EASE Update - Issue 2
European Association of Science Editors (EASE)
EASE is a global community of editorial professionals with diverse skills and experience across academic publishing.
Welcome to the second issue of EASE Update - our new bi-monthly newsletter for everyone working in a wide range of roles across the scientific and scholarly publishing spectrum.
You find us in the midst of much conference organisation with final preparations being made for our Autumn Symposium, and planning well underway for our 2025 Conference in Oslo. As prelude to these events, and in support of a Nature editorial calling for greater planning of hybrid conferences, we wanted to offer some insight into the EASE approach to modern events.
As well as events, we have launched three major new publications; the results of of the SDG Publishers Compact and EASE Environmental Manifesto survey; Recommendations on the Use of AI in Scholarly Communication, and a new physical edition of the EASE Peer Review Card Exchange Game.
We share details of these and more activities for our wider community to make use of in this issue, so we very much hope you enjoy this edition of EASE Update.
If you would like to receive more information about initiatives, events and activities open to all from EASE, feel free to join our Mailing List.
EASE agrees that ‘Hybrid conferences should be the norm’
As many of our members know, we are committed to the format of hybrid conferences, and strongly believe in the wide range of benefits and enhancements they offer our community. ?
It is the case that hybrid conferences require new skills; from the organisational foundations in planning, selecting an appropriate venue, to curating sessions that include a variety of appropriate speakers, to hosting technical rehearsals and inductions for moderators and speakers with a view to ensuring they are fully equipped to keep eyes online and in the room to harmonise proceedings. ?
We are mindful of providing an engaging experience that incorporates strengths from both formats to benefit all delegates, acknowledging everyone’s presence and encouraging participation equally. In the venues, participants should have online access to engage with remote participants should they wish, so neither feel isolated or removed from each other.?
Following our conference, we provide all participants with a complete package of a book of session synopsis and speaker bios, with full recordings of every session including slides, plus any related poster sessions and satellite events. We look forward to hosting many more hybrid events in future, and constantly improving and fine tuning to provide the greatest usefulness and most enjoyable experiences we can.
EASE Peer Review Card Exchange Game
We are very excited to launch a new edition of the Peer Review Card Exchange Game. This card game is designed as an engaging, inclusive, interactive training exercise to stimulate debate around the ethics, policies and processes of peer review.
Published in EASE journal, European Science Editing in 2018 as a training resource, this new 2024 edition makes a full set of playing cards available for the first time, along with revised texts and brand-new cards that update the game to accommodate contemporary issues such as Artificial Intelligence, alongside themes including Competence, Impartiality, and Constructive Criticism.
Each deck contains 38 full-colour cards, a short instruction card, and 8-page booklet with detailed instructions.
Full details of the game are available on the EASE website. Decks are available to purchase from the EASE shop, now. Or watch this explainer video for a preview!
EASE Autumn Symposium 2024 AI and digital tools in scholarly publishing
Tuesday, 26 November?
Register now for our Autumn Symposium. A day of sessions aimed at researchers, journal editors, manuscript editors and peer reviewers, with experts from across the publishing industry presenting the latest innovations in the use of AI and digital tools, including:
EASE members benefit from a 50% discount when booking - you may wish to join as an EASE member for 2025 before booking your place for better value. In addition, when you join for 2025 you now get the remainder of 2024 for free!?
Thanks to our generous sponsors, those working in low-, lower-middle and upper-middle income countries may apply for a sponsored place to attend for free. Places are limited, so apply soon!
Details of the full programme, booking information and sponsored places available on the event webpages
Webinars
We provide our members with Spring and Autumn series of webinars as part of their subscription package, and make these available to purchase for all in our Shop, enabling you to select those of most value to you.
Our regional chapters and special interest groups also offer a wide range of free webinars and events which you can join live, or access via our YouTube channel at any time.? ?
Our November and December Autumn webinars are:
Enhancing the Quality of Open Access Scholarly Publishing with Jadranka Stojanovski, Associate professor, University of Zadar / Ru?er Bo?kovi? Institute, Croatia
Tuesday, 19 November, 2pm (UK time).
Join EASE Council member Jadranka Stojanovski as she shares key findings from the DIAMAS analysis of best practices in open access scholarly publishing.
The CSE Manual: Introducing and Exploring the 9th Edition moderated by Peter J. Olson, ELS , Freelance Manuscript Editing Coordinator, JAMA Network, with Audrey Daniel Lusher , Leonard Jack, Jr. , and Kelly Newton
Tuesday, 10 December, 2pm (UK time)
This webinar will feature perspectives from four contributors to the 9th Edition who will share their respective approaches toward their assigned content and discuss their rationales for select revisions that were made to one of CSE’s preeminent publications.
Video recordings on our YouTube channel
EASE India recently hosted an excellent webinar, presented by Malini Devadas, PhD , on how to successfully market yourself and your services as a freelance editor. Malini had many useful insights and tips to offer that will be of relevance to any freelancer, not just those in editorial roles.
