MOVING TO THE ONLINE-ONLY JOURNAL

SSP Seminar, November 9, 2011

The T&F ExperienceBeth Gallagher

Publisher, S&T Journals, USA

Taylor & Francis:A brief e-publishing history

o Over 1,600 journals across all S&T and HSS disciplines; about 400 of these are society-owned or affiliated

o Introduced an e-edition to all journals in 1997, as “Realpage” files; transitioned to PDFs c1999, and added HTML in 2004

o E-only subscription option made available to institutions only in 2007

Why consider e-only?

To save money! Began “printing less frequently” in 2005 as

a cost-saving measureUsed savings to take pressure off price

increases and to free up funds for other initiatives

We now “PLF” majority of our S&T journals

For example. . .

o If we print a 12-issue 3,800-page “standard” journal only 8x/yr, we can save 25% of production costs.

o An environmentally conscious society with a 12-issue, 1,600-page premium journal with a 3,000-issue print run wants to eliminate page charges and lower carbon footprint. Page charges = @$125,000 per year. If we eliminate print entirely, we can save over $122,000. Problem solved.

Why transition? (if saving money wasn’t enough)

o To “break free of print constraints”No longer a need for issues,

cover months, . . .Greater speed of publication

o Force readers into countable usage

o Lower the carbon footprint o Respond to librarian desires

Why not?

o Despite libraries’ complaints about the costs and inconvenience of print, most still take the print option!

o Many individuals, including society members, still love their hard copies

From our researcher survey. . .

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Files for PDA, iPhone, iPad or Kindle

HTML file

Printed offprint

Online preprint

Online publication (unpaginated)

Print publication

Online publication (paginated)

PDF file

Please rate the following research article formats in terms of value to you as a READER:

1-very valuable 2 3 4 5-not at all valuable

. . . With slight variations across fields

1.1

1.51.7

1.9 2.0

2.6 2.72.9

1.2 1.3

1.92.1

2.42.7

3.13.2

1.21.5

2.01.8

1.9

2.4

2.9 3.0

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

PDF file Online publication (paginated)

Print publication

Online publication

(unpaginated)

Online preprint

Printed offprint

HTML file of the article

Files for a PDA, iPhone, iPad or Kindle

1 -V

ery V

aluab

le to

5

-Not

At A

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Article Formats - Breakdown of Averages for H/SSH/ST

H

SSH

ST

What do librarians think?Reactions to and interest in e-only subscriptions

vary wildly by region/country

Sales Territory

% of Total Subs that are e-only

% e-only in 2010

APAC 28% 17%Australasia 72% 67%C. Europe 10% 8%Middle East 64% 51%China, HK, Macau 26% 25%Indian Subcontinent 19% 12%Japan 17% 14%Latin America 22% 17%Malaysia 16% 8%N. Europe 59% 50%E. Europe 7% 5%Africa 43% 34%N. America 57% 49%S. Europe 26% 24%Taiwan 23% 20%UK and Ireland 39% 32%

To quote our Sales reps. . . o “Tax is a hindrance in Europe as unless publishers give

significant discount for moving to e-only then it costs more than a p+e sub. However this does not take into account significant savings in not receiving, processing, and storing a paper copy”

o “The Indian customers are extremely assertive in migrating to online only. The major factor is the discount that they get on migration.”

o Concerns from East Asia: “Requests for local loading. Some consortia want this as a safeguard against any mishap where online access becomes unavailable. In Taiwan, for example, the print copy is used for auditing purposes and there is more scepticism that even though we offer perpetual rights, the e-copy may disappear in the future.”

More from East Asia. . .

o “Among newer libraries, there is a preference for e-journal packages for the fear of must-maintain policy tied to print subs, especially in libraries with high numbers of subs.”

o “Meanwhile, the many features on our TFO platform attract many users, which contributes to higher usage, helping librarians justify renewals and/or requests for new funds, after trials.”

Marketing Challenges & Opportunitieso Maintain visibility and engagement by

assertively encouraging readers to register for publication alerts (so they know s.t. published!)

o Engage in usage e-marketing to encourage FTDs, leveraging e-only into a sales benefit

o Instead of sample copies at conferences, use informative flyers/postcards/giveaways that point to e-editionMay also consider special printings of mini-sample

copies, perhaps with articles selected by Editor

Legends of the Transition

European Review of Social Psychologyo Had been a book series; relaunched as an e-

only journal in 1999o Publishes one volume per year, no issues;

paginated consecutively throughout volumeo Editorial team loves the “freedom from print

constraints,” publishing reviews when they become available

o Journal of Turbulence: No issues; each article is numbered and starts on page 1

o Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence

o Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science

o Journal of Location-Based Services

o Marine and Coastal Fisheries

Been there, done that

Some don’t work out as e-journals! OOPS!

Some problems . . .o Loss of subscriptions: Thus reversion to p & eo Agents and subscribers sometimes assume the

journal has ceased; readers have complained about forgetting to read it!

o Many of our systems are largely set up for e-journals that publish along with print and on the print model (volumes, issues)

They Discontinued Print and All I Got Was This Lousy PDF

o Actually, PDFs are what readers (say they) want most, BUT

o 60% of our survey respondents wanted ability to interact with authors/researchers on the publisher’s platform

o 63% wanted various tools and services that would simplify their researchLinks to related articlesDatasetsSophisticated search and navigation tools (over 1M articles

published per year in over 20K journals!)

Some E-EnhancementsArticle walk-throughs, e.g., Applied Economics

Video was viewed 765x; article downloaded 67x (average for journal = 10)

Podcasts and InterviewsFor example, introducing a special issue

Discussion Fora

Associated DatasetsFood Additives and Contaminants

Supplementary Materials and Graphical Abstracts

Stay tuned. . . o T&F is currently publishing under 10 e-only

journals, though hundreds print only one or a few archival issues

o In 2012: we’ll launch @15 new e-only journals (2 converting from p & e)12 of these are part of an expanded Open Access

program (but that’s another presentation!)