The Board of Publication advances the publication mission of the Division. We support the management of the Journal of Chemical Education via a publication agreement with the American Chemical Society and the operations, finances, and sustainability of the Chemical Education Xchange. These two publications provide national and international reach for chemistry education research and practice.
The Fall 2025 meeting was held in-person with virtual access. Standing reports were given by JCE EIC (Tom Holme), and ChemEd Xchange EIC (Jon Holmes). Meeting highlights include:
- The Board welcomed new board associates Jon-Marc Rodriguez and Maia Popova.
- The Board discussed the BCCE sponsorship request. Given that the BCCE is a Division event and the BoP is a part of the Division, Thom Bussey proposed that he coordinate a discussion of sponsorship between representatives for the BCC, BoP, and Board of Trustees to discuss how we would coordinate sponsorship such that all entities (the Journal, ChemEd X, ACS Exams, and the Division) received maximum recognition in all promotions as well as what was needed (e.g., a booth and symposium sponsorship for ChemEd X).
- Maureen Scharberg, on behalf of the search committee for the Editor in Chief (EiC) for ChemEd Xchange, talked about the search process and presented the recommendation to the BoP of making an offer to Jack Barbera. The BoP unanimously accepted the recommendation and recognized the great work that Maureen and the rest of the search committee (Ellen Yezierski, Aimee Modic, and Erica Posthuma) did in conducting a search that yielded two highly qualified candidates for the position.
- The Board negotiated an agreement with Jack Barbera to start onboarding as the new EiC for ChemEdX in October 2025 and take over as EiC January 2026 with Jon Holmes staying on as a consultant for the first quarter of 2026. The Board approved an onboarding stipend for Jack and a consulting stipend for Jon.
- John Holmes reported that the BlueSpark migration for ChemEd X was going well and that he anticipated they would have a minimum viable site for ChemEd X ready by October. He also noted that BlueSpark was currently under budget for this work and that he anticipated that there would be funds left over from this year to add some additional desired functionalities to the ChemEd X site in 2026. In late October the Board approved an additional $20,000 needed to complete the transition of the ChemEdX site.
- ACS Publications Assistant Director & Publisher for Partners (Emma Hennessey) and JCE managing editor (John Sanders) reported to the Board on the renegotiation process and provided a timeline for sending materials to the Board for review and feedback with a goal of having the revised agreement signed in April 2026. The new agreement would be enacted in January 2027. The task force of task force of Tom Holme, Marcy Towns, and Debbie Herrington are leading the renegotiation discussions between ACS Pubs and the Board.
This year we are working on finalizing the renegotiation of the co-publishing agreement with ACS Publications, supporting a new Editor in Chief for ChemEd X as well as a new Treasurer for the Board, and working to ensure a smooth transition between the outgoing Chair (Debbie Herrington – term ends December 2026) and incoming Chair (Marcy Towns – Chair term begins January 1, 2027). The Board is also looking into using some of the funds from the interest earned on our investments to support open access publication costs for DivCHED members who are first time JCE authors.
The Board is able to cover its own costs with its current resources.