Scientific Publishing: What Does the Future Hold?

Saturday, November 12, 2005
8:30 am - 3:45 pm
Sinclair Auditorium, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Scientific publishing is in a state of flux. At the Lehigh conference, a set of distinguished speakers with first-hand involvement presented a spectrum of views on the challenges and issues that we face as we move fully into the digital age. Copies of their presentations have been made available online -- see below.

The conference was aimed at users and producers of scientific and technical scholarship. Sponsored by the Lehigh University Chapter of Sigma Xi and Lehigh University Library and Technology Services.

Our many thanks to the invited speakers and everyone else who participated for making the Lehigh conference a rousing success!

Conference Schedule

Detailed Program Information

JULIA BLIXRUD Assistant Director for Public Programs, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) Advancing Open Access for the Public Good

Julia Blixrud is the Assistant Director for Public Programs for SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. Serving in that capacity part time since August 1999, she is implementing a grassroots educational and advocacy program directed to scientists and scholars, librarians, and society publishers.

In addition, Julia is Assistant Executive Director, External Relations, for the Association of Research Libraries where she has worked since December 1996. She is a staff member for the Association’s new Strategic Direction that focuses on Research, Teaching, and Learning. Julia represents the Association at national and international meetings and events, participates in the planning and development of ARL's New Measures Initiative, shares planning for publications and communications activities for ARL, and conducts special projects. She serves as staff to the Association's Membership Committee and the Visiting Program Officer program and is an adjunct faculty member for ARL's Office of Leadership and Management Services, conducting workshops on facilitation and the culture of assessment as well as serving as a consultant on planning and assessment.

Julia's 25-year career in the library community has included positions at CAPCON and MINITEX library networks, the Council on Library Resources, and the Library of Congress. Her interests and professional activities include technical standards, serials, cooperative programs, intellectual property, and scholarly communication. She has a BA in Library Science and Scandinavian Studies from Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and an MA in Library Science from the University of Minnesota.

SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is an alliance of academic and research libraries and organizations working to correct market dysfunctions in the scholarly publishing system. Developed by the Association of Research Libraries, SPARC has become a catalyst for change. Its pragmatic focus is to facilitate the emergence of systems that capitalize on the networked environment to disseminate research. Its strategies expand competition and support open access to address the high and rising cost of scholarly journals, especially in science, technology and medicine -- a trend that inhibits the advancement of scholarship.

JOHN EWING Executive Director, American Mathematical Society Scholarly Publishing: A century ago, a century from now

John Ewing is the Executive Director and Publisher of the American Mathematical Society. He previously held a position as professor of mathematics at Indiana University from 1973-1995 where he also served as Chair of the department. He was editor-in-chief for the two major journals of mathematical exposition, the Mathematical Intelligencer and the American Mathematical Monthly, and served on the editorial boards of several book series published by Springer-Verlag. Ewing received his B.S. from St. Lawrence University in 1966, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Brown University in 1971.

The American Mathematical Society has over 30,000 members and approximately 220 employees in its Rhode Island, Michigan, and Washington, D.C. offices. The Society produces a dozen journals (both electronic and paper), publishes more than 100 new books each year, and keeps more than 3,000 titles in print. It also maintains the electronic database MathSciNet containing over 2 million mathematical reviews dating from 1940, used by researchers around the world.

KAREN HUNTER Senior Vice President, Strategy, Elsevier New York Publishing in a Period of "Unprecedented Uncertainty"

Karen Hunter is a Senior Vice President at Elsevier. With Elsevier since 1976, she has been involved for much of that time with the migration from print to electronic and has specialized in the research library market and in policies affecting that market. She is on the board of CrossRef and of the Copyright Clearance Center and on the Copyright Committee of the AAP. Hunter has an undergraduate degree in history from the College of Wooster and graduate degrees in history, library science and business administration from Cornell, Syracuse and Columbia universities respectively.

Company info:
Elsevier is a publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier's 7,000 employees in 74 offices worldwide publish more than 1,800 journals and 2,200 new books per year, in addition to offering electronic products, such as ScienceDirect, MD Consult, Scopus bibliographic databases, and online reference works.

ROSALIND REID Editor, American Scientist Publishing, Access and the Progress of Science

Rosalind Reid is Editor of American Scientist, the magazine of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. Sigma Xi is the international honor society of science and engineering, founded in 1886. Its goals include encouraging appreciation and support of original work in science and technology. Ms. Reid has worked as a science editor and writer for more than 20 years. As Editor of the magazine since 1992, she launched a low-bandwidth online archive for developing-country scientists in addition to the illustrated American Scientist Online. On a short sabbatical in 2003 she was the first Journalist in Residence at the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics. She has given invited talks on publishing issues in Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Denmark, Canada, Mexico, Cuba as well as the U.S. and gives regular workshops on the visual communication of science.

CHRISTINE ROYSDON and BRIAN SIMBOLI Lehigh University Libraries Whose Electronic Library Is It, Anyway?

Christine Roysdon is Director for Library Collections and Systems for Lehigh University's Library and Technology Services. In that capacity, she oversees the development of Lehigh's electronic library collections, campuswide software licenses, digital library projects, library systems, and library electronic services.

Brian Simboli is Science Librarian, Lehigh University Library and Technology Services. He is responsible for library collection development and services to faculty and students in sciences, mathematics, and psychology. He has published articles and conference materials about library services for scientists, including citation management and visualization software, access and affordability of journal literature, library digital projects, and library support for distance education.