The 2026 (CSE) Annual Meeting held in Durham, NC offered a dynamic program from Sunday through and Tuesday, May 3-5, that reflected the complexity, creativity, and rapid evolution of scholarly publishing. Many of the attendees work for independent, smaller journal publishers, whose challenges and opportunities differ greatly from those of larger publishers. Our retired former journal lead, Tim Cross, was a one-time president of CSE, and it was simultaneously an honor and intimidating to walk in his footsteps representing Westchester this year.
Participating in the conference was a beneficial experience that included learning from the sessions that were presented by industry colleagues, meeting with our clients who were in attendance, and to exchange useful information. During the Bright Ideas Showcase, we presented an AI alt text workflow solution designed to support journal publishers, and in the exhibit hall we introduced an alliance with two trusted organizations in the scholarly publishing community that expands the range of options we can offer journal clients beyond the editorial, production, and digital accessibility services for which Westchester is already well regarded.
Monday’s opening events set the tone for the conference with a keynote about trust, community, and collaboration in the next era of publishing, signaling a strong focus on how the industry is adapting to change. From there, attendees had opportunities to learn from experts at sessions that balanced professional growth with practical innovation. Highlights included lightning talks on career development at every stage and a candid discussion of AI in real editorial workflows, exploring what worked, what did not, and what teams learned along the way. Other sessions addressed launching journals, data sharing, multimedia in scholarly publishing, research integrity, mentorship, diversity in peer review, and the growing role of AI in the editor’s workbench. Taken together, these sessions provided a complete picture of a field that is rethinking both its tools and its responsibilities to the scholarly community.
The session with the most significant impact for me was the ethics clinic on authorship, held on the second day of the conference. I have attended countless ‘workshops’ at conferences that were more performative than substantive, with an extended speech followed by a few minutes of a brief exercise to drive home the point before a refreshment break. CSE provided more meaningful opportunities for collaboration than many conferences, delivering an impactful session requiring each table to collaborate on solving or responding to successive real-life scenarios. These hypothetical situations generated authentic discussions between the facilitator and participants, and summed up CSE the most for me. The editors, publishers, and vendors who routinely attend CSE aren’t going there simply to network or earn a certification — they’re doing the hard work that the scientific editorial space demands, and are doing so with determination, authenticity, and sincerity.
Journal publishers with small or medium sized programs often face daunting challenges to deliver content to their audience, and traditional publishing arrangements aren’t always scaled to their needs. To provide independent, non-profit journal publishers with a more flexible, coordinated alternative, Westchester, Scholastica, and the Scholarly Publishing Collective have developed an alliance that offers connected support across the publishing lifecycle. Independent journal publishers or academic societies can select options provided by any or all of the entities, including Scholastica’s peer review and publishing technology, Westchester’s editorial and production expertise, and the Scholarly Publishing Collective’s hosting, fulfillment, and sales capabilities.
You can learn more about the Allied Journal Publishing Solutions in this or contact any one of the participating organizations to explore how it may benefit your program. You can also connect with us at the Society for Scholarly Publishing and the AUP conferences, where we’d love to meet with you and discuss ways we can resolve your publication challenges. If you won’t be at those shows but want to see if this is the solution your journal program has been searching for, let’s talk.
