There are many great things about our industry, but the most incredible part is the people in it. We’re so lucky to work with so many exceptional people in our industry every day.
This year, we’re showcasing some of those amazing people in celebration of International Women’s Day #IWD2024 #InspireInclusion.
Join some of the great women in our industry as they share insights on lessons learned, career advice, who inspires them and top tips.
Finding inspiration
Who inspires me. You do. The people that are coming through and shaping the future and taking it by the scruff of the neck.
Senior Marketing Leader
So much of my career in scholarly publishing has been defined by women who have encouraged me, who've put my name forward, who've listened and pitched and mentored. And it's those people who inspire. And for many who have become my very true friends.
Stephanie Lovegrove Hansen,
Vice President, Marketing
Who inspires me in our industry? Two names come quite quickly to mind. Firstly, is an ex colleague of mine, Kim Eggleton who works at IOP Publishing. She is currently Head of Peer Review & Research Integrity, and she's fantastic. She is an incredibly driven person and really focused on increasing equity and access for people of all backgrounds to scholarly publishing and physics publishing in specific. She's also really smart and very methodical about the way that she goes about making those things happen. It's not just lofty ideals, she's very practical as well. So I find her very inspiring.
Also somebody who I've met through my work at 67 bricks. It's one of our clients, Emma Vodden who works at The British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery. They've undergone a huge amount of digital transformation and very ambitious product development over the last 18 months or so. A lot of that's down to her drive and her ability to bring people on side with her and inspire them with what she thinks is right for the business.
So I find her very inspiring as well with the amount that she has achieved with such a small team, obviously partnering alongside 67 Bricks. But you know, for the most part, really driving through that change herself. So she's also very inspiring, but there are tons everywhere you look in scholarly publishing, there are just super smart people doing really exciting and interesting things.
Head of Marketing and Communications
Are there any particular women that I'd like to celebrate? I think there's, quite honestly, far too many to mention in the industry. There are a lot of women in the industry and there are a lot of fantastic men in the industry. Again, too many to mention. I've worked with some absolutely incredible women over the last 20 years and I want to take this opportunity to celebrate all of them in case any of them are watching. But really, I also want to do a shout out to all the amazing women in academia, the policymakers, the scientists, the researchers. Women in academia should be celebrated as well - and of course, without them we wouldn't be able to work in this wonderful industry that we have in publishing. It wouldn't exist. So I'm taking the opportunity to have a shout out to to those particular women.
Non Executive Director
Advice for those new to the industry
I've been in scholarly publishing now for over 20 years, and I'm going to talk today about what I would say to somebody who is about to enter the scholarly publishing world for the first time. I would say welcome, great choice. And this is a fantastic community to be part of. It's actually quite hard to leave. My recommendations are to get involved as much as possible in as many things as possible. Conferences such as UKSG and ALPSP are great places to start and will often have specific networking opportunities for first time attendees.
Take the time to get to know all of the stakeholders in your world, whether that’s researchers, librarians, competitors, people from different parts of the publishing industry. You never know who you'll meet, and putting in the effort to grow your network early on will pay dividends later on in your career, even if it's quite daunting at first.
Take any opportunity that comes your way. It's a really fast-paced industry. It's changing all the time. It's very wide-ranging. It's fascinating and it spans a real breadth of subjects and areas, innovation, education, publishing, technology, content. Don't pigeonhole yourself – that would be a piece of advice as well for me.
Hannah Baldwin
Senior Marketing Leader
Find your people and find the people who are going to buoy you and challenge you and inspire you.
Vice President, Marketing
Now, I would say, don't limit yourself to just your vertical. One of the best experiences I had in my career was when I was at IOP publishing. I was working on society partner titles and looking after the marketing for that and the best thing that I did as part of that role was kind of work cross vertical with operations and the peer review teams – with finance, with the commercial teams, with it on all the things that were affecting those society partner journals. It gave me a really broad understanding of the whole infrastructure of scholarly publishing and it was an experience that I definitely valued and gave me a lot of confidence to progress in my career.
So I would say that's something you should really look for, whether that's within your own particular company, whether you can shadow other people or, in fact, you can do things like through ALPSP, for example, they have lots of introductions to courses on different topics. So for example, if you're an editorial colleague, you might want to do an introduction to marketing or an introduction to finance. And that might be really a useful way of finding out a lot more about the industry that you work in.
Emma Watkins
Head of Marketing and Communications
67 Bricks
I would really just say embrace the variety that it can offer you in career progression. When I joined my first publishing organization, I joined as a scientist. Sort of. Primarily most interested in content development. I thought that's where I could contribute the most at that time. But I would say that if you are keen to explore other options then publishing has a huge variety of areas that you can excel in – finance, project management, data analytics, sales and marketing, technology or copyright law.
So find a mentor, or find somebody that you're closely aligned with that can support you in your journey. And in terms of learning more about those areas, it should that be something you wish to pursue and actually, to be honest, I wish I had done a bit more of that when I was much younger.
Allison Lang
Non Executive Director
ALPSP
Overcoming barriers
Imposter syndrome affects 75% of female executives across industries, according to a recent KPMG study. It's certainly something that I felt and something that I've seen in other female colleagues, despite them being really great. One tip for those of you feeling unworthy of your achievements or accolades is to regularly keep a diary of challenges you've overcome and achievements as evidence of your growing skills. Then when doubt starts setting, take a look over your list and allow yourself to feel more confident. Good luck.
Christina Emery
Senior Marketing Manager
So in terms of barriers I've faced over the course of my career, a lot of it has come from that lovely old pal impostor syndrome. I think it was overcome by things like mentorship, by networking, by working in a variety of companies. Because I think perspective is a great antidote to imposter syndrome.
Stephanie Lovegrove Hansen
Vice President, Marketing
Silverchair
Strike the balance
What would I say to my younger self as I entered the industry? This is something that I feel quite strongly about. Actually. I would say, Allison, don't work any weekends and Allison don't work on your holiday. But there we go, that was 20 years ago!
Allison Lang
Non Executive Director
ALPSP
Happy International Women’s Day to all of the incredible people in our industry!
Need some inspiration? We’ve got plenty of resources for you, whether you’re early in your career or a seasoned professional. Why not check out our Inspiring the Next CMO podcast series?