Closing Plenary: Toward Pay Equity in Publishing Careers

Closing Plenary: Toward Pay Equity in Publishing Careers

Becca Bostock, Ohio State University Press Dawn Durante, University of Texas Press Dominique Moore, University of Illinois Press Amy Sherman, University of Pittsburgh Press Moderated by Alice Meadows, National Information Standards Organization (NISO)

GW Ethics in Publishing Conference 2021

It’s a commonplace that no one goes into a publishing career for the money. And yet, publishing is a profession, and while it can be a rewarding career without the expectation of riches, the issue of pay equity, especially concerns around early career pay equity and inclusion, and gender- and racial-based pay equity, needs closer examination. Many early- and mid-career professionals are compelled to take on freelancing or other “side hustles,” an option that is not available to many.

At the Association of University Presses’ 2021 Annual Meeting, Rebecca (Becca) Bostock and Dominique (Dom) J. Moore facilitated a Collaboration Lab on Early Career Pay Equity and Inclusivity, and presented the results of a survey on the topic that they carried out earlier this year, with the goal of “starting a conversation around early-career pay equity to expand current conversations around diversity and inclusivity in the AUPresses community.” A Scholarly Kitchen post continued the thread, moderated by Alice Meadows. A subsequent guest post on the H-Net Book Channel blog by Amy Sherman, published by Dawn Durante, built on the conversation.

Becca Bostock is an Associate Editor and Subventions Coordinator at The Ohio State University Press, acquiring in Victorian Studies. You can follow her on Twitter @becca_bostock.

Dawn Durante is Editor in Chief at the University of Texas Press and acquires books in the fields of Black studies, gender studies, history, American studies, and sports. Before joining Texas, she acquired at University of Illinois Press and interned at University of Arizona Press. She has an MA in Literature and a Scholarly Publishing Graduate Certificate from Arizona State University. You can follow her on Twitter @dawnd.

Alice Meadows is Director of Community Engagement at the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), and previously held a similar position at ORCID. Before that, she worked for many years in marketing and communications roles at scholarly publishers including Blackwell Publishing and Wiley. Alice is active in the scholarly communications community, including serving as President of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (2021-22) and contributing regularly to The Scholarly Kitchen blog. She is passionate about improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in our community and has written and spoken widely on this topic. You can follow Alice on Twitter at @alicejmeadows.

Dominique J. Moore acquires in American ethnic studies; Black studies; and women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Illinois Press. Previously, she worked as an assistant editor at the University of North Carolina Press and was the 2019 Mellon University Press Diversity Fellow at the Ohio State University Press. Her academic background includes a BA in English with a minor in gender and women’s studies at UIUC and an MA in African American studies, with a literary focus, from UCLA. She appreciates projects that use interdisciplinary methods to discuss marginalized groups and their material lives and is particularly interested in scholars that grapple with identity, shared experiences, and daring to exist in the world. One question Dominique likes to see authors tackle: How do marginalized people assert themselves and establish communities in ways that defy time and space?

Amy Sherman is currently the managing editor at the University of Pittsburgh Press, and has also worked as a freelance editor for most of her career. She got her start in publishing as an editorial assistant at the University Press of Kansas.