The GW Ethics in Publishing conference, hosted by the Master of Professional Studies in Publishing program, College of Professional Studies, George Washington University, will be presented this year as a virtual conference. Originally scheduled as an in-person conference on April 23, 2020, the conference was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Registration is free; RSVP here.

The theme of this year’s conference is Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility.

Topics include equity, inclusion, diversity, accessibility, sustainability, peer review, and other issues of ethics in publishing.

Hosted By:
Master of Professional Studies in Publishing program at the George Washington University.

Co-Sponsors:

• The Association of University Presses (AUPresses)
• The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP)
• The Association of American Publishers

Cost: Free

Location: Virtual

Below is the full schedule for the three-day conference, with speakers, topics, and bios. (Subject to change.)

Wednesday, October 28, 2020 | 1:00-4:30 p.m. ET

1:00-1:15        Welcome

John W. Warren, Director and Associate Professor, Masters of Professional Studies in Publishing, George Washington University

1:15-2:15    Opening Plenaries

The Ethical Imperative of the University Press

Peter Berkery, Executive Director, Association of University Presses

Developing a Culture of Dignity at Johns Hopkins University Press

Barbara Kline Pope, Director, Johns Hopkins University Press

Peter Berkery has been Executive Director of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) since early 2013. Berkery comes to AAUP from Oxford University Press, where he served for the previous five years as Vice President and Publisher for the US Law Division. Prior to that he worked for Wolters Kluwer, and began his publishing career at a division of Thomson Reuters. Berkery has been Director of Government Affairs for the National Society of Accountants and Government Relations Counsel for the National Paint and Coatings Association, and has served as Assistant Executive Director and Staff Counsel for a division of the American Trucking Associations. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Counsel for Accountancy and Taxation, and as its President. Berkery has a BA in Classical Studies from Boston College, and both an MA and a JD from The American University, as well as a Master of Laws in Taxation from George Washington University. He has been admitted to practice in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, and the United States Tax Court. 

Barbara Kline Pope is Director of the Johns Hopkins University Press, the nation’s oldest academic press. Previously, she was Executive Director of the National Academies Press, steering its traditional print model through an era of digital innovation, including pioneering experiments with open access. She first joined the Washington, D.C., press—the publishing division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine—in a marketing role in 1983. She has served as President and member of the Board of Directors of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) and served on the management board of the MIT Press. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and her master’s from the University of Maryland.

2:15-3:00    Ethics in Peer Review during COVID-19 

Cheryl Johnson, Publishing Editor, Journals Department, American Psychological Association (APA)

Lois Jones, Peer Review Manager, Journals Department, American Psychological Association (APA)

Jenna Miley, Peer Review Coordinator, Journals Department, American Psychological Association (APA)

This discussion will focus on what the APA Peer Review team had been working on prior to COVID-19, their subsequent adaptation to a large increase in submissions, and the introduction of rapid reviews while still ensuring an ethical peer review process. Additionally, the speakers will highlight some of the Journal team’s contributions to creating ED&I framework and providing guidance for more diverse and equitable Editor searches and Editorial Boards.

Cheryl Johnson is Publishing Editor for the Journals Department at American Psychological Association (APA), where she serves as project manager for departmental initiatives and oversees a portfolio of APA Journals. Previously, Cheryl has worked as a Peer Review Coordinator at APA for nearly 3 years and has experience working in production at the Water Environment Federation and digital marketing at the National Sleep Foundation. Cheryl holds an MPS in Publishing from GWU. 

Lois Jones is Peer Review Manager for the Journals Department at American Psychological Association (APA), where she co-manages the Peer Review program, which includes 90 journals and 23 Peer Review Coordinators. Lois is focused on ensuring a transparent and ethical peer review process for authors, while providing reviewers and editors with exceptional support in the constantly changing landscape of scholarly publishing. She holds an MPS in Publishing from GWU. 

Jenna Miley is currently a Peer Review Coordinator with the Journals Department at American Psychological Association (APA), where she works with the flagship journal, American Psychologist. Previously, Jenna interned in foreign rights at 2 Seas Agency and Groupe de la Martinière in France, and at APA’s children’s book imprint, Magination Press. She holds a MPS in Publishing from GWU and volunteers as a mentor and the Secretary of the Board of Directors for Space of Her Own, Inc. 

