New Directions in Tools for Discoverability, Findability, Shareability, and Impact

SSP’s 2021 New Directions Seminar is a deep dive into the breakneck speed in which our industry is currently transitioning, transforming, and evolving, while also recognizing and highlighting the limits (and uncomfortable consequences) of moving too quickly. Topics covered in the seminar include new pressures on scholarship and science communication in a post-Covid world; new Open Access and funding models; the drive toward diversity and inclusion in workplaces and publications; the surge in preprints and the demand for accelerated publishing workflows; emerging metrics of impact; and the latest—and truly exciting—developments in tools, techniques, and technology that drive our industry forward. Speakers will examine these issues through the lens of the “need for speed” and how to find the right cadence or risk slamming on the breaks. Join us as we explore how we can respond quickly to changing conditions within the scholarly publishing industry and community, and work towards reaching a universal speed—hopefully, without breaking things.

Darrell is an accomplished digital publishing executive and has been at the forefront of new technology initiatives at Dow Jones Financial News Services, Elsevier, Collexis, and the American Institute of Physics. Since 2010, his consultancy firm, Gunter Media Group, Inc., has advised CEOs from startups to large companies, and he is an operating partner with TriArtisan Capital in New York. He is an adjunct professor at the Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business, where he teaches Professional Sales to both undergraduate and graduate students. He is a published author of the edited volume "Transforming Scholarly Research with Blockchain Technologies and AI." His other publications can be accessed on his ORCID profile. He graduated from Seton Hall University's W. Paul Stillman School of Business (BS Business Administration- Marketing) and Lake Forest Graduate School of Management (MBA). Darrell serves on several non-profit boards: Humane Society of the United States, USA Boxing Foundation, Wissahickon Trails, Global DARE, and Montgomery County Community College Foundation. In his spare time, he and his wife Deb enjoy their fur babies, three cats, Shadeux, Milo, and Boots, and their active Border Collie, Rylee.

Sami Benchekroun is the cofounder and CEO of Morressier, the company that is accelerating scientific breakthroughs by building the home for early-stage research. His vision is to create a single place for pre-published research to be discussed, shared, analyzed, and discovered by the entire scientific ecosystem. Sami is an expert on early-stage research and a frequent speaker on new developments in scholarly communication. He has a background studying business at ESCP in London, Paris and Berlin.