OUR
Challenges
Micro-organisms play an essential role in humans, animals, plants,
the environment and industrial processes and a have signifi cant
impact in a changing world. The challenges we face, alongside
our Member Societies, are constantly changing and evolving.
FAKE
5
Changing Landscape Open Communication Ensuring Value Building Trust Infl uence Policy
The scholarly publication landscape
is rapidly changing as publishers and
authors move to an Open Access
platform, with a corresponding
decline in the traditional subscription-
based model. This has the potential to
significantly reduce our income and
the extent to which we can support
our community. As a membership organization we
need to continue to ensure that we
support Member Societies and their
members. Understanding their needs
and demonstrating how we contribute
to their goals is an essential task that
asks for a custom approach. We also
see a challenge in communicating
and engaging with our membership
as we seek for their contributions
and conviction of the benefits of
working collectively. FEMS is a pan-European organization
but with a world-wide audience.
Our authors, reviewers, editors,
Directors and Congress attendees
come from around the world.
We must value our audiences by
ensuring we bring benefit and
provide services to all. Sub-standard research, misreporting,
poor journalism and fake news have
all contributed to a decrease in the
trust of experts. This is also being
contributed to by research presented
in predatory journals and conferences.
Highlighting the risks of all these must
be on the agenda to restore trust in
science and researchers. Microbiology can play a vital role in
tackling global climate change and its
consequences. FEMS must urge policy
makers to respond to the scientific
evidence underlying climate change
and its impact on temperature, sea
level, ice cover and fauna and flora.
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