Kristen Overstreet is President of the International Society for Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE), and a Senior Partner at Origin Editorial, LLC, an editorial consultation and peer-review management company. Ms. Overstreet began working in editorial offices in 1998 and currently manages nursing, medicine, and physics titles. She has been on the Board of Directors for the ISMTE since 2008 and served from the year 2008 till 2011 as the society\u2019s editor of the newsletter, EON, for which she was the founding editor.<\/p>\n
Can you provide an overview of International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE) and your priorities as President?<\/p>\n
ISMTE\u2019s mission is to connect people who manage peer review and editorial offices for academic and scholarly journals and enhance the professionalism of their roles. We provide opportunities to connect with peers from annual face-to-face conferences to local group meetings to discussion forums. Additionally, we provide opportunities to discuss and develop best practices and practical, applicable resources for our community to use in their daily work.<\/p>\n
My priorities as president of ISMTE include focus on committees, marketing, partnerships, and value for our members. Through the dedicated work of our members and Board of Directors, we have 10 active committees that are planning our annual meetings, facilitating local group \/ regional meetings, developing resources for our membership, and carrying on the work of the society (e.g., Awards, Posters, Professional Development, Sponsorship). We are marketing the benefits of ISMTE through a weekly email, an annual sponsored collection of our newsletter\u00a0(EON)<\/em>\u00a0articles, making freely available the Editor\u2019s Choice article from\u00a0EON<\/em>\u00a0each month, and planning to translate the Editor\u2019s Choice article into Simplified Chinese. We are developing important partnerships with other organizations in the publishing field, such as our partnership with Editage<\/a>. All of these initiatives benefit our members by providing them with new information, education, resources, and networking, and by encouraging members to be actively involved so they are aware of, contributing to, and benefitting from what ISMTE has to offer.<\/p>\n Additionally, the Board of Directors committed in 2014 to the goals of 1) three meetings on three continents within three years; we will have meetings in North America, Europe, and Asia beginning in 2016; 2) providing\u00a0EON<\/em>\u00a0articles in other languages, 3) increasing membership to 1000, 4) more local\/regional groups, 5) increasing sponsorship, and 6) increasing professional development opportunities.<\/p>\n What are some challenges of scholarly communication that ISMTE is addressing?<\/p>\n A major topic of interest for editorial office professionals is publication ethics. The challenge is in educating all stakeholders in the peer review process regarding accepted ethical policies. ISMTE has partnered with COPE in 2014 and 2015 to provide educational sessions for members in conjunction with our North American and European annual meetings. Editorial office professionals must be aware of ethical standards so that they can help authors, reviewers, and editors adhere to journal policies.<\/p>\n What benefits are available to ISMTE members? Who is eligible to join?<\/p>\n ISMTE members benefit from networking with their peers; having access to the excellent content published monthly in the newsletter,\u00a0EON;<\/em>\u00a0opportunities for continuing education and training; forums to discuss new or new-to-you information with peers; a source for industry news; and even exclusive discounts offered by our sponsors. Anyone who has a role in the peer review process and\/or with scholarly and academic publications is eligible to join<\/a>.<\/p>\n Could you share with us the profile of your membership?<\/p>\n Our membership currently includes 500+ people from 5 continents who work in editorial offices or in some way with the peer review process for scholarly and academic communications, hence we are truly an international organization and we aim to make it more so.<\/p>\n Can you tell us about your Professional Development initiative?<\/p>\n ISMTE is committed to offering members resources for professional development. We have resources available<\/a> on our website\u00a0that cover topics from acronyms to scheduling. We have training resources<\/a> on podcasts, figure quality, ethics, and social media. We also offer options for job seekers and employers to connect with each other<\/a>. Our annual conference programs are developed to enhance the professionalism of attendees by providing sessions on new hot topics as well as interactive sessions, such as Excel workshops, and sessions on standard topics such as ethics and efficient management of peer review and the editorial office. We are always seeking new information and methods of providing this information based upon our members\u2019 needs. We will soon be surveying our membership about whether they see a need for a certificate or credentialing program for editorial office professionals.<\/p>\n Could you highlight some of the resources available through ISMTE\u2019s site?<\/p>\n ISMTE provides resources for:<\/p>\n