After the recent Meet & Greet on Zoom, Sheila Murphy asked: “How would you ensure that the ACS First slogan doesn’t hinder the types of desirable collaborations with international societies or adjacent societies you alluded to in the Q&A session?”
Indeed, “ACS First” could be seen as anti-collaborative with our partner societies unless we are careful to define it well, and I appreciate your concern. For context, the book/concept of “Chemistry as a Central Science” has wrangled our colleagues in other STEM disciplines, and yet many of us have found that it provides enough value to make it a net positive. I hope that “ACS First” will not only be net positive, but also simply positive.
In the context of publications and other arenas in which we are clearly competitive with some societies, I think that it’s reasonable that we would each be vying to be first in class. As such, the use of ACSFirst in this sector offers no new conflict while making our objective transparent. In areas in which we have clear boundaries between our societies —e.g., we are uniquely positioned to do advocacy within the US government, but we do little advocacy in other countries— then there is once again no conflict.
Where there could be conflict is in domains in which we have common non-competitive interests… My answer in this case is that we can be “First” together. That is, we are driven to be best in class and expect that joint ventures with partners will be similarly best in class. For example, when we negotiate agreements with our partners, we must ensure that the terms provide benefits to both of us, and that perhaps the advantages include ways in which we grow the market, thereby increasing the returns. I have had conversations with colleagues in the leadership of other professional societies, and they had no issues with contextualizing “ACS First” within this lens, and they are eager for partnerships in which we are First together. As such, I am hopeful that “ACS First” will not slow us down in any way, and provide us with a unifying vision for being best in class in all that we do.
