Greetings!

I hope that all of us well-organized editor and publisher types are well ahead of the big US tax deadline that looms every year on April 15th, because we have an April 15th deadline of our own: nominations for the MCF Leadership Award for Excellence in Nursing Publication.  We have a fine selection committee ready to review the nominations–you can see all the details about who is on this group and the criteria for the award on the INANE web site.  Or if you have a fabulous nominee and are ready to get this in by the deadline, you can go directly to the online nomination form!  Just remember that the deadline is just a few days away: Tuesday, April 15!

And now there is another opportunity open for participation in the annual conference this year! You can contribute cases for two interactive sessions that will be featured on the program in August:

• An interactive Workshop on Open Access Issues for Editors and Publishers, Tuesday, Aug 5 from 10 am to 11 am, facilitated by Jeffrey Beall and Carolyn Yucha.
• A Formal COPE Forum, Tuesday Aug 5 from 3:10 pm to 4 pm, facilitated by Geri Pearson and Charon Pierson.

Even if you cannot be at the conference, we welcome everyone who has an interesting case either of these areas to submit your case for discussion! We want real cases (fictionalized if needed to protect identities).  Your case will go directly to the facilitators of the interactive sessions; they will organize the session so that each case is discussed by a smaller group of participants, who then report to the larger group the outcome of their discussion.

Your submission will need to include a description of the situation and the dilemma that it presents, as well as specific questions and issues you want the group to consider in addressing your case. You do not need to include your own “solution” or “answer;” focus on the quandary that the situation brings up for all of us involved in publishing nursing literature.  COPE has posted over 400 cases on the web–you can browse these if you need inspiration! Open Access cases will be similar in format, but focusing on the issues that erupting to the surface with the current flood of new open access publishing models and initiatives.  

Visit the INANE2014 web site for general information about these two sessions, This opportunity is open until July 1, 2014–so you have time to pinpoint interesting, real-life cases from your own experience, and submit them for discussion at the conference!  Check out the online submission form for each type of case now to see how easy it will be to send in your case:

• Open Access Workshop
• COPE Forum Case Submission