How to make scholarly publishing better

Scholarly publishing is in crisis! Scholars are in crisis! Science is in crisis! World is in crisis! With so many crises comes a great deal of anxiety, fueling fast thinking and reactive behavior. In the world of scientific publishing and science evaluation this has created a pattern of attack and retreat, warring factions, and myopia resulting in a growing chasm between publishers and content creators. In this Keynote Lecture (presented at the EMUG 2019, a meeting that brings together publishing professionals), I will attempt to break the silos and bridge the chasm through arguing that publishing begins, proceeds and ends with people. My main hypothesis is that placing people first (authors, readers, reviewers, editors, publishers) can help move us out of the current impasse the relationship between publishers (journals) and scientists has reached. I will share with the audience some of the realities of the current climate of academic science, and offer to learn form them about the current climate of publishing as a profession. I will put forward one provocative solution to the current problem - decoupling research from authoring, and one more practical and easily implementable solution to the problem: making the relationship between content creators and publishers more personal.