Aries Systems Corporation

If you are a member of the scholarly publishing community, October just doesn’t feel complete without an annual trip to Frankfurt, Germany! With three back-to-back events, Aries Systems had an action-packed schedule last week in Frankfurt. The week kicked-off with our bi-annual Aries Industry Advisory Board (AIAB) meeting and was followed by the STM Frankfurt conference and dinner, the Frankfurt Book Fair, and visits to client offices.

Our board meeting, the first in-person gathering since the pandemic began, was held on Monday, October 17^th. In addition to members of the Aries team, the AIAB currently includes fifteen representatives from key organizations within the industry. We were pleased to be joined by Holly Falk-Krzesinski, VP of Research Intelligence at Elsevier, as a guest speaker for the board. As an active participant of the Joint Commitment for action on inclusion and diversity in publishing, Holly was uniquely qualified to present and lead facilitated discussion on self-reported diversity data.

Aries was a proud WiFi sponsor of the STM Frankfurt conference on Tuesday, October 18^th and thrilled to exhibit at the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) from Wednesday, October 19^th onwards! Aries’ exhibitor booth, stand M34 located on floor 4.2, emphasized our end-to-end workflow management solutions Editorial Manager® (EM) and ProduXion Manager® (PM) and the Aries Partner Program. The multi-event week in Frankfurt served as a great opportunity to introduce Ryan Walther, Aries’ recently appointed Director of Client Services, as the latest member of our senior leadership team.

Kate Horgan, Aries Director of Product Management, was among the Aries staff attending. “I recognized a few key themes throughout the week namely an interest in collaborating towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the research and publishing lifecycle, open science and the varying impact on publishers’ resources, and most significantly a call to action around how we engage with researchers in the global south,” said Kate. “All of these themes tie into our current roadmap at a product and strategic level. We continue to focus on collection and reporting on gender, race, and ethnicity (GRE) data in partnership with the Joint Commitment as well as improving the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) of EM and PM so researchers can spend more time engaging in and with research rather than systems. I also think there’s a tie to our discovery efforts in supporting mentorship in peer review as publishers work towards greater collaboration with the global south to amplify the their voices throughout the peer review lifecycle.”

“As a global hub for the publishing community, the Frankfurt Book Fair and STM conference are principle highlights on Aries’ annual event calendar,” said Pierre Montagano, Aries Director of Business Development. “Last week’s events were a fantastic forum to reconnect with industry colleagues, partners, and clients after years of virtual settings and restricted travel. We look forward to continuing conversations facilitated in Frankfurt dedicated to enhancing editorial and production workflows via EM/PM or connected innovations through our expansive ecosystem.”