Call for Participation for the SSP 47th Annual Meeting

 

The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) is excited to begin planning our 47th Annual Meeting, scheduled for May 28–30, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. Proposal submissions are now open! 

Our annual meeting will be an in-person learning and networking event. All sessions will be held in person at the Hilton hotel in Baltimore, MD.  All sessions will be recorded. Recordings will be made available after the meeting along with ancillary virtual sessions featuring key speakers and members of the SSP community.

Session formats for this year include Educational Sessions, Posters, Industry Breakout Sessions and 5-minute Previews. Learn more about each session type below. 

We are delighted to announce the theme for the 2025 SSP Annual Meeting...

 


 

Submission Deadlines

Educational Session 

November 4

Industry Breakout Session

January 31

Posters

February 14

Previews Session

February 14

Reimagining the Future of Scholarly Publishing at the Intersection of Value and Values

Although every year in the scholarly publishing ecosystem is a balancing act of innovation, optimization, and value creation, 2025 is shaping up to be particularly challenging as the pace and scale of change is accelerating more than we’ve ever seen before. There is increasing pressure to provide value to and to meet the incredibly diverse needs of the global research community while maintaining financial health for our own organizations, living our values, and continuing to protect the scholarly record. With AI, open access, integrity, and mistrust frequently dominating the conversation, we are in the midst of an unprecedented shift in both our industry and society as a whole.  

As always, the SSP community continues to focus on bringing together academics, funders, librarians, publishers, service providers, technologists, researchers and countless others with a communal interest and stake in disseminating scholarly information. We look to the 47th Annual Meeting as an opportunity to continue this tradition and welcome all colleagues and community stakeholders. 



Proposed Topics

We have identified a number of topics we think attendees will find of high interest. We seek proposals encompassing all aspects of scholarly publishing, from STEM subjects to the humanities and social sciences, and from journals and books to the many other diverse formats that our community publishes.  When you submit your proposal, you’ll be asked to select the topic most closely aligned with your proposed session. 

  • Real-World Results & Tangible Outcomes: Our community is highly innovative and many organizations have been working on exciting projects related to many of the topics we expect proposals on. We see great value in sharing real-world examples of projects and results that have had tangible outcomes over the past year. 
  • Career Advancement: One of the most exciting things about our quickly changing landscape is how many opportunities are and will continue to open up in emerging and maturing fields. We expect new trends around career advancement at all stages: what new skills are needed to advance careers in our industry today and what resources can our community rely on?
  • Artificial Intelligence: Cure or curse, there’s no denying the transformational impact that AI will have on scholarly communication over the next few years.  Session proposals showcasing new opportunities and/or debating the significant challenges ahead are encouraged.

  • Globalization: How do we balance the need to be more inclusive and engage a broader range of global stakeholders while recognising that current publishing models are driven by decision makers in traditional markets?

  • Publishing Impact: While journal impact factors have long been a proxy for signaling quality, the shifting dynamics of the industry provide a timely opportunity to evaluate the impact scholarly publishers want to have on the communities we serve. 

  • Open Scholarship:  The open scholarship movement is a disruptor that is re-shaping much of the infrastructure and workflows that underpins scholarly communications.  We’re interested in proposals examining the impact and potential future directions of open scholarship.

  • Publishing Models: The sharing of research content is at the heart of our community. We continue to see the evolution around content distribution and dissemination, and value the experiences and thoughts of colleagues in exploring varying models. 

Not seeing your topic listed? Don’t despair. We are open to ideas for additional topics, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, change management, editorial and production issues, humanities and social sciences, librarian-focused sessions, networking, sales and marketing, professional development, society publishers, sustainability, university presses, and more. And if you’re still not sure, note that your ideas for topic areas are always welcome! 


Submission Process for 2025

SSP is using Ex Ordo for abstract submissions. A big and sincere THANK YOU to Ex Ordo for their sponsorship of SSP’s proposal submission system! 

