Each year, the CSE scholarship program supports several early-career publishing professionals by sponsoring their attendance at the annual meeting. The winners in 2014, selected from a record number of applicants, were Silvia Elena Buntinx, head of the Department of Publications, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico; Kimberly Rosenfield, manuscript coordinator, American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, Washington, DC; and Erin Russell, assistant editor, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Ottawa, Canada. The winners were asked to share their backgrounds and experiences at the annual meeting. Their comments follow. Congratulations to these enthusiastic early-career professionals!

Silvia Elena Buntinx

I am a newcomer to scientific publishing. I have a bachelor’s degree in veterinary medicine and animal science from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and an MSc and PhD in animal nutrition from North Carolina State University. I have been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses at Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia for 20 years.

In 2012, our new dean created the Department of Publications, for which I am responsible. She gave me two assignments: to put our school’s publications in order and to re-engineer our outdated scientific journal, Revista Veterinaria México. With the invaluable help of my team and advice of the people from Research Square (American Journal Experts and Rubriq), I have managed to accomplish the first task; on 31 July, we published the first article in Veterinaria México OA, our new online scientific journal.

By attending the CSE annual meeting, I hoped to gain knowledge in many aspects of scientific publishing. That is why I not only attended the meeting itself but registered for the Short Course for Journal Editors. I learned a lot from the short course and enjoyed it tremendously. The highlights of the meeting for me were the session on open access (the speakers were sensational), the session on usability and the design of information, and the plenary address by Howard Bauchner.

I am extremely grateful to CSE for its generosity and for the knowledge I have gained since I joined. This year, I tried to give back by donating, albeit a small amount, to the Scholarship Fund.

Kimberly Rosenfield

I entered scientific publishing by accident. My background is in the humanities, and I originally pursued a PhD in history before ultimately deciding to move out of academe—or so I thought. I was offered a position as a manuscript coordinator for the Endocrine Society in 2012 after bouncing around industries for a couple of years and thought that it would be a temporary job. Fortunately, I fell in love with the work; it was a good mixture of academic work, which was what I was familiar with, and new processes that I could learn. Since then, I’ve moved on to become an assistant managing editor, and I now work in journal and book publishing.

I learned of CSE from my managers in The Endocrine Society, two of whom had been active in editorial associations. My love of learning encouraged me to apply for the CSE scholarship. When I was notified that I was a winner, I decided that I should get as much out of the conference as I could and elected to attend the Short Course for Journal Editors. Since attending, I’ve encouraged all my coworkers in the industry not only to apply for the scholarship but to attend the 2015 CSE annual meeting. I got incredible value out of attending this year, and I hope to attend for years to come.

The highlights of this year’s meeting for me centered on the Short Course for Journal Editors and the sessions that focused on open access, continuous peer review, and the integration and participation of developing nations in the scientific publishing community. I found all the events beneficial, but I also enjoy meeting other editors and professionals in my field; throughout the conference, I lost count of the rich array of conversations I had with colleagues. CSE gave me, a new member, the opportunity to join the Membership Committee, and I’m looking forward to helping to bring in new members and to furthering membership retention. I can’t wait to work with this group of such talented people!

Erin Russell

My career in science editing began in fall 2012, when I joined the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) as an editorial intern. Before that, I had worked as an epidemiologist for the Public Health Agency of Canada and as a clinical-research officer for the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health. Throughout my 1-year internship with the CMAJ, I was able to apply my training as an epidemiologist to the critical appraisal of research manuscripts. I was later offered a position as assistant editor. I a

ttended the Short Course for Journal Editors at the 2013 annual meeting and was impressed by the professional community that is CSE. My attendance at the 2013 meeting gave me a renewed sense of energy and enthusiasm for science editing. I was excited to return to the 2014 meeting in San Antonio to learn about new advances in publishing technology and to have the opportunity to interact with other science editors.

The highlights of this year’s meeting for me were the keynote address by Siva Vaidhyananthan; the sessions on continuous publication, predatory publishers, open access, and open peer review; and the opportunity to mingle with other editors. I was happy to be invited to join the CSE Membership Committee. I am particularly interested in membership recruitment (appealing to earlycareer professionals). It can be a difficult group to reach, but ultimately the long-term sustainability of any membership organization depends on its ability to market itself to new members.