry, from K-12 to trade and STM, and include software companies working with digital content.  After reading, his primary interest is in helping publishers to sell more books.

• Michael Clarke is the founder and principal of Clarke Publishing Group, a publishing and media consulting firm. Failing to have founded a dot com in the 90s or a hedge fund in the early 00s, Michael was determined not to miss out on the Next Big Thing. He therefore launched Clarke Publishing Group in 2009 in order to get in at the start of the inevitable scholarly publishing bubble (SPB). While waiting for the bubble to take off, Michael spends his time advising clients on both business and sartorial matters (the later being largely on a pro bono basis). When not writing for the Scholarly Kitchen, working with clients, or speculating on the timing of his IPO, Michael works very slowly on a science fiction novel about magic, fluid dynamics, and ancient Summerian lexicography. More information about Michael Clarke can be found on his Web site: www.clarkepublishing.com

• Ann Michael, founder and principal consultant at DeltaThink, works with commercial publishers, professional societies, content aggregators, and start-ups to define and build the flexible product development environments they need to thrive in a changing world.  Ann is known for her expertise in defining customer-centered business and product strategies and managing their implementation.  She consults with and leads teams that develop products, services, and systems in publishing and digital media. She believes that successful companies manage to change: they anticipate change, cause change, and use it to motivate growth, flexibility, and innovation.

• David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press the science publishing wing of a not-for-profit research institution.  He has previously served as the Commissioning Editor for CSHL Press, creating, acquiring, and editing new science books.  CSH Protocols is an attempt to move a long-running laboratory manual publishing program into the modern online world.  David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did research at Caltech before moving from the bench to a science publishing house.  His deep fascination with new technology probably stems from those days at Caltech in a laboratory that developed new imaging methods.  David tries his best to balance this enthusiasm with a scientist’s skeptical eye.  When not jabbering away here, he can be found at the biology blog for CSH Protocols, Bench Marks.  Outside of the science and publishing realms, David collects and researches the world of Outsider Art, and his desperately-in-need-of-update-for-several-years website on the artists he’s known can be found here.

• Alexandra (Alix) Vance is the founder and principal of Architrave Consulting (www.architraveconsulting.com), a company that provides services in three core business areas: sales and marketing; digital transition management; and business assessment and improvement. Previously, Alix has held positions as President of Paratext, Executive Director of the Reference Information Group at CQ Press/SAGE, and VP of Business Development for Ebook Library (EBL).  The newest chef on The Scholarly Kitchen, Alix is a also member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) and a member of the Editorial Board of Learned Publishing. Alix holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work and is a visual artist and member of Studio 4903.

• Howard Ratner of Nature Publishing Group provides updates via his Twitter posts.

• Stewart Wills, online editor for Science, contributes tweets to TSK’s “Side Dishes” section. Hence, this bio is exactly 140 characters long.