An Open Letter From the New Vice President of Editorial at IGI Global

For those of you who may not already know me, my name is Melissa Wagner and I have recently been promoted to serve as the new Vice President of Editorial for IGI Global. I am approaching this position from having worked both in the Marketing Division and Acquisitions Division at IGI Global for several years, which has presented me with the unique opportunity to collaborate directly with so many authors and editors from all over the world.

Over the next year, it is our goal to ensure that we continue to provide a plethora of editorial opportunities and maximum support to all researchers. It is important to me that we continue to devoutly follow the principles that IGI Global has always stood upon that make our publishing house so unique in an industry that sadly is very often overrun by profit-seeking conglomerates.

Inclusive Publishing Practices

We are deeply committed to diversity and accessibility, representation of underrepresented research, and the provision of exceptional author and editor support. In the last 30 years that IGI Global has been publishing academic content, we have never judged nor allowed anyone to be judged as unsuitable for publication based on their race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political affiliations, religion, or other identifying factors. Instead, we always have and will continue to base publishing eligibility solely on the merit of the research presented. It is because of this stance that we are proud to boast that our collection represents authorship from every continent in the world and from over 200 countries. We also maintain a continued commitment to enhancing the quality of our publications, ensuring that each book and journal published, in addition to our website, guides, educational documents, etc. meet all ADA compliance guidelines.

Due to our historic approach to collaborating with researchers from underdeveloped to developed, and advanced countries, and expanding publishing opportunities and resources to researchers all over the world, over the years, we have received some criticism from some researchers in the academic community in the western hemisphere over our broad publishing practices. These particular individuals have for many years unfairly and falsely labeled IGI Global as “write-only”, “rogue”, or “vanity publisher” — accusations that I have found personally demeaning as I have been intimately involved for years in the extensive review process conducted for every book and journal proposal submitted. Regardless, we will continue to offer opportunities to create an inclusive publishing environment, collaborating with researchers in all regions of the world.

Innovating Every Aspect of What We Do

IGI Global maintains the idea that the evaluation of any content must remain centered on the research and the research alone. As such, we are known for publishing research that is niche with a small and highly concentrated audience that often leads to little return on profit. While other publishing houses turn such publications away, we will continue to entertain these proposals and publish this much-needed research.

Putting Research Before Profitability

As the industry continues to evolve, we take pride in the level of agility we can offer as a medium-sized publishing house and will be updating our product and format offerings so as to meet the ever-evolving needs of our stakeholders, while also ensuring that we are offering the best publishing experience possible. Our plans over the next few years include continual enhancements to our:

• eEditorial Discovery® Submission System
• InfoSci® Database Platform and e-Collections
• Online Bookstore and Portal

As part of these enhancements, we advance toward creating a more immersive experience within our e-content. We also are making great strides in our contributions to the open access (OA) movement. Within the last two years, we have already converted more than 1/3 of our journal collection to gold open access (OA) and offer OA publishing opportunities in all of our books and journals.

Offering a Multitude of Editorial Opportunities

We offer so many different ways for researchers to get involved, whether it be in a reviewer capacity, a chapter or article contribution, or leadership of a full book or journal project, we welcome researchers at all stages of their careers to actively participate in publishing endeavors:

Help Us Help You

While operating as a medium-sized independent publisher in this day and age is certainly challenging, the benefit has always been the personal care and attention we can provide to our authors and editors. I have enjoyed the lively discussions that I have had with our valued contributors over the years, talking about everything from the publishing process, to new book concepts, to leisure activities and interests. I value the relationships that I have built and hope to add new ones as we work together to disseminate the latest innovations around the world.

In this spirit, we have renewed our Contributor Experience Survey in order to receive feedback from you. We appreciate and welcome any possible comments that we can use to improve our processes and systems and ensure that top-notch service is provided to all our contributors.

I look forward to keeping you apprised of the new and exciting developments and initiatives that IGI Global will be undertaking, and, as always, I welcome continued collaboration. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly (mwagner@igi-global.com) as I’d love to work with you to take any publication ideas you may have from concept to publication.