I am the Associate Publisher and Journals Director for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), publisher of 36 technical journals. Prior to that, I was the Production Director at ASCE overseeing all production aspects of journals, a monthly member magazine, and book products. I was Managing Editor of Cancer and Cancer Cytopathology at the American Cancer Society and was Production Manager for Journals at ASCE. I am the Past-president of the Council of Science Editors. My views on The Scholarly Kitchen are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
Civil Engineers rely on data from a multitude of sources. Angela Cochran shares what ASCE has learned in the process of setting up Data Availability Statements as well as insights from a recent Ithaka S+R study on the subject.
If ever there was a time for society publishers to start advocating for themselves, that time is now. In this post, Angela Cochran challenges society publishers to find their voice in affecting policy decisions that relate to their programs.
Plan S, Science Europe’s plan to accelerate open access, includes strict technical requirements that may be too costly or practical for some OA journals, platforms, and repositories. Chef Angela Cochran reviews the challenges of the requirements and posits that the plan is really about Gold OA.
Mixing subscription content and open access content in hybrid journals has done little to accelerate the flip from subscription to OA. Angela Cochran explores the creation of mirror journals to comply with new OA mandates and supply a more sustainable model for moving toward OA.
With the news last week that Elsevier made another strategic purchase with the acquisition of Aries System, owner of Editorial Manager submission and peer review systems, Angela Cochran looks at what happens to societies and smaller publishers when the big competing publishers buy up the previously publisher agnostic service providers.
A new kind of predator is taking advantage of unsuspecting authors. In this post, Angela Cochran discusses the forged acceptance letters received and what publishers can do to help authors avoid this costly and embarrassing pitfall.
New changes at COPE seem to move the organization further away from standards and closer to suggested behavior. At the same time, a new policy on member expulsions was announced. Is it clear exactly what members are agreeing to?
Hoping to woo authors away from commercial publishers, a group of biomedical science societies have launched a new alliance to promote the value of publishing in society journals.
Citations and the metrics around their use are an important part of evaluation and promotion of science and scientists and yet, little attention is paid to them in the peer review process. In this post, Angela Cochran makes a call to critically review reference lists and develop standards around what should and should not be included.
Managing volunteers in a critical and yet overlooked part of running a successful journal or program. Angela Cochran explores tips for getting the most out of volunteers and where we can find training to learn these skills.