Mary K Billingsley: Promoting the Healthy Development of Scientific Publishing

Abstract

As the Managing Editor and Journal Department Director at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), Mary K. Billingsley, ELS, relishes the challenges posed by scientific publishing. Managing the multitude of stakeholders, schedules, and stresses that come with producing a high-quality scientific publication takes a thoughtful, organized, and flexible leader; all skills she hopes to bring to her new role as President of the Council of Science Editors (CSE). At the start of her term, Mary spoke with Science Editor about her love of publishing and CSE, her goals for CSE over the coming year, and her hope for a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive scientific publishing enterprise. Science Editor: How did you get involved in scientific editing and publishing and what career path led you to this place? Mary Billingsley: I have 2 answers. One is brief: I was an English major in college and afterward I worked briefly in the FDA Biosciences library where I learned about science journals. When it was time to move on, I briefly considered library school but then realized that there were science journal-related jobs, and that my newfound experience was a pathway into publishing. I started at AACAP as an Editorial Coordinator and later served as Assistant Managing Editor and then Managing Editor. I have been there for almost 13 years and have served at every level within the journal office. My longer answer is that I developed a passion for publication management in high school, although I did not […]