The guest for this episode of the Inspiring STEM Podcast is James Butcher who has spent the past 20 years working at two of the most influential scientific publishers, first as Executive Editor at The Lancet and then as the leader of the Nature journals.

James now works as a strategy consultant with Clarke & Esposito, advising clients on editorial and publishing strategy and providing insight into how European funder mandates and other regulations are affecting their organizations and the global STM marketplace.

He is also the founder of the wonderful Journalology Newsletter which helps editors and publishing professionals keep up to date with scholarly publishing, and guides them on how to build influential scholarly journals.

James shares his insights on the current state of scholarly publishing and the challenges it faces in the era of open access and AI-powered tools. 

The guests for this episode of the Inspiring STEM Podcast, are Kamran Robert Kardan, Founder and CEO at Knowledge E and Knowledge E’s Head of Publishing, Dr Emily Choynowski.

Kamran founded Knowledge E in 2012, with the aim of providing unique, professional and high-quality services to the information professionals in the Middle Eastern region and beyond. Kamran also plays a major active role in the Knowledge E Foundation, a community interest corporation focusing on supporting education and research-based projects across the globe, with a focus on developing nations.

Emily is Head of Research Development and Dissemination at Knowledge E and Director of Operations for the Forum for Open Research in MENA.

Our conversation covers various topics such as the sustainability of open science, open access, and publishing business models, the challenges of developing open science in the MENA region, and the need for a globally accepted lexicon in Arabic for open science.

They also talk about Zendy, a platform that aims to tackle the affordability, discoverability, and accessibility of scholarly literature, and the various AI-powered tools integrated into the platform to make a real difference to the product.

The interview concludes with a discussion about the Knowledge E Foundation and the Forum for Open research in MENA, and how they support the movement towards sustainable open science policies and practices in the region. Emily and Kamran emphasize the need for more support from the community, including policymakers and corporate sponsors, to make the program more unique and beneficial to everyone.

This INSPIRING STEM PODCAST episode features Dan Pollock, a consultant specialising in digital publishing strategy and product innovation for companies primarily in STM and Legal publishing.

Over a 25-year career, Dan has held executive leadership and strategic advisory roles in managing products, operations and change, in organisations ranging from dot-coms to complex corporates.

Dan is also Chief Digital Officer with Delta Think and is principal architect of their Open Access Data & Analytics Tool. This tool supports market intelligence and strategy projects related to Open Access.

In our conversation, Dan discusses the use of persistent identifiers and metadata in scholarly publishing, the growth of open access publishing, and the challenges of maintaining research integrity in a rapidly changing landscape.

He also touches on the need for publishers to adapt to changing technology and data management practices.

Overall, Dan remains optimistic about the future of scholarly publishing, but acknowledges the need for continued work to address issues of research integrity and data management.

The guest for this episode is Professor Elanor Huntington, Executive Director for Digital, National Facilities & Collections at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation - CSIRO, Australia's national science agency.

We discuss the challenges of attracting a diverse cohort to take up STEM careers, and the need to focus on lateral career moves and life moves, as well as early interventions.

The recommendation is that the focus should not only be on filling the pipeline with new STEM talent, but also on finding ways to get back those who have already left the field. There are reviews already underway, and many people with ideas, but that the Australian government needs to carefully consider which interventions will have the greatest impact.

We also touch on the role of science communication and Australia's open science policies in advancing scientific research and the need for systemic interventions to address societal challenges such as climate change and the aging population. CSIRO Publishing is already committed to open access publishing and aims to make its content as widely available as possible.

CSIRO's 'missions' program is given as an example of a quantifiable, impactful approach to addressing these challenges.

Overall, this conversation highlights the challenges and opportunities facing STEM and science communication in Australia, and the need for systemic interventions to address these challenges.

The guest for episode 24 of the INSPIRING STEM PODCAST is David Ross,
a publishing consultant with over 30 years’ experience in academic research and educational sectors. Up until last year, he was Vice President, Open Research at Sage Publications for nearly 10 years and has also worked with Kluwer Academic, Arnold Publications and Chapman & Hall.

David specializes in open science publishing and the transition to more open modes of research communication and was a Founding Board Member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association.

We discuss the progress of open access publishing over the last 10 to 15 years, noting that while it has been a slow start, there has been a rapid acceleration in the last five years. We consider the challenges of funding non-funded research, and the impact of transformative agreements on the publishing industry.

Our conversation provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing the scholarly publishing industry, and highlights the need for continued discussion and collaboration to bring about meaningful change.

The guest for this episode of the INSPIRING STEM PODCAST is Adam Hyde, founder and principal architect of the Collaborative Knowledge Foundation - Coko and is responsible for oversight of all operations.

