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Brown University Digital Publications Wins Silver EPIC Award
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Brown University Digital Publications has won SILVER at the EPIC Awards presented by the Society for Scholarly Publishing in the Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, or Accessibility (DEIA) Initiatives category.
Providence, R.I. [Brown University] Launched this year by the Society for Scholarly Publishing, the EPIC Awards (Excellence in Publishing, Information Technology & Communications) celebrate the remarkable achievements of teams and individuals who are advancing scholarly communication through innovation, creativity, dedication, and collaboration. Selected from over 90 entries, Brown University Library’s born-digital publication program promotes inclusive practices, equitable access, and meaningful representation within scholarly publishing.
This significant industry recognition highlights “Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing: Resources and Roadmaps,” a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute on Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities designed to support scholars from all career levels and across humanistic disciplines who wish to develop multimodal scholarship but may lack the necessary resources and capacity at their home institutions. The institute addressed equity issues endemic to academic publishing by establishing models for enhanced support for underrepresented voices to enrich and expand scholarly discourse through their contributions. Taking a holistic approach, the institute combined the concentrated delivery of foundational knowledge and practical resources with hands-on, individualized developmental editing workshops. Participants gained familiarity with open source tools and platforms, advanced project management skills, concrete and individualized plans for project advancement, and top-level publishing industry contacts.
Members of the 2022 and 2024 NEH institute cohorts convene at Brown University Library. July 24, 2024. By demystifying and streamlining the digital publication endeavor, “Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing: Resources and Roadmaps” aimed to expedite and broaden the dissemination of knowledge on the local and global levels: Participants left the institute prepared to encourage change at their own institutions by sharing the curriculum with colleagues. Editors were well positioned to continue conversations with authors, facilitating the road to publication so that new ideas and perspectives can reach readers in a timely manner. Both the 2022 and 2024 institutes achieved a majority participation of scholars from historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions, and community colleges as well as emeriti faculty and independent scholars.
The institute enabled Brown to continue expanding the reach of its pioneering approach to born-digital scholarly publication beyond its own campus, while also underscoring the University’s larger commitment to equity and diversity. It created an “extended family” of digital scholars for which Brown is a hub, in one instance forging an innovative teaching partnership with Brown faculty. Scholarly press directors and acquisitions editors, making up the majority of the faculty, gained greater understanding of the rapidly growing author interest in multimodal publications and were exposed to a set of outstanding scholars with important projects they might not otherwise have encountered. With the institute’s support, some authors were able to re-engage with projects that might otherwise have withered in the face of heavy teaching and administrative burdens.
Through its dedication to diverse voices, Brown University Digital Publications sets a new standard for excellence, encouraging others in the industry to push boundaries and achieve new heights. The EPIC Awards Celebration and Dinner will be held on May 29, 2025, during the 47th Annual Meeting of the Society for Scholarly Publishing in Baltimore, MD, where finalists will be recognized and winners in each category will be announced. For more information about the awards, please visit SSP’s website.
About Brown University Digital Publications
Brown University Digital Publications — generously launched with support from the Mellon Foundation in 2015 with additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services — creates exciting new conditions for the production and sharing of knowledge by advancing scholarly arguments in ways not achievable in a conventional print format, whether through multimedia enhancements or interactive engagement with research materials. Brown partners with leading scholarly presses to bring peer reviewed, open access, multimodal content to global audiences. Widely recognized as accessible, intentional, and inclusive, Brown’s novel, library-based approach to born-digital monograph publishing is helping to set the standards for the future of scholarship in the digital age.
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Library as a Third Space | Commencement Forum 2025
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Library as a Third Space: A Collaboration with Providence High School Librarians and Brown University
Date: Saturday, May 24, 2025
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Location: Willis Reading Room, John Hay Library, 20 Prospect St., Providence
Zoom link to attend online: https://bit.ly/library-forumVideo of the Forum
The Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence
Following Brown’s 2006 Slavery and Justice Report, initiated by President Ruth J. Simmons, the University committed ten million dollars to establish The Fund for the Education of Children of Providence endowment. According to President Simmons:
One of the clearest messages in the Slavery and Justice Report is that institutions of higher education must take a greater interest in the health of their local communities, especially Kindergarten through 12th-grade education. Lack of access to a good education, particularly for urban schoolchildren, is one of the most pervasive and pernicious social problems of our time. Colleges and universities are uniquely able to improve the quality of urban schools. Brown is committed to undertaking that work.
Library Grant
In 2022, the Fund approved a three-year grant to the Brown University Library to partner with Providence Public School District high school librarians to enhance the spaces, collections, and programmatic offerings at all of the Providence public high school libraries.
