Guest Post — Sales vs. Editorial: The Silo Culture in Academic Publishing
Eric Broug takes a look at the siloed nature of publishing organizations, and how disconnects between different aspects of the business can be harmful.
Finding the Right Training and Career Development Opportunities for Your Organization
Your desk is covered with brochures about getting new skills to meet growing needs, and course offerings for continuing education credits. Your inbox is filled with notices about meetings and webinars. How do you decide which is worth your time?
Ask The Chefs: Prioritizing Organizational Choices
There is always a new tool, method, or model, but no organization can do it all. This month we asked the Chefs about methods for prioritizing choices.
Building an Effective Board
Ever felt frustrated with your governing board? Although the board may not be of your design, there’s still much you can do to shape an effective board that truly adds value to execution of your business strategy and mission. Read on to find out how!
Tackling Harassment and its Roots in Scholarly Communication: Practical Steps for Organizations and Individuals
Following a rich and lively panel discussion at ALPSP, Alison Mudditt summarizes the cultural changes needed and practical actions we can all take individually and within our organizations to stamp out harassment and create respectful, dignified places of work for everyone.
Calling It Out, Spelling It Out, Stamping It Out: Recognizing and Avoiding Bias
In honour of International Women’s Day, Time’s Up, #MeToo, and a range of recent initiatives trying to tackle equality in the workplace, Charlie Rapple provides thoughts on how to avoid inappropriate comments and behaviors that unintentionally give offense.
Managing Volunteers: An Overlooked Skill
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.
Bulwarks, Agility, and Foresight
[Editor’s note: This is the edited text of a presentation that Joe Esposito gave as a keynote at the PSP conference in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 3, 2016. The slides for the presentation are embedded at the end of the text. […]
Ask The Chefs: What Is The Future of Membership Organizations? Does Being a Member Still Matter?
Looking to the future, do membership organizations still fit in? How can they maintain and extend their relevance?
The Role of Scholarly Societies
Is there hope for scholarly societies? Where once perhaps membership benefits from publications were key, now the emphasis will move to the character of academic life and independence from commercial forces. This post aims to engage the reader in thinking through what it means to be a member of a scholarly society
Now What? Society Strategic Planning and Publishing Sustainability
Strategy can mean many things to many people. Why is strategy important? How do you go about developing strategy? Chef Robert Harington discusses how, in his view, societies should approach strategic development in context of building a sustainable publishing future.
Professional Associations and the Strategy Gap
Given the pace of technological change, new sources of professional information and community, the increasing competition for attention, shifting demographics, and an uncertain economy, an effective strategy is more important than ever. While most commercial organizations have developed strategic frameworks, and many now have leadership roles dedicated to strategy, not-for-profit organizations tend to focus less on these activities. While some of this “strategy gap” may be due to relative resource scarcity and its associated time pressures , there are also structural and governance issues at play, particularly in the case of professional associations. These challenges are not insurmountable, however. Professional associations can close the strategy gap by incorporating this series of steps into their strategy development and implementation processes.
Governance and the Not-for-profit Publisher
The governance of not-for-profit publishing entities plays a large role in those entities’ success or failure.