Moderated Discussion: Preserving Our Value(s): Scholarly Publishing in a Changing World

Duration: 1 hr 6 mins
Publication Date: May 2025

About the session

In an increasingly chaotic landscape, scholarly publishers must remain committed to their values while adapting to emerging issues. This candid plenary session brings together C-level leaders—from a commercial publisher, a society publisher, a university press, and a library—to explore the critical role of scholarly communication in today’s world. Panelists will tackle questions around research integrity, business models, government mandates, AI, and the role of disruptors. Together, they’ll examine whether the values that underpin our work continue to benefit society—and what we can do if they don't. Attendees will leave with a realistic view of the challenges ahead, but also a renewed sense of possibility and purpose for how scholarly publishers can adapt, lead, and continue to deliver value in a shifting landscape.

Collection

Annual Meeting (2025)

Speakers

Executive Director, SSP

Melanie Dolechek has served as the Executive Director of the Society for Scholarly Publishing since 2015. She is founder and past Convener for the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communication and past treasurer of the Kansas City Society of Association Executives where she has also served on the Communications and Program committees. Melanie holds a Master of Science in Management from Baker University, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kansas State University and is a Certified Association Executive. She has been active in scholarly publishing since 2006, previously serving as the Director of Publishing and Marketing of Allen Press. She has been a speaker at several KCSAE events over the past several years and a presenter at the ASAE Annual Meeting in 2019, 2021, and 2024. In 2023 she was awarded the KCSAE Distinguished Association Executive Award.
Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Dean of University Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Elisabeth M. Long is Sheridan Dean of University Libraries, Archives, and Museums at Johns Hopkins University. She oversees library services in the six Sheridan Libraries and coordinates library services provided by all schools of the university through the University Library Directors Council (LDC), which she chairs. She also oversees the university’s historic house museums, Homewood Museum and Evergreen Museum & Library. Prior to becoming dean at Johns Hopkins, she served as associate university librarian for information technology and digital scholarship at the University of Chicago Library since 2016, where she began her career in 1993. She served as interim library director and university librarian from December 1, 2021 to April 21, 2022, and was an Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Leadership Fellow in 2018–19. She currently serves on the HELIOS Open Advisory Council and the APTrust Governing Board, and was a member of the ARL/CNI AI Scenario Planning Task Force. Dean Long holds a BA from St. John’s College, an MLIS from the University of Maryland, and an MFA in book and paper arts from Columbia College Chicago.
Publisher and President, Oxford University Press

Niko Pfund is Publisher and President of Oxford University Press, USA. He began his career at Oxford in 1987 as an editorial assistant in law and social science before moving to New York University Press in 1990. At NYU Press, he was an editor and then editor in chief before becoming director in 1996. He returned to Oxford in 2000 in the role of Academic Publisher and is responsible for the Press’s scholarly research and reference publishing across the humanities, social sciences, science, law, and medicine. A past President of the Association of University Presses, he serves or has served on a number of boards and advisory groups, including those of the Digital Public Library of America, the Executive Council of the Professional and Scholarly Publishing division of the American Publishers, the Eurasia Group Foundation, and the literary magazine The Common. In July, he will become Director of Yale University Press.
American Chemical Society
SVP Global Strategic Relations, Elsevier

Ann Gabriel leads Elsevier’s Global Strategic Networks team, which engages with key stakeholders across the research enterprise to establish strategic collaborations and use data analytics to address societal challenges in the areas of sustainability, diversity & inclusion and open science. Prior to her current role, she held a variety of positions at the forefront of scholarly communication – most recently as Elsevier’s Publishing Director for journals in Computer Science and Engineering, as well as electronic product development for Elsevier’s ScienceDirect platform.