3:15-3:45    Author Harassment 

Randy Townsend, Director, Publications Operations, American Geophysical Union 

Randy Townsend, MPS, has worked for the American Geophysical Union for more than 14 years. His career focuses on the execution of the Publications Department’s strategic goals, and the performance and development of an expanding portfolio of scholarly journals, requiring oversight of peer review operations and content integrity. He has been a leader in policy implementation and manages allegations of misconduct and ethical violations. Randy served as a judge for the EXCEL Awards and is on the Advisory Board for the Association Media & Publishing. He is a member of the Council of Science Editors, the International Society of Managing and Technical Editor’s (ISMTE) Programming Committee and serves as Co-Chair on the Society of Scholarly Publishing’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Pronouns: He, Him, His ORCID: 0000-0001-7001-5505

3:45-4:30    Publishing and Inclusive Language

Beth M. Bouloukos, Director of the Amherst College Press and Lever Press

Elizabeth Crowley Webber (pictured), Senior Production Editor at Georgetown University Press

Ana Jimenez-Moreno, Acquisitions Editor at The Ohio State University Press

Publishers see it as best practice to hold authors to inclusive language practices, but are often lacking self-awareness in their own language related to the editorial process. This short introduction to the topic will urge publishers to be more reflective about how to decolonize internal practices. We will discuss topics ranging from how we often gender (or misgender!) authors before we know how they themselves identify, standardize English dialects to US English, and use ableist language. We’ll also talk about the opportunities inclusivity presents, like promoting reparative language, designing more creative book covers, and strengthening an author’s credibility with readers. Speakers will offer a few case studies from their own editing experience and ask attendees to similarly discuss their own questions on the topic.

Thursday, October 29, 2020 | 1:00-4:30 p.m. ET

1:00-1:15    Welcome and Opening Remarks

Puja Telikicherla, Licensing and Subsidiary Rights Manager, American Psychiatric Association Publishing; Adjunct Professor, Masters of Professional Studies in Publishing, George Washington University 

1:15-2:15    Antiracism Toolkit for Allies: Steps, Springboards, and Sparks

Niccole Leilanionapae‘aina Coggins, Editorial, Design, and Production Coordinator and Assistant Project Editor, University of Virginia Press

Margaret Fraiser, Director of Diversity and Inclusion, American Geophysical Union

Randy Townsend, Director, Publications Operations, American Geophysical Union (facilitator)

In an industry that is 79% to 91% white, depending on department, there are structures in place that have created this status quo. It will be critical for white colleagues to become allies to disrupt and dismantle the status quo. With the help of over 50 volunteers from within scholarly publishing, “Antiracism Toolkit for Allies” went live in August with five steps for becoming an ally, along with other resources. The speakers in this session will present the steps, examples from within scholarly publishing and outside to springboard and spark action.

Niccole Leilanionapae‘aina Coggins (she, her, hers) is the editorial, design and production coordinator and assistant project editor for the University of Virginia Press. Before UVA, she was a Mellon University Press Diversity Fellow at the University of Washington Press where she combined her lifelong interests in racial identity and indigenous sovereignty working on books in Asian American and Indigenous studies, and American and environmental history. She is a PhD candidate in history at the University of California Santa Barbara.

Margaret Fraiser (she/her/hers), PhD, joined the American Geophysical Union in April 2020 as Director of Diversity and Inclusion. Margaret served as a program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Directorate for Geosciences. She helped execute NSF programs focused on advancing scientific knowledge and developing an inclusive STEM workforce. Prior to her rotation at NSF, Margaret was an associate professor and undergraduate faculty advisor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has served as an associate editor and editor-in-chief of international, peer-reviewed scientific journals. Margaret received a BS in geology from the University of Georgia and an MS and PhD in geological sciences from the University of Southern California.

Randy Townsend (He, Him, His), MPS, has worked for the American Geophysical Union for more than 14 years. His career focuses on the execution of the Publications Department’s strategic goals, and the performance and development of an expanding portfolio of scholarly journals, requiring oversight of peer review operations and content integrity. He has been a leader in policy implementation and manages allegations of misconduct and ethical violations. Randy served as a judge for the EXCEL Awards and is on the Advisory Board for the Association Media & Publishing. He is a member of the Council of Science Editors, the International Society of Managing and Technical Editor’s (ISMTE) Programming Committee and serves as Co-Chair on the Society of Scholarly Publishing’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

2:15-2:55    Developing the App: Indigenous Guide to DC

Dr. Elizabeth Rule, Director, AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy, George Washington University

In this talk, Director of the AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy at George Washington University, Dr. Elizabeth Rule (Chickasaw Nation), will discuss historical and contemporary Indigenous presence in Washington, DC, and will showcase the new iOS mobile application, the Guide to Indigenous DC.