In this presentation, delegates learnt the difference between marketing and selling and why these are must-have skills for forming your client base. Malini covered how to get started with both, no matter what your niche is and how long you have had your business.
Our open webinars are available for the public to view on our YouTube channel, and members have access to additional videos through our Resources Hub. Non-members can purchase any of our member-only webinars through the?EASE Shop.
Training
EASE offers a variety of training, workshops and webinars on an extensive range of topics, with expert speakers and experienced trainers addressing current key issues, hot topics and core skills.
Our next EASE training course is a Macro Workshop for PC users with Jennifer Yankopolus :
This workshop will run over two sessions: Monday, 3 and Monday, 10 February 2025, 2pm – 4pm (UK time)?
Interested in improving your editing speed and reducing repetitive strain??
Jennifer will guide you through the use of macros to increase productivity and accuracy. Macros are free editing tools that can be integrated into Word. Once you understand the basics of how to install them, they are simple and fast to use. If you can copy and paste, you can use macros.
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18th EASE General Assembly and Conference?
The 18th EASE General Assembly and Conference will be held in Oslo, Norway on 14-16 May 2025.?
The conference theme will be ‘Editing in the age of misinformation’, with a programme encompassing perennial issues around trust and reliability in research within academia and across the public sphere, and addresses contemporary developments in the application of artificial intelligence, large language models, machine learning, and image generation relating to scholarly publishing.
Our?specialist interest committees?are open to non-members to participate in, and are a great way of developing your skills, sharing your expertise, and getting involved in EASE before becoming a full member.
The recent development of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI (GenAI) presents new challenges and opportunities in scholarly communication. Our new guideline developed by the EASE Peer Review Committee promotes responsible and transparent use of AI by editors, authors, and reviewers, with links to examples of current policies and practices.
Developed by Nikita Lad, Ph.D. , Iva Grabaric Andonovski , Dana Compton, CAE, ENV SP , Jo Wixon , and Mary Hodgson of the EASE Environment and Sustainability Committee and the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) SDG Publishers Compact Fellows, the survey was designed to assess the progress made by signatories to the SDG Publishers Compact, detect obstacles that prevent other publishers or journals from signing the compact, assess awareness and implementation of the EASE Environmental Manifesto, and identify other initiatives that promote SDGs.
EASE produces a range of different publications for our members and the wider community; from articles, reviews, viewpoints, and editorials in our diamond open access journal European Science Editing, to guidelines, statements and resource documents on the EASE website. In this section of EASE Update, we highlight a selection of our recent and notable publications.
SAGER Checklist
The original article for Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) Guidelines recently passed 1 million views, 100,000 downloads, and now has an accompanying checklist, published in?European Science Editing.
The checklist exists in two versions, one for studies including human participants and one for studies that do not include human participants, such as those using animals and cells. These were developed from the guidelines presented in the original SAGER article, with additional requirements identified by some?Lancet?journals.?They present a convenient list of items to check off when writing, reviewing or editing manuscripts.
In this Viewpoing, Senior Assistant Editor Christopher Wortley presents details of the abstract translation procedure and rollout at The Lancet. This project is intended to support the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science goals of equitable and inclusive access to scientific knowledge by translating abstracts into relevant languages.
Bor Luen Tang
In this response to a recent ESE article, Luen Tang offers several counter-perspectives and caveats against the possible implementation of AI-authorship.
Silvije Segulja et al.
This paper highlights the importance of reporting guidelines in academic research writing, in particular, CAse Report guidelines in medical fields, and their role in eliminating biased reporting and improving quality.
Esteban Giraldo González et al.
Following the path opened by similar studies in Colombia and Brazil, this new paper presents the results of an analysis of Mexic academic book publishing. The paper provides production data not normally available, from one of the largest countries in Latin America, with figures that show how the publishing market is self-regulated.?
Have you considered EASE membership?
?Take advantage of our new year offer, join now for 2025 and we will make your membership live straight away. There's still time to enjoy member discounts on the Autumn Symposium and the November and December webinars.
EASE membership is ideal for all those who are involved in the scientific and scholarly communication and publication industry. The Association is home to all roles involved in the writing, publication and dissemination of research, including journal editors, manuscript editors, authors’ editors, copyeditors and proofreaders, commissioning editors, editors-in-chief, academics, translators, publishers, indexers, statistical editors, science and technical writers, journalists, corporate communicators and many more.
As well as individual members, EASE offers discounts for groups, so if you wish to join a number of your journal’s editorial team, or you are from a larger organisation or university, group membership may be the best approach. Visit our?types and rates page?for terms and prices, then contact the?Secretary?for more information.
We hope you have enjoyed this?EASE Update?newsletter. We'll be back in January with the third edition.
If you would like to receive more information about initiatives, events and activities open to all from EASE direct to your inbox, feel free to join our Mailing List.
If you have any queries or suggestions, please contact Mary Hodgson,?EASE Secretary.
We look forward to seeing you at an EASE event soon.
Best wishes,
Cem Uzun, EASE President and the EASE Council