Scope
The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), founded in 1978, is a nonprofit organization formed to promote and advance communication among all sectors of the scholarly publication community through networking, information dissemination, and facilitation of new developments in the field. SSP members represent all aspects of scholarly publishing — including publishers, printers, e-products developers, technical service providers, librarians, and editors. SSP members come from a wide range of large and small commercial and nonprofit organizations. They meet at SSP's annual meetings, educational seminars, webinars, and Focus Groups to hear the latest trends from respected colleagues and to discuss common and mutual (and sometimes divergent) goals and viewpoints. SSP is also unique among scholarly communications associations in that it does not take positions on political issues.Activities
''The Scholarly Kitchen''
The ''Scholarly Kitchen'' (TSK or "the Kitchen") is a blog published by the SSP. Contributors include senior professionals in scholarly communications. Topics cover journals, textbooks, open access, metrics, and research libraries. The blog was founded in 2008 by Kent Anderson, who served as the editor-in-chief until 2013 when he became president of SSP. Since then, David Crotty has been the executive editor. The Scholarly Kitchen was a 2010 nominee for the Webby "Blog-Business" award. It has been an important site within academia for discussion of theThe Chefs
The Kitchen's 20 or so volunteer bloggers are called "Chefs". They work for diverse organizations in scholarly communications. Their affiliations include society publishers, government agencies, academic libraries, and commercial publishers. Several TSK Chefs are independent consultants. The authors represent their own views, and do not claim to speak for their employers or the SSP. In addition to contributing their blog posts, a number of the Chefs have represented the blog as featured speakers at scholarly communications conferences, including the SSP Annual Meeting, thePodcast
In 2013, Chef Stewart Wills launched the Scholarly Kitchen Podcast, with assistance from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The podcast features interviews with individuals in scholarly communications.''Learned Publishing''
''Learned Publishing'' is a journal published by theResources
SSP maintains a library of presentations from past events from 2009 to the present. SSP makes an online directory of members and services available to its members. The SSP website contains information for students and professionals considering a career in scholarly publishing as well as information about publishing and library programs. An active Job Board lists career opportunities within the industry.Governance
SSP is a volunteer-led organization governed by an unpaid board of directors and committees. All volunteers must be SSP members in good standing. The organization has a full-time executive director, a part-time program director and contracts with a professional management company for accounting, meeting planning, database management, and other services.Lawsuit threat
In March of 2013, Edwin Mellen Press threatened to sue SSP for material critical of the press hosted on ''Scholarly Kitchen''. The blog posts in question were temporarily removed and the threats published. As Kent Anderson, editor-in-chief at the time explained, "the feeling was that the best way to respond to the threats was to comply with them but also show people what the threats were." Later, the posts were reinstated by the SSP board.References
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