This session celebrates ten years of the ASLO Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship (RCEF), a transformative initiative empowering early career researchers (ECRs) in scientific publishing. Established in 2017 through a generous endowment by Dale and Ross Cole in honor of Raelyn Cole, former managing editor of Limnology & Oceanography, the RCEF has become a platform for ECRs wishing to advance equity, open access, and mentorship in scientific publishing. Over the past decade, Fellows have investigated and championed key initiatives in open access publishing, responsible authorship, AI ethics in scientific writing, and inclusive ECR mentorship. This session will highlight the diverse contributions and lived experiences of current and past Fellows–ranging from editorial innovations and public outreach to survey-driven insights into scientific publishing practices. Fellows will also reflect on how the RCEF has shaped their own career trajectories and informed broader conversations about transparency, equity, and leadership in scientific publishing. In addition to showcasing RCEF-led projects, this session also invites contributions from across the ASLO and SIL communities. We welcome submissions from researchers at all career stages, including recipients of the L&O Letters Early Career Publication Honor and others exploring key challenges and innovations in scientific publishing. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
Open science and access equity, Effective writing and peer review practices, Use and regulation of AI in scientific writing, ECR leadership in editorial practice, Diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in publishing, and New publishing models and metrics.
Keywords: Scientific Publishing, Peer Review, Equity and Inclusion, Open Access, Early Career Researchers
Lead Organizer: Frank Akamagwuna, University of Alabama (akamagwunafrank@yahoo.com)
Co-organizers:
Jessie Turner, Old Dominion University (jturners@odu.edu)
Paul F Kemp, University of Hawai’i (pkemp@aslo.org)
Presentations
09:00 AM
Introduction by Dale Cole & Susanne Menden-Deuer (12065)
Primary Presenter: ASLO Meetings, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (meetings@aslo.org)
Dale Cole & Susanne Menden-Deuer will give introductory remarks.
09:15 AM
A SEAT AT THE EDITORIAL TABLE: EARLY-CAREER EDITORS AS PARTNERS, NOT TRAINEES (11302)
Primary Presenter: Patricia Soranno, Michigan State University (soranno@msu.edu)
Early-career researchers (ECRs) are central to evolving norms around open science, equity, and reproducibility in publishing. However, there are very limited opportunities in publishing, particularly with professional societies, to help shape the conversation around these topics. In 2016, Limnology and Oceanography Letters and ASLO launched the Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship (RCEF), a two-year program designed to give Fellows a sustained “seat at the table” as partners in society publishing. Our 2021 article described the initial vision and framework for this two-way model of engagement between early-career Fellows and Editors, professional societies, and journals. Now, we ask: what has this experiment achieved, and what can other society journals learn from it? In this talk, the founding Editor-in-Chief and the program’s first Fellow will reflect on the RCEF’s design, evolution, and impacts. We will (1) summarize the fellowship model and its society–publisher partnership; (2) present indicators of impact including recent editorial fellowships and early-career editorial boards that build on or parallel this model; and (3) position the RCEF along a spectrum that ranges from one-way “apprenticeship” initiatives to genuine power-sharing with ECRs. We close with concrete lessons and recommendations for editors, societies, publishers, and ECRs about what it takes to move from symbolic inclusion to meaningful influence for early-career editors in scientific publishing.
09:30 AM
Open Access Publishing as a Way to Increase Your Work’s Impact (10062)
Primary Presenter: Rita Franco-Santos, University of Western Australia (rita.franco-santos@outlook.com)
In the ‘Publish or Perish’ context of academia, publishing is perhaps the most valuable currency of a researcher – it may even be as valued as conducting research itself. Despite this importance, knowledge and skills integral to succeed in this arena are not always taught during formal education. The increased uptake of Open Access (OA) publishing in the past decade has transformed the aquatic sciences publishing landscape and enabled many, but not all, to take advantage of its benefits, which include greater research(er) visibility and publication impact. In this presentation I will (1) introduce attendees to the different types of OA publications (gold, diamond, and green) and copyright licenses; (2) briefly touch upon the benefits, pitfalls, and potential improvements to OA publishing; (3) contextualise OA and related topics as perceived by previously surveyed ASLO members; and (4) comment on how to pay for OA publishing costs, with a focus on the role of “Read and Publish” transformational agreements. I will end the presentation with the launch of a new collaborative initiative to help advance education about publishing: The ASLO Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship Glossary - A living dictionary of scientific publishing acronyms, terms, and expressions.