Four possible session proposal options are offered as part of the submission process as follows. Submitters must select their session type at the beginning of the submission process for each proposal. You are permitted to submit more than one proposal of one or more types.

Educational Sessions

Educational sessions are designed for multiple speakers to present a specific topic that will benefit SSP attendees. Successful proposals will include concrete plans for interactivity, the inclusion of new voices, a diverse panel (with respect to gender, race, background, organization type, subject area), and clear learning objectives for the audience. Educational session time slots are 60 minutes and proposals are being accepted through
November 4, 2024

Posters

Poster presentations will provide an opportunity for information to be displayed and available to all attendees, and for poster authors to be able to discuss their poster’s content with interested parties. Poster proposals are being accepted through
February 14, 2025.

5-minute Previews Sessions

Brief, back-to-back presentations showcasing the latest innovations from across our community, including products, platforms, and content. Preview session proposals are being accepted through
February 14, 2025.  

Industry Breakout Sessions

These 30 minute sessions offer value by means of education, information, or professional development to attendees. Organizers may share information about a product or service, but sessions will be most effective if they present case studies/use cases, customer testimonials, timely information about industry issues, best practices, innovative solutions to everyday challenges, roundtable discussions, etc. If accepted, fees will apply.

The deadline for Industry Breakout applications has passed. Contact Christen Pruitt ([email protected]) for availability. 

Tips for submitting a compelling proposal:

  • DO reflect a variety of voices and viewpoints in your submission. If you are an experienced, regular conference speaker, consider proposing and mentoring a less experienced colleague to help increase panel diversity and build capacity in our community. As documented in our Core Values, SSP deeply values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and submissions that reflect an inclusive pool of speakers are required. Session panels should include a diverse mix of genders, geography, race, and cultural backgrounds as much as possible. Single-speaker educational sessions will NOT be accepted. The strongest proposals will include the voices of key stakeholders (researchers/academics, librarians, students), will cross formats (books, journals, etc.), and will include perspectives across STEM, social sciences, and humanities. 
  • DO develop your submission to appeal to a broad range of attendees in an engaging way. SSP Annual Meeting attendees value networking opportunities, insight into new developments, and practical applications they can use to advance their careers. Attendees include executives, editors, salespeople, marketing and product managers, librarians, technologists, vendors, academics, and more. 
  • DO prepare a proposal focused on in-person learning for this primarily in-person event. Session speakers should be prepared to attend in person as well. 
  • DO NOT submit an educational session focused on a single solution, a single organization, or material that is commercial in nature. These proposals will not be considered. Single solution/single organization presentations may be better positioned as a poster presentation. Submissions that are commercial in nature should be limited to the 5-minute Previews session or for Industry Breakout sessions. 
  • DO pay attention to the deadlines! Our committee will begin reviewing proposals immediately after each deadline, so we regret that we cannot accept late submissions. 
    + For Educational sessions, the submission deadline is November 4, 2024. 
    + For Industry Breakout sessions, the submission deadline is January 31, 2025. 
    + For Poster sessions, the submission deadline is February 14, 2025
    + For Preview sessions, the submission deadline is February 14, 2025. 
  • DO contact Tracy Mitchell if you have any questions while submitting a session proposal. 
  • DO review the detailed submission guidelines and check out this Scholarly Kitchen post from last year for more behind the scenes information about how the Annual Meeting Program Committee plans to continue fostering inclusivity. 

REVIEW SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

 

After reviewing these guidelines, please proceed to the SSP abstract submission site to submit your proposal.

Final decisions to accept or decline educational sessions will be distributed to submitters in December. Notifications for the 5-minute Previews sessions and Posters will follow within weeks of those submission deadline dates. Please see the submission guidelines for other important deadlines. 

Thank you for your interest in participating in the 2025 SSP Annual Meeting. We look forward to receiving your submissions! Again, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email [email protected]
 
Sincerely,
Erin Foley, Jessie Slater, and Greg Fagan
Annual Meeting Program Committee Co-Chairs


The use of Ex Ordo Review is made possible via a generous sponsorship by Ex Ordo.