Elizabeth Rule, PhD is the Director of the AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy, Academic Director of the Semester in Washington Politics Program, and Faculty in Residence at the George Washington University. Her work has been published in American Quarterly (“Seals, Selfies, and the Settler State: Indigenous Motherhood and Gendered Violence in Canada,” December 2018) and the American Indian Culture and Research Journal (“The Chickasaw Press: A Source of Power and Pride,” Fall 2018), and her research, including the “Guide to Indigenous DC” mobile application, has been featured in the Washington Post, Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, The Atlantic, and NPR. Her book manuscript, Reproducing Resistance: Gendered Violence and Indigenous Nationhood, explores the intersection of Native American/First Nations women’s reproductive justice issues, gendered violence, and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Rule has received support from Holisso: The Center for the Study of Chickasaw History and Culture, the American Indian College Fund, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Before coming to DC, she was a Visiting Scholar in Anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow. Rule received her Ph.D. and M.A. in American Studies from Brown University, and her B.A. from Yale University. She is an enrolled citizen of the “unconquered and unconquerable” Chickasaw Nation.

3:00-3:20    Open Educational Resources

Christopher J. Harris, Jr., MPS, Communications Instructor, Thomas Nelson Community College

This session explores the ethical issues involved in higher education textbook publishing. Beginning with an examination of the rising costs of college textbooks, we will then turn to the ways college bookstores and textbook publishers are making college textbooks more affordable to students. The presentation will then focus on the emergence of open educational resources (OERs) and show the impact they are having on the college textbook market, concluding by examining whether OERs present the best possible solution for solving the problem of rising textbook costs.

Mr. Christopher J. Harris, Jr. is a 2020 graduate of the Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Publishing program at The George Washington University. Additionally, Mr. Harris earned his Master of Arts degree in Communication from Spring Arbor University in 2012 and his Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from Bridgewater College in 2004. Mr. Harris is currently an adjunct instructor in the Communication Studies and Theater department at Thomas Nelson Community College. At Thomas Nelson, he currently teaches several sections of Principles of Public Speaking and Interpersonal Communication. In addition to teaching, Mr. Harris serves on several college committees.

3:30-4:15    Born Accessible: The Past, Present and Future of Accessibility in Publishing 

Bill Kasdorf, Principal, Kasdorf and Associates

Accessibility used to be a significant challenge for publishers–not to mention for those who need accessible publications. Accessible publications were special formats, requiring expertise most publishers and vendors lacked, and were often created long after initial publication, by specialists, at significant extra cost. This was especially problematic for print disabled students, who often waited weeks into a semester to have access to materials their classmates had from the start. But increasingly, this is no longer the case. Today’s accessibility standards have come to align with web standards that are widely known, and accessible publications use formats–especially EPUB–that are commonly produced. Most publishers don’t realize how close they are to making their publications accessible, based on standards like HTML and EPUB that their vendors produce routinely. We are making significant progress toward the broad creation of “born accessible” publications, whose editorial and production workflows are designed to make them accessible from the start. In the future–and in some few cases today–people who need accessible publications will be able to obtain the same publications everybody does, at the same time and at no extra cost. This session will describe these developments and provide a wealth of resources to help publishers make their publications Born Accessible.

Bill Kasdorf, kasdorf.bill@gmail.com, is Principal of Kasdorf & Associates, LLC, a consultancy focusing on editorial and production workflows, XML/HTML/EPUB modeling, information infrastructure, standards and best practices alignment, and accessibility. He is a founding partner of Publishing Technology Partners. Bill is active in the W3C (as the W3C Global Publishing Evangelist and serving on the Publishing Working Group, Publishing Business Group, and the EPUB 3 Community Group) and co-chairs NISO’s Video & Audio Metadata Guidelines Working Group. He is Past President of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP). He is a member of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), serving on BISG’s Workflow Committee, the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), and the DAISY Consortium for accessibility. He is the recipient of the SSP Distinguished Service Award, the BISG Industry Champion Award, and the IDEAlliance/DEER Luminaire Award. Bill has written and spoken widely on publishing technology and workflows and accessibility. He is general editor of The Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing and co-editor of the BISG Guide to Accessible Publishing, and serves on the editorial board of Learned Publishing, having guest edited the January 2019 issue devoted to accessibility. In his consulting practice, he has served large international publishers such as Pearson, Cengage, Wolters Kluwer, Kaplan, and Sage; scholarly presses and societies such as NEJM, the National Academies Press, Harvard, MIT, Toronto, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge, IEEE, the American College of Physicians, and the Cochrane Library; aggregators such as VitalSource; and global publishing and library organizations such as the World Bank, the British Library, the Asian Development Bank, OCLC, ORCID, and the Publishing Office of the European Union.

