On Friday, May 31, Danielle Cooper and Rebecca Springer will speak on “The Great Divide: Communicating Scholarly Research to Practitioners” at the Society for Scholarly Publishing Annual Conference in San Diego, California. Danielle and Rebecca will be joined on the panel by Angela Cochran (American Society of Civil Engineers), Amy Rechenmacher (University of Southern California), and Ingrid Tomac (University of California San Diego). The panel will run from 11:15 am to 12:15 pm. For more information and to register, please see the SSP website.

Session abstract

The academy is increasingly under pressure to both augment and demonstrate the societal impact of its research. Proponents of open access models assert that eliminating paywalls will help practitioners apply cutting-edge academic research to their work. Meanwhile, publishers are experimenting with new models for translational scholarly communication, including dedicated practitioner-facing journals and multimedia content. Focusing on the field of civil engineering as a case study, this session will help participants consider how publishers can support and leverage scholarly communication with practitioners. What are publishers successfully doing to connect practitioners to scholarly research? What could they do in the future? Is open access sufficient…or necessary?

This session will feature insights from a panel representing the perspective of civil engineering scholars and society publishers. The session presenters will outline findings from several in-depth studies of research practices – highlighting scholars’ current practices and concerns around communicating with practitioners – while panelists will share their unique perspectives. Attendees will leave the session with actionable steps toward integrating practitioners into the “market” for scholarly communications in their own work.