Mia Ricci: Supporting a Global Community

As the Director of Publications Operations at the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the largest scientific society in the world for Earth and space sciences, Mia Ricci knows about making a global impact. In addition to overseeing the operations and publishing strategy for 24 scientific journals and ESS Open Archive, the AGU preprint server, Mia leads initiatives such as the Guidelines for Governance of Indigenous Data in Scholarly Publishing1 and AGU’s Inclusion in Global Research policy.2 Science Editor’s Anna Jester recently spoke with Mia about the path her career has taken, how that led to her position at AGU, and how she is impacting scholarly publishing’s future. Science Editor (SE): Please tell us about AGU and your role there. Mia Ricci: At the American Geophysical Union, our mission is to advance discovery in our fields, supporting researchers, for the benefit of humanity. My work is in the publications department, as the Director of Publications Operations. AGU Pubs has a staff of 29, the majority of whom work on the operations team running the editorial offices of our journals. We partner closely with our 1000+ Editors and Associate Editors, and with Wiley, our publishing partner. It’s an incredible gig! I wear a second hat within the department, together with Paige Wooden, as Co-Leads for our publications diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts, something that is very dear to my heart. This is also one of AGU’s organizational core values and it’s weaved into everything that we do at the Pubs department. […]