Friday, October 30, 2020 | 1:00-4:30 p.m. ET

1:00-1:15    Welcome and Opening Remarks

Randy Townsend, Director, Publications Operations, American Geophysical Union

1:15-2:00    Millenials and Manipulation

Josephine E. Sciortino, Managing Editor, Canadian Science Publishing

Yael Fitzpatrick, Consulting Art Director and Brand Manager, Gazelle Design Consultancy

Authors say they understand the basic principles of publishing ethically and with the many available resources (i.e., COPE, ICMJE), this is a likely assumption. However, the increasing number of retractions indicate the lack of practical knowledge of publishing ethics. How does this knowledge gap apply to millennials, a growing author demographic? Is the knowledge gap different between them and the older generation? Millennials tend to be values-driven, and this should create a more ethical publishing landscape. This presentation will demonstrate the different knowledge gaps among millennials, and outline their knowledge strengths. This data should inform how editors and publishers approach this group of authors. How can editors help this demographic learn and apply ethical principles in their publishing activities?

This second part of this presentation focuses on image/video manipulation, and the importance of considering not only the mechanical details of the manipulation, but also the underlying intent.

Josephine Sciortino is Managing Editor at Canadian Science Publishing, the largest nonprofit journal publisher in Canada, where she manages a team of scientific publishing and production editors for eight scientific journals. She has worked in scholarly publishing for over 20 years with various biomedical societies in the management of their specialty journals, including the Canadian Urological Association Journal and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. 

Yael Fitzpatrick is an art director, publications designer, writer, and science communicator. Having previously served as Art Director for the Science family of journals and Manager of Design and Branding for the American Geophysical Union, Yael now runs Gazelle Design Consultancy, providing art direction, design, and brand expertise to the scholarly community.

2:15-3:00    Ethics and Unethical Behavior

Erin Price, Senior Writer and Editor, Curie Learning

Danielle Galian, Editor, Galian Omnimedia

Companies often rely on unethical web writing practices, such as spreading false information and creating misleading titles, to obtain the elusive top page rankings on Google. What these companies don’t realize is that, due to Google’s updated algorithms, ethical web writing can actually attract readers and lead to reader retention. I explore why web writing has gone so wrong, and what can be done to restore a company’s web writing ethics while maintaining a strong readership.

The second part of this presentation explores the past and current state of “advertorials” within magazine/journal publishing and the role artificial intelligence technology can play in aiding the reader to fully comprehend its influence. 

Erin Price is the English Program Director for Curie Learning, a K–12 education company, where she develops curriculum for advanced English courses. She has a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in editing from Brigham Young University and graduated this spring with a master’s in Publishing from the George Washington University. Erin previously worked as a senior web writer and editor for an SEO marketing company. She has also worked for various magazines and journals. Her experiences as a writer and editor have led to her passion for ethics in writing and publishing. She grew up in Seattle, Washington, and she and her husband have lived in Virginia for five years. (Photo credit Sami Kunz Photography)

Danielle Galian is a multimedia journalist and editor of a health and wellness magazine based in Evanston, Illinois. A Chicago native, Danielle has written for a variety of publications and before joining her current post, she was the editor-in-chief of a monthly trade journal covering the PVF and HVAC industries. Danielle has covered the trade industry from a variety of positions and roles all within the magazine publishing format. Her primary interests include technological advances for storytelling and the future of artificial intelligence within the global publishing industry. She received her BA in broadcast journalism from Loyola University Chicago and is currently working on her Master’s degree in publishing from the School of Professional Studies at the George Washington University.

3:15-4:00    Closing Plenary: The Recommended List: Ten Notes I’ve Learned from Diversity & Inclusion Efforts So Far

Introduction by M. Luisa Simpson, Senior Vice President, Global Policy, Association of American Publishers

Elda Rotor, VP and Publisher, Penguin Classics, Penguin Random House

Elda Rotor is Vice President and Publisher for Penguin Classics. She oversees the U.S. editorial program including the works of John Steinbeck, Arthur Miller, Shirley Jackson, William Golding, Amy Tan, Alice Walker, and the Pelican Shakespeare series. She has created and edited several series including the new Penguin Vitae hardcover series, and the forthcoming Penguin Liberty series about constitutional rights. She has led the Penguin Publishing Group Diversity Committee and is a member of the Penguin Random House Diversity & Inclusion Council. Elda is a board member for the Academy of American Poets and Kundiman, a national organization dedicated to Asian American creative writing.

4:00    Conference concludes – networking opportunity