Navigating a Career in Scholarly Publishing: Pathways for Early Career Professionals with an Academic Background

The SSP webinar program delivers a series of highly informative, thought-provoking webinars designed to challenge and stimulate discussion. Covering timely topics and offered regularly throughout the year, our one-hour webinars are available for viewing 180 days after the live broadcast.

Amanda Sulicz is the Publishing Ethics Specialist for IEEE. In this role, Amanda is responsible for upholding the integrity of the scholarly record by assisting with policy development, implementation, and resolution of ethics and plagiarism concerns. Prior to joining IEEE in 2023, Amanda started her publishing career in 2019 at AIP Publishing. Initially, she was as an in-house Associate Editor for Applied Physics Reviews. In 2021, Amanda began transitioning into the role of Journal Manager for AIP Advances. Throughout Amanda’s roles at AIPP, she worked to expand the journal portfolio through the launch of 5 new journals, including 3 Gold Open Access journals. Amanda is passionate about contributing to the scientific and publishing communities. She was a founding member of AIPP’s DEI Committee and continues to serve on IEEE’s DEI Committee. Amanda also serves as a mentor and guest speaker to students at her previous alma maters. Before starting her career in publishing, Amanda worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the lab of Dr. Kirk S. Schanze upon the completion of her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University in 2017.

In October, Briana became a Journal Operations Manager in the expanded Portfolio Transitions team at Wiley, where she works with peer-reviewed journal transition processes such as takeovers, title changes, OA flips, and new launches. Briana interned at Wiley in 2011, as she was finishing up her Masters in Chemical Biology from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken. She started full-time as an Editorial Program Assistant in February 2012, and over the last 12 years, has worked with materials science and engineering society journals to become a Journal Publishing Manager. She has a broad range of experience from her time as JPM, where she worked managing society contract proposals and renewals, proposing, launching, and managing 2 new Fully Gold Open Access journals, hiring editors and building editorial teams, and conducting in-depth strategy sessions with societies. Her background in science has given her a step-up in connecting with the scientific societies and researchers she works with regularly.

Elizabeth Sherburn Demers is the Director at Michigan State University Press. She has previously worked at University of Michigan Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, and University of Nebraska Press, as well as at Quarto Publishing Group, Potomac Books, and Greenwood Publishing Group. She has a Ph.D. in American History from Michigan State University.

Harry is an astrophysicist by training and obtained his PhD at Leiden University in 1997 on the analysis of gamma-ray satellite data. After a post-doc position at INAOE in Puebla, Mexico, he started a career in academic publishing at Kluwer in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. In 2004, he moved to New York City to become senior editor in astronomy and space technology for Springer. Over the next 20 years he gained wide-ranging publishing experience including books and journals acquisition in the physical sciences, managing large global publishing teams, and expansion into new geographical areas. As a Vice-President since 2013, he became responsible for supporting publishing teams in driving content growth and development across the Springer Nature Journals division. His team worked on the definition and implementation of publishing policies, pilots, and processes. Activities included Abstracting & Indexing, Digital Preservation, Journal Development, Society Collaborations, and Journals Contracting. In 2021, he left Springer Nature to focus on teaching and consulting in the areas of his expertise.