Commencement Forum
Join us for a Commencement forum to learn about the project’s origins, programming, and future on Saturday, May 24, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. in the Willis Reading Room of the John Hay Library. The panel discussion will feature three of the Providence Public School librarians involved in the project: Alyson Catalan, English Department Teacher Leader at Classical High School; Lenwood Thompson III, Director of Advanced Academics for Providence Public Schools; and Kimberly Yeaw, Library Media Specialist at Providence Career and Technical Academy. Their discussion will be moderated by Kelly Clifton, Head of Library Community Engagement at the Brown University Library and coordinator of the grant.
Free and open to the public. In person and on Zoom.
Registration
Please register to attend on Zoom. (Scroll to the bottom of the calendar entry to register.)
Participants
Alyson Catalan Alyson Catalan
Alyson has been a dedicated educator in the Providence Public School District since beginning her teaching career with Teach For America in 2014. Currently serving as the English Department Teacher Leader at Classical High School, Alyson holds two Master’s Degrees in Special Education and English Language Learning. She is deeply passionate about meeting each student’s needs and empowering them to reach their fullest potential.
Lenwood Thompson III
Lenwood Thompson III Lenwood Thompson III, the Director of Advanced Academics for the Providence Public School District, brings 17 years of experience in education to his leadership role. A native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Mr. Thompson is the proud son of an educator and deeply believes that teaching — whether in the classroom or the library — is one of the most noble professions. His teaching journey has spanned Kindergarten through eighth grade, and he has also served as both an elementary and middle school administrator. This rich experience informs his commitment to supporting high-quality instruction and equitable access to academic opportunities for all students.
In his current role, Mr. Thompson oversees a range of advanced academic courses and initiatives and serves as the district administrator for all school libraries. He provides professional development, programming support, and critical resources to the dedicated librarians of Providence Public Schools. Under his leadership, the district has expanded literacy-focused initiatives, including the introduction of the Battle of the Books — an engaging quiz bowl competition designed to promote reading, collaboration, and creative thinking among students. Mr. Thompson’s vision and advocacy continue to shape a strong academic culture centered around literacy and excellence.
Kimberly Yeaw
Kimberly Yeaw Kim has been an educator for 30 years, a Secondary Mathematics teacher for 14 years, and a School Library Media Specialist at Providence Career and Technical Academy for the last 16 years. As a librarian, Kim is trained as an instructional coach to work with teachers to improve their practice and take on leadership roles as the Technology Support Teacher and the Electives Department Lead. Kim’s highest achievement has been earning the School Librarian of the Year for the State of Rhode Island in the 2023 – 2024 school year.
Kim believes the library is the heart of the school, where students can find a comfortable, safe environment to learn, explore, discover, collaborate, and cultivate relationships.
Kelly Clifton – Moderator
Kelly Clifton Kelly Clifton is the Head of Library Community Engagement at Brown University Library. She is an avid reader, an advocate for access, and a lifelong library patron. She is introducing her two young children to the joy of libraries by exploring libraries in every city they visit.
The Library’s community engagement programming strives to build connections and cultivate partnerships with colleagues in K-12 schools, public libraries, archives, and Rhode Island-based literacy-adjacent community organizations, supporting their work with students and local communities. Kelly oversees this work and manages relationships with partners.
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Notice of Updated Effective Date for New NIH Public Access Policy
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On April 30, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it was moving up the effective date for its updated Public Access Policy to July 1, 2025. The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy, as initially described in the 2022 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) directive often called the “Nelson Memo,” was originally slated to go into effect on December 31, 2025. Aside from the accelerated timeline, the essentials have not changed.
Important highlights of the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy:
- The revised date will impact manuscripts resulting from NIH funds and accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025. This is true regardless of when the grant was funded, and thus will apply to many manuscripts resulting from NIH funds awarded before July 1.
- The manuscript acknowledgments must include a reference to the NIH grant number.
- The Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) — the final, peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication — resulting from NIH funds must be deposited immediately in the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) and PubMed Central (PMC). Journal publishers may no longer impose an embargo period on these AAMs.
- The updated policy does not mandate that authors publish in a fully open access journal (Gold Open Access) or hybrid open access journal, and does not require authors to pay any fees to comply with the policy, such as paying an article processing charge (APC).
- Authors may still opt to include allowable publication fees as in/direct costs in their award budgets; however, the following costs are not allowable:
- If a journal attempts to charge authors a special fee for having NIH funding and/or complying with the NIH Public Access Policy.
- If a journal charges an NIH-funded author an APC when Brown already has an institutional agreement that waives APCs for that journal.
Brown University provides support for authors in complying with the NIH Public Access Policy.
The experts in the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) can answer questions about budgeting, direct or indirect, for allowable publication costs, and about compliance with the terms, conditions, and contracts of researchers’ NIH awards.
Health and Biomedical Library Services (HBLS) partners with the Division of Research to assist authors with manuscript requirements. This includes using My NCBI and My Bibliography to manage NIH-funded publications and uploading their Author Accepted Manuscripts to the NIH Manuscript Submission system (NIHMS) and PMC. See the HBLS guide to the NIH Public Access Policy for more details, and email HealthSciLibrarians@brown.edu with any questions.