Society for Scholarly Publishing

SSP updated its visual identity in 2017
Abbreviation	SSP
Headquarters	Wheat Ridge, Colorado
Website	https://sspnet.org

The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) is a professional society, founded in 1978, dedicated to promoting and advancing communication and networking among all sectors of the scholarly communications community. It has approximately 1,100 members from 24 countries including publishers, service providers, librarians, researchers, and consultants.^[1][2]

SSP is organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt educational society.^[3]

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.^[4]

SSP is also unique among scholarly communications associations in that it does not take positions on political issues.^[5] It is also one of the few scholarly communications societies and associations that allows members to join as individuals. It offers a variety of membership types.

SSP has held an annual meeting since its formation, bringing together many participants in scholarly publishing including librarians, publishers, scholarly societies, funders and service providers. It also holds additional educational seminars, webinars, focus groups and regional events during the year.

In addition to educational meeting and events, SSP offers a Fellowship Program to students and early career professionals. Students of publishing, librarianship, and information science, together with early-career professionals in the first four years of employment in the scholarly communications industry, are invited to apply for one of approximately a dozen Fellowships awarded each year. Centered on the SSP Annual Meeting, the Fellowship program supports and nurtures students and early-career professionals who are eager to develop their skills and learning experiences within the scholarly publishing community.

The society also offers a Mentorship Program. The Mentorship Program is designed to provide an opportunity for professionals at all career levels to develop new relationships, share experiences, and learn from others outside their organizations by connecting with a mentor. It enables established professionals to give back to the industry and pay forward the support and guidance they received during the development of their career by serving as mentors. The program aims to connect members of SSP for the purposes of professional development, information exchange, networking, personal growth, and career advancement.

SSP maintains an active social media presence on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. SSP maintains an RSS newsfeed as well. The LinkedIn Group is open to the public upon approval and has more than 8600 followers.

The Scholarly Kitchen is a moderated, independent blog supported by SSP with a variety of contributors from the scholarly communications community. Contributions to The Scholarly Kitchen represent the thoughts and opinions of the various authors, and not those of the Society, which does not take political positions.^[6] It's goal is to bring together differing opinions, commentary, and ideas, and presents them openly.

The Society for Scholarly Publishing established The Scholarly Kitchen in February 2008 to:

1. Keep SSP members and interested parties aware of new developments in publishing
2. Point to research reports and projects
3. Interpret the significance of relevant research in a balanced way (or occasionally in a provocative way)
4. Suggest areas that need more input by identifying gaps in knowledge
5. Translate findings from related endeavors (publishing outside STM, online business, user trends)
6. Attract the community of STM information experts interested in these things and give them a place to contribute

Learned Publishing is a journal published by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers^[7] in collaboration with SSP. Learned Publishing's readers are "not-for-profit and commercial publishers worldwide and members of other professions involved with scholarly publishing – librarians, academic authors and teachers, and subscription agents – as well as printers and other suppliers of services to book and journal publishers."^[8] SSP appoints the North American Editor of Learned Publishing.

SSP maintains a library^[9] 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.

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.

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 then-Editor-in-Chief Kent Anderson 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.^[5][10]

• sspnet.org — Official website
• Learned Publishing — A journal co-published by the SSP
• The Scholarly Kitchen—Official blog of SSP