I2I’s Heart-2-Heart on the Perils of the Publishing System; MEL Love Languages, & a new Client Spotlight!
Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!
We’re keeping the love alive with another edition of Intention 2 Impact’s Heart-2-Heart. our monthly newsletter where we share what’s on our mind, in our hearts, and up our sleeves. This is an archived newsletter from February 2023. Want to read the newsletter in real time? Click here to subscribe!
This month, we put the academic publishing system on blast, share our MEL love languages, and spotlight our newest client, the Moses Taylor Foundation!
On Our Minds
The Perils of the Publishing System
Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by Regina George the academic publishing process? 🙋🏽♀️. Whether you’ve struggled to navigate the cryptic submission or peer review processes, been frustrated by the shocking slowness of getting your ideas published, faced mountains of rejections, or simply have been thwarted by thicc paywalls when attempting to access content… You are not alone! ✊🏽
Our time in grad school was our first full exposure to the academic publishing industry, and it didn’t take long to realize something fishy was going on. But it was not until the past few years (and frank conversations with colleagues) that we truly grasped the extent of the malarky!
Recently, colleagues Vidhya Shankar and Libby Smith shared this long read from The Guardian with us, unpacking the history of the industry and interrogating its formation by the notorious British tycoon: Robert Maxwell.
These nuggets from the intro of the article caught our attention:
As of 2017, the scientific publishing biz had a total global revenue of more than $20 billion (more than the global music recording industry) but with profit margins in excess of 36% (that’s higher than Apple or Google!!).
Their astonishing profit margins come on the backs of the authors and content-creators (like you!!)! Unlike typical publishers (like of a book or magazine), the journals publishers do NOT pay writers for their contributions (authors often are funded by universities or governmental institutions), they do NOT pay the volunteer peer reviewers, and editors get meager compensation.
The real kicker is the publishers then sell the product back to university libraries and government institutions, to be read by the very people who created the conduct in the first place.
IS THIS FO’REAL!?! This feels criminal, amirite?!
And that’s just the tip of the problematic academic publishing iceberg; this is merely the 30k ft outcome of a corrupt system rooted in greed and inequity (we recommend you read the full article to really get your blood boiling).
And our minds race at the implications of all this hoopla, raising questions about whether the publishing industry exerts too much influence over: what is studied, what is considered “knowledge”, who is able to create “knowledge”, and who is able to access “knowledge”.
These are tryin’ times, y’all…but folks are working to subvert the system (for example, check out Scholar Freedom).
Hit us up if you want to know more about some grassroots efforts we are engaging in to dismantle this racket!
In Our Hearts
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we thought we’d share last year’s blog on I2I’s Five Love Languages. 🥰
From affirming your MEL needs, to spending quality time with community partners, acting in service of utilization and equity, being high-touch in the weeds of sensemaking, and giving you the gift of clarity… Let’s just say, we’re fluent in them all. 😉
credit: Wildest Closet
Up Our Sleeves
Client spotlight 🔦 :
I2I is thrilled to announce that we have joined forces with the Moses Taylor Foundation as their MERL partner for their Supporting School Nurse Initiative.
Since 2012, the Moses Taylor Foundation has been focused on improving the health of people in Northeastern Pennsylvania. With input from the community in 2019, the Foundation has prioritized supporting school nurses to meet student health needs across 11-counties, particularly in districts where more than 50% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
The I2I team is humbled to be co-creating a Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) framework for the initiative and implementing evaluation activities to identify outcomes, measure impact, and inform future strategy of this vital work.
Have any feelz or hot takes on the vital influence of school nurses on the health of our youngsters? Hit reply.
Onward and upward, y’all!
You know, heart-2-hearts are supposed to be a 2-way street…
So comment below, what’s on your mind, in your heart, and up your sleeve? Hopefully a lil’ bit of good trouble. 😉
Subscribe to the newsletter here!
Until next time,
Intention 2 Impact
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