Whether it’s a journal portfolio or backyard garden, Glenn Landis has a passion for encouraging growth. As the Senior Director of Publications at the American Society of Hematology (ASH), Glenn oversees an expanding scientific and educational portfolio of biomedical journals and educational content, helping hematologists conquer blood diseases and disorders. As incoming Council of Science Editors (CSE) President, he takes the reigns of a rebounding CSE with the goal of further strengthening the organization and providing new opportunities for its members. In this interview conducted in early April, Glenn discusses plans for his CSE presidency, the benefits of volunteering, and the importance of staying open and curious.
Science Editor: How did you get involved in scientific editing and publishing, and what career path led you to this current position?
Glenn Landis: My father was a local reporter for some 40 years; his entire professional career at one newspaper, the Reading Eagle in Reading, Pennsylvania. He started out doing farm reports—very rural, very agricultural—and he ended his career in the obituary section, which to him seemed like a natural progression. So publishing was always something that I gravitated to.
My first editorial experience was with Ken Kornfield at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and after 14 years there, I moved over to the American Society of Hematology, where I’ve been now for over 9 years.
SE: What do you enjoy most about working in scientific editing and publishing?
Landis: It’s very robust, in terms of challenges and opportunities. There are so many different aspects to science publishing, in terms of where we as publishers fit into the funding of science and the career ladder and communicating science to readers and the public. It’s quite an enormous and always evergreen task and I enjoy the challenge, so to speak.
For ASH, our challenge now is growing the portfolio. When we partnered with Elsevier (in 2020), we had a plan to start new titles and move into new spaces to make sure we fulfill the mission of serving our hematologists. Since then, we’ve launched 2 new journals last year and 3 more on the way this year. We’re very excited about these journal launches and the value they bring to our readership and our scientists.
SE: In May, you become the CSE President. What has CSE meant to you and your career and what do you look forward to doing as president?
Landis: I’m so grateful for the opportunities CSE has given me. I’ve been a member for over 20 years and served in different positions for CSE for over the years. I started at the CSE Membership Committee, then became the Membership Chair, co-chaired the 2011 Annual Meeting in Baltimore with Mary Beth Schaeffer, and was later elected as Treasurer and then Vice President. This past year as President-Elect of CSE has been an amazing experience, and I’m so thankful for it. CSE has been pivotal in my professional growth and success. I remember attending meetings early in my career and short courses in different locations, and I have always been thankful and inspired by CSE’s positive and engaging culture and focus on education. I continue to be inspired by the CSE community, and as president, I hope I further nurture the community and support that collaboration and innovation for everyone else.
SE: Are there any initiatives or projects you’re hoping to work on this year as president?
Landis: As we’ve reported out, over the last year we transitioned management of CSE to Riggs Enterprise. We’re very thankful for our partnership with Riggs, and we’re working now to shore up procedures with our association provider to make sure that we leverage and utilize Riggs to provide the value of membership and unique experience that we’re all accustomed to with CSE. Big picture, that’s the main focus, as it was for (outgoing CSE President) Shari Leventhal. I also want to make sure that the annual meeting experience is an amazing one that is an inspiration for attendees, and we can support engagement year-round through CSE Connects, webinars, and the Fall Symposium, along with Science Editor, the new CSE Manual, and the work of the CSE Committees. There are so many chances throughout the year to remain engaged and inspired and learn from others in our community of scientific publishing professionals.
SE: Under the leadership of now President-Elect Emilie Gunn, CSE recently reimagined their committee structure1 to make it easier to become involved in CSE and follow a clearer path toward taking a leadership role. As you mentioned earlier, you started out at CSE on the Membership Committee and becoming co-chair of that committee led to further leadership roles, right?
Landis: That’s right, and that’s part of our focus infrastructure and committee support of CSE. We are working to make CSE a modern organization that provides opportunities for members who want to get engaged to grow within the CSE volunteer community, and their career path, and maybe become a president someday. I think the goal is not only for these committees to run efficiently and effectively, but also provide a transparent path to volunteer leadership at CSE. We’re very thankful for the amazing work of Emilie and her team.
SE: Shifting gears a bit, from a personal perspective, what would you say are the skills, abilities, and personal attributes that you have found to be essential in this industry?
Landis: What I’ve learned the hard way is that I think being inquisitive and open to new ideas is essential. In other words, always approaching challenges, problems, or situations with curiosity and not having preformed judgment, but rather keeping an open mind. Being stuck in my old ways and my own views is not productive in the long term or beneficial to the journals I supervise and the portfolio I oversee. Being curious allows me personally to grow and also hopefully then for our journals and our portfolio to grow.
SE: That is especially important now as everything seems to be in a constant state of flux, and just when you think there’s a new paradigm in scientific publishing, that seems to be changing too. It’s definitely a good asset to be able to think creatively.
Landis: STM publishing continues to evolve at an amazing pace in terms of technology, challenges, requirements, etc. Providing opportunities for our CSE community to connect with these new technologies will remain a theme during my presidency. CSE can create that space, at the Annual Meeting or in the Fall Symposium or in Science Editor, for best practices for engaging those new technologies, platforms, or ideas. I have always enjoyed learning from others. We did this because X, Y, and Z reason, and learning from their wins and losses and their mistakes has always been part of the CSE community, and I want to make sure we keep that going.
SE: You clearly have a love of science publishing, but if you hadn’t followed this career path, what might you be doing?
Landis: When I was younger, I was into hiking and the outdoors. I lived in a tent for 3 summers serving at a summer camp. As a potential professional career, I could have been a park ranger. I look back on these moments with some fondness, being outdoors and hiking.
Something that might surprise you is how much I enjoy landscaping and gardening. I have a collection of ferns in my yard, and I’m a member of the local Fern Society and Maryland Native Plant Society.2 I have a fascination with plants and the complexity and diversity of insects, ferns, and wildflowers. Right now, there’s quite an amazing plant you can see on trails. There’s something called a trout-lily,3 a flower that blooms above ground for 1 month, and then the rest of the year it grows into ground. It looks like a trout because the leaves are speckled, like a rainbow trout, and you can only see it before the tree canopy comes in. It soaks up the sun, and right now it’s so sunny because the canopy in Maryland hasn’t developed. The natural world is purely fascinating, for sure.
SE: A trout-lily spotting sounds pretty exciting.
Landis: It truly is.
References and Links
- https://www.csescienceeditor.org/article/the-structure-of-cse-committees-and-how-to-get-involved/
- https://mdflora.org/
- https://mdflora.org/resources/publications/wildflowerinfocus/pim_trout_lily.pdf
Jonathan Schultz (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1030-5062) is Editor-in-Chief, Science Editor, and Director, Journal Operations, American Heart Association.