The second Atypon Community meeting was held online on December 1 and 2, 2021. If you weren’t able to be there, here’s what you missed! Throughout this post, you’ll find links to closed-captioned video recordings of Community Meeting sessions.
Day 1
Day 1 began with a big-picture session titled “Tectonic shifts on the web: How can our industry prepare?” Atypon’s Hisham Shahtout and Michael Markey, in conversation with Paul Tuten from Taylor & Francis, took us through the major changes brewing in the online world—including IP anonymization, the European Accessibility Act, and Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative—that will have a direct impact on the work scholarly publishers do and how we do it.
Speakers:
- Hisham Shahtout, Senior VP, Engineering, Atypon
- Michael Markey, VP of Security and Governance, Atypon
- Paul Tuten, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Taylor & Francis
→ Watch “Tectonic shifts on the web” on Atypon’s Vimeo channel
→ Sign up to be part of the ongoing conversation
Next, moving from the industry-wide big picture to the details of Literatum, Atypon’s Patrick Hargitt shared key recent and upcoming milestones on the platform’s development roadmap, which, as Patrick explained, is guided by four pillars:
- Enhancing content discovery and access
- Increasing revenue sources
- Modernizing publisher operations
- Supporting open access
Speaker:
- Patrick Hargitt, Senior Product Management Director, Atypon
→ Watch “Literatum: What’s new and what’s next” on Atypon’s Vimeo channel
→ Catch up on our most recent Literatum Roadmap webinar
Community Interest Group representatives shared the key topics that their client-led groups have been discussing since our June meeting.
→ Watch “Around the world with Community Interest Groups” on Atypon’s Vimeo channel
→ Learn more about Community Interest Groups on our Community page
In “Publishing accessible content: Practical ways to move the needle,” moderator Rob Posadas welcomed three panelists whose roles put them at the center of accessibility advocacy in their workplaces. Damita Snow set the stage with a discussion of why your content needs to be accessible; we then heard from Nina Amato and Lorenzo Milani about processes, tools, and resources for making it happen.
Speakers:
- Nina Amato, Lead UX Designer, American Chemical Society
- Lorenzo Milani, Associate UX Specialist, SAGE
- Damita Snow, Senior Manager for Publishing Technologies, ASCE
- Rob Posadas, VP of Solution Architecture, Atypon
→ Watch “Publishing accessible content” on Atypon’s Vimeo channel
→ Check out the accessible content resource sheet on our website
Day 1 finished up with a bring-your-own-snacks virtual reception on Wonder for a casual catch-up with old friends. We miss seeing our community in person, but we do love meeting everyone’s pets!
Day 2
On Day 2, we dove straight into a nuts-and-bolts discussion of a top-of-mind question: “What technical infrastructure do publishers need to scale OA?” Jennifer Kemp at Crossref led a discussion featuring three speakers from Literatum publishers in the midst of the transition to open access publishing—Michael Donaldson (CSP), Melissa Junior (ASM), and Bernd Pulverer (EMBO)—who discussed the challenges and triumphs of their journeys so far and how changes to the technical infrastructure at different stages of the publishing process can smooth the way.
Speakers:
- Michael Donaldson, OA Specialist, Canadian Science Publishing
- Melissa Junior, Senior Director, Journals, American Society for Microbiology
- Jennifer Kemp, Head of Partnerships, Crossref
- Bernd Pulverer, Head of Scientific Publications, EMBO
→ Watch “What technical infrastructure do publishers need to scale OA?” on Atypon’s Vimeo channel
Next, in “Making headway on DE&I: Putting intentions into practice,” Steph Pollock and Helen Talbot shared with us the history, development, and implementation of some specific programs in the DEI space at their organizations. Moderated by Atypon’s Jacob Wilcock, this session emphasized the importance of wide and inclusive consultation, iterative development, and learning from mistakes and feedback.
Speakers:
- Stephanie Pollock, Associate Publisher, Community Initiatives, American Psychological Association
- Helen Talbot, Systems Support Manager, Taylor & Francis Group
- Jacob Wilcock, Director of Sales, Atypon
→ Watch “Making headway on DE&I: Putting intentions into practice” on Atypon’s Vimeo channel
→ Check out the DEI resource sheet on our website
After a networking break in our Wonder room, we finished Day 2 with a publisher case study from IEEE. In this session, moderated by Atypon’s Veronica Showers, Julie Nash first offered a wide-angle view on the author submission experience; Dawn Melley then took us through the process of planning, developing, and implementing the new IEEE Author Portal and how it’s improving the experience for researchers who submit to IEEE journals.
Speakers:
- Dawn Melley, Senior Director of Publishing Operations, IEEE
- Julie Nash, Senior Director, J&J Partnership Development, J&J Editorial
- Veronica Showers, Director of Sales, Atypon
→ Watch “The new author experience” on Atypon’s Vimeo channel
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The best part of this kind of meeting is always the people who come together to make it happen. Many thanks to our speakers, our moderators, and everyone who spent those days with us!