Wilson to serve as third EIC of award-winning student-led journal of the Graduate Program in Publishing, College of Professional Studies, George Washington University
The GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing (GWJEP) has selected Michelle Elizabeth Wilson to serve as the journal’s new Editor-in-Chief (EIC). GWJEP is a student-managed, open-access journal published by the Graduate Program in Publishing, College of Professional Studies, George Washington University.
“I’m delighted that GWJEP is developing a new forum for conversations about publishing ethics and inviting new voices into that discussion, and it is particularly exciting that this journal is student-led,” said Michelle. “It has been my experience that practical opportunities in publishing offer an unparalleled opportunity to not only gain competence with workflows and technologies, but to deepen an understanding of the scholarly communications landscape. I hope that my work with GWJEP will contribute to new professionals strengthening their awareness of ethical issues and developing informed opinions about how we can continue to improve our community of practice.”
Michelle Wilson is the Head of Open Scholarship Services (OSS) at the University of Maryland. From 2018-2022, Michelle was the Digital Publishing Librarian at Columbia University and prior to that, was an editor at Oxford University Press, where she worked on digital and reference publications in Art History. Michelle is the Editor for the Digital Art History Directory and a member of the Editorial Board for the Art Libraries Society of North America. She has served as a committee member with the Library Publishing Coalition and as an advisory board member for Punctum Books and Knowledge Commons. In addition to her OSS role at the University of Maryland, Michelle is an affiliate faculty member at the UMD School of Information, where she teaches courses on academic librarianship and scholarly communications.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Michelle, and I expect she will have a profound and positive impact on our graduate students and our journal,” said Publishing program director John W. Warren. “Lois Jones, managing editor, Cecilia Gray, and former ME Hind Berji, and the journal committee leads have done a remarkable job to advance the journal, focusing on developing processes and workflows, new forms of content, consistent and effective marketing, and advancing scholarship on ethical issues affecting publishing. Michelle’s considerable expertise working with student- and faculty-led journals at Columbia University, and her experience at OUP and in the Library Publishing Coalition, will be a great complement to our program and faculty. I also look forward to opportunities to collaborate with UMD Libraries and iSchool.”
GWJEP is diamond open-access—free for anyone to access and free for anyone to publish. The journal provides Graduate Program in Publishing students with an opportunity to gain hands-on experience managing a professional-level journal; offers a forum for students at GW as well as other publishing programs to publish their capstone projects; and involves the wider community of publishing and library professionals and scholars in the effort, as board members, peer reviewers, authors, and readers. GWJEP is sponsored by the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP).
GWJEP welcomes articles, case studies, book reviews, commentaries, and other publications from publishing, library, and communication professionals, students, scholars, and specialists on a wide range of topics involving ethical issues in publishing, including but not limited to publishing equity, research integrity, diversity and inclusion, accessibility, peer review practices, open access, sustainability, publishing metrics, workflows, artificial intelligence, and more. (See author instructions and submission guidelines.)
As EIC, Michelle succeeds Lois Jones, Peer Review Director at the American Psychological Association, who served as EIC for the past four years. The inaugural EIC was Randy Townsend, MPS, who instructs GW Publishing’s capstone course on Ethics in Publishing.
New EIC Michelle Wilson and the leadership of GWJEP will be presenting at the 3rd Student Journal Symposium for Literary and Research Publications at the George Washington University on April 23-24, along with 35 student-led literary and research journals and presses at ~30 universities. (See the full schedule and program.)
GWJEP also collaborates with the annual GW Ethics in Publishing Conference and invites conference presenters to submit papers to the journal.
The GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing received a Gold award in the category of Student Journals at SSP’s Epic Awards during the 2025 Annual Meeting. GWJEP published Vol 4, its fifth issue overall, in December 2025.
EIC Michelle Wilson can be reached at michelle.wilson@gwu.edu; Program Director John W. Warren, at jww@gwu.edu; and questions to the GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing can be directed to gwupress@gmail.com.
Member News Release submitted by George Washington University on 02/27/2026.