Coko’s motto is “We Build, You Publish”. The organisation exists to benefit the publishing community by building modern, open-source tools that enable the publishing of critical knowledge better, faster, cheaper.

Adam brings publishing and technical leadership as well as pioneering insights into publishing workflows and technologies. He is also technical advisor for the OA Switchboard project, holds a seat on the Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) Management Board, and co-founder of the Coalition for Open Access Publishing Infrastructure in Africa project. 

In our conversation we discuss:
- open-source code, its principles and use in academic publishing
- Coko's approach to collaborating and working with partners
- the importance of collaborative working
- ChatGPT AI's revolutionising of publishing
- experience of working with publishers such as eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd., Hindawi Publishing and University of California Press
- how non-publisher stakeholders are now working with Coko, such as Digital Science and Amnet ContentSource
- what to expect from COKO over the next few months

The guest for this episode of the INSPIRING STEM PODCAST is Milly Formby, an amazing zoologist, science illustrator, microlight pilot and bird nerd.  Milly combines her skills to create stories that empower others to become strong voices for nature.

We chat about her amazing Wing Threads project, her childhood inspirations to become a zoologist and science communications.

Originally from Gippsland in Victoria, Australia, Milly currently works for Bird Life Australia as a Project Officer for their Migratory Shorebird Program in Newcastle, NSW.

Milly is currently flying 20,000 km around the coast of mainland Australia in a crowdfunded project called Wing Threads. She plans on stopping at 70 schools and libraries along the way to educate young Australians about shorebirds and their role in the planet's ecosystem.

Join Milly as she flies around Australia to share how amazing and awesome migratory shorebirds are to promote stewardship of Australia's wetlands with primary students in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway through STEM, the creative arts and adventure.

🤳Stay connected with Wing Threads!
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Wing Threads: Flight Around Oz is a not-for-profit, fully self-funded science communication initiative that will contribute to objectives in BirdLife Australia's Migratory Shorebird Conservation Action Plan. Every donation helps to spread the shorebird word!

The guest for this episode of the Inspiring STEM Podcast is Professor Mark Hutchinson.

Mark is the Director of the Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics in Adelaide. The Centre is a AU$50M Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence that brings together researchers from around the world to create light-based sensing technologies to create 'windows into the body'. These advances will enable scientific breakthroughs and advance the health outcomes of tomorrow.

Under his leadership, the centre has translated fundamental science discoveries from the lab bench into economic value in the boardroom, forging 30 industry partnerships and creating 15 start-ups and spinoffs.

Mark is also President of Science and Technology Australia, the peak body representing more than 90,000 scientists and technologists and serving as an influential voice for evidence and expertise in public policy.

We discuss a range of topics including the hands and minds connection in and around experimental science and his work with the world leaders of Professors Linda Watkins and Steve Mayer at the University of Colorado Boulder. Mark explains just what 'nanoscale biophotonics' is and, how fundamental science discovery at the lab bench can be taken through to the boardroom, generating venture capital investment and to then actually deploy applications and create new jobs.

The INSPIRING STEM Podcast guest for this episode is Kylie Walker, Chief Executive Officer for the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, where she works with expert Fellows to lead crucial national conversations and strategies towards a thriving, healthy and connected Australia, supported by technology. 

Kylie is also a visiting Fellow at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. She was Chair of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO and in 2019, she was named as one of the 100 Women of Influence listed by the Australian Financial Review, for her work on improving equity, diversity, and inclusion in STEM. 

She also led the establishment of the Superstars of STEM program, championing Australian women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

We talk about global priorities, equity in STEM, Australian innovation, Traditional Knowledge and more.

Inspiring STEM’s podcast program has highlighted innovations in scientific publishing and science communications. We have interviewed key opinion leaders and organisations working to advance, and quite often, to disrupt the status quo.

However, in today's academic publishing world, the pressure to deliver success can be overwhelming (and costly).  Often the response is to come up with a new, untested strategy but this does not come without risk. The risk of delivering the wrong thing, the risk of it not being accepted or being subsumed by competing demands, the risk of delays or overspend to delivering it; to name but a few.
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Therefore, in this week's episode we wanted to step back and get an expert business consulting perspective from someone who has spent over 20 years delivering strategic change for the corporate and non-corporate worlds,

Our guest is Faris Aranki, CEO at Shiageto Consulting which helps businesses reduce risks by making sure that the right strategy is followed, with the right effectiveness and the right focus; Shiageto calls this "sharpening your Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Emotional Quotient (EQ) & Focus Quotient (FQ)".