The GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing (GWJEP) has won Silver at the 2026 EPIC Awards, presented by the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), at the SSP Annual Meeting in Chula Vista, CA. GWJEP was nominated for consideration in the category of Student Journals—Marketing Campaign. The SSP EPIC Awards recognize and celebrate remarkable teams and individuals in the publishing, information technology, and communications sectors for their significant contributions to scholarly communication through innovation, creativity, and dedication.
This is the second year in a row that GWJEP has been recognized by SSP with an EPIC Award, and the GW Graduate Program in Publishing has been recognized with three EPIC Awards overall. In 2025, GWJEP received the inaugural Gold EPIC Award for Student Journals. The Student Journal Symposium for Literary and Research Publications, an annual conference of undergraduate and graduate-led student journals organized by GW Publishing, received the Silver EPIC Award for Publishing Education and Training Initiatives.
The GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing (GWJEP) is published by the Graduate Program in Publishing, College of Professional Studies, at The George Washington University. This student-managed publication is completely open-access—free for anyone to access and free for anyone to publish. 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. GWJEP is led by an Editor-in-Chief, a student managing editor, and five student committees covering editorial management and peer review, e-publishing, marketing, content, and strategy and sustainability.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would accomplish as much as we did with our marketing campaigns for GWJEP,” said Jessicah A. Jensen, MPS in Publishing graduate, 2026; marketing lead, GWJEP. “With the amazing support from my fellow committee members, we pushed the limits of could be achieved in a single year, increasing the journal’s visibility and awareness, especially on LinkedIn. It’s an honor for our journal to be recognized with this EPIC Award from SSP. I can’t wait to see what the journal accomplishes next!”
Also awarded EPIC Awards at the 2026 Annual meeting in the student journal category were two student-led journals that presented at the 3rd Student Journal Symposium for Literary and Research Publications. The Challenger Research Journal from the University of San Diego received the Gold EPIC Award for Student Journals: Research, and the Long River Review from the University of Connecticut received the Gold EPIC Award for Student Journals: Literary. Meghana Hariprasad and Johnny Tran, Co-Editors-in-Chief of Challenger Research Journal, attended the SSP EPIC Awards ceremony to receive their award.
The Society for Scholarly Publishing is a sponsor of the GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing, the GW Ethics in Publishing Conference, and the Student Journal Symposium for Literary and Research Publications.
Kaitlin Phillips, MPS in Publishing graduate, 2026, was awarded a 2026 SSP Fellowship, and presented a poster at the SSP Annual Meeting.