09:45 AM
TEACHING BEYOND THE PUBLISH OR PERISH MODEL (10671)
Primary Presenter: Erin Peck, University of Rhode Island (erin.peck@uri.edu)
Peer-reviewed scientific publishing is a keystone of the scientific method and is one of the most important metrics by which success is measured in academia. Yet, scientific publishing has always been plagued by biases and inequities, and arising changes to the publishing landscape (e.g., globalization, growing mistrust of science, and Artificial Intelligence) pose new challenges and opportunities. Despite the central importance of publishing in science and to scientific careers, training for Early Career Researchers remains largely ad hoc. To address this gap in training, two ASLO Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellows (Peck & Franco-Santos) designed a course on science publishing piloted by Peck at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. The aim of the course was to demystify the world of academic publishing, train students to successfully navigate different publishing scenarios, teach them the foundations of good peer review, and discuss current topics in ethics and equity in scientific publishing. Graduate students gained knowledge and skills across all stages of the publication process; practiced peer-review; wrote, submitted, and edited a peer-reviewed article; and critically assessed current issues in the scientific publishing world. Not only do we believe that formal training on the publishing process will lead to greater success amongst graduate students, we also believe that these learning opportunities will benefit science and society through the shaping of skilled and ethical writers and peer reviewers.
10:00 AM
RETHINKING LAY SUMMARIES: BOTH JARGON AND READABILITY MATTER FOR ACCESSIBLE WRITING (10906)
Primary Presenter: Laura Falkenberg, University of South Australia (laurafalkenberg@cuhk.edu.hk)
Scientific publishing seeks to communicate research broadly, yet accessibility remains a challenge. Journals increasingly request Lay Summaries to help make findings understandable to non-specialists, but these are often no more effective than traditional Abstracts due to persistent jargon and low readability. In this study, conducted under the Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship, we analysed Lay Summaries across multiple journals and found most scored poorly on jargon and readability metrics, limiting their effectiveness. We identified key barriers to accessibility and offered practical recommendations for authors, editors, and publishers. These included: adopt plain language principles, use readability tools to assess drafts, and integrate editorial support. Improving accessibility is essential for enhancing communication between researchers and society, allowing authors to better serve diverse audiences, including policymakers, educators, and the public.
10:15 AM
HOW GOOD THINGS HAPPEN: THE STORY OF THE L&O LETTERS EARLY CAREER PUBLICATION HONOR (11689)
Primary Presenter: Scott Hotaling, Utah State University (scott.hotaling@usu.edu)
Inequities abound in academia. Chief among these are differences in publishing resources, particularly for early career researchers (ECRs) and those from the Global South. To address this issue in limnology and oceanography, we created the L&O Letters Early Career Publication Honor. Initiated in 2019, the honor provides OA fee waivers for ECR-led publications based on need and potential impact of the research. The honor exists because of a unique opportunity that highlights the value of bringing multiple perspectives to the editorial table. Indeed, it stems from the Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship (RCEF), a program established in 2017 to integrate ECRs into publishing. RCEF fellows were invited to an annual strategy day with Wiley, the journal publisher and editors of the other ASLO journals. Attendees were tasked with brainstorming ways to better support ECRs in publishing. Through discussions with Jim Cloern—the Editor-in-Chief of Limnology and Oceanography Letters at that time—we conceived of the idea for an ECR publication honor that would waive OA fees for ECR-led studies. We then worked to bring the publication honor from idea to implementation. Since then, the publication honor has been stewarded by RCEF Fellows through three rounds of awarding (2020, 2022, 2024) and more than a dozen ECR-led studies have been published. This presentation will walk through the genesis of the publication honor and how it has grown into one of the most unique and impactful editorial programs in the world.
EP006 A Decade of Insights with the Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship: Exploring Equity, Open Access, and Innovation in Scientific Publishing
Description
Time: 9:00 AM
Date: 16/5/2026
Room: 518B