When a Society journal changes publisher…

Ian RussellChief Executive DesignateAssociation of Learned and Professional Society Publishersian.russell@alpsp.org

ICOLC Fall 2006 Meeting - 12 October 2006

What is ALPSP ?

• The international association for all non-profit publishers – learned societies– professional associations– university presses – Inter-Governmental Organisations– institutes, foundations, charities etc

• Other members of the scholarly communication chain (including commercial publishers) may join as Associate Members

Growth of

• Founded in the UK in 1972• Now the largest association for scholarly

publishers in the world – 360+ members – of which more than 270 are publishers – publishing over 10,000 journals (almost

half the world’s total output)– as well as books, databases and other

products

• Members in 40 countries

What does do?

• Representation and advocacy • Professional development• Collaborative initiatives• Good Practice leadership• Information and advice

Journal pricing across disciplines

  Price/Page   Price/Cite  

Field For-profit Non-profit For-profit Non-profit

Ecology $1.19 $0.19 $0.73 $0.05

Economics $0.81 $0.16 $2.33 $0.15

Atmospheric Sci. $0.95 $0.15 $0.88 $0.07

Mathematics $0.70 $0.27 $1.32 $0.28

Neuroscience $0.89 $0.10 $0.23 $0.04

Physics $0.63 $0.19 $0.38 $0.05

Bergstrom & Bergstrom (2001)

Society journals

• Over 97% of Society publishers have three or fewer journals (Crow 2006)

• 90% have just one (Crow 2006)• Often lack economies of scale (costs can be

higher than large commercial publishers)• Size limits ability to operate effectively (e.g.

sales)• May contract out all or part of the publishing

process• Not always aware of best practice

Options for Society journals

• Self publish• Contract out all functions• Contract out one or more of

– Editorial– Production– Sales– Marketing– Distribution– Hosting

Why change?

• To increase return (or decrease loss) to Society (i.e. to reduce costs and / or increase sales)

• To provide better service to– readers– authors– members– subscribers

• To facilitate a change of business model• Disagreement with policy of publisher

Editorial development

• Making proactive content development more cost effective (existing or new titles)

• To access online submission and peer review systems

• Improve support for Editors – awareness of current issues

• Increased speed of publication• Possibly higher visibility among authors

and readers

Production

• Take advantage of technological advances (e.g. facilitate generation of XML)

• Improve design• Cost reduction• Increased speed of publication

Sales & Marketing

• Difficult for small publishers to be seen in the market place

• Often unable to support an international sales force

• Difficult to penetrate consortia market (ALPSP Learned Journal Collection)

• Not enough journals to bundle (especially difficult to launch new titles)

• Sizable proportion of library budgets tied up in commercial publisher ‘big deals’

Distribution

• Difficult to keep customer information up-to-date (e.g. address changes) and no economy of scale

• High level of claims• Poor management information• At busy times staff overwhelmed with

inquiries• Cost reduction

Online hosting

• May outsource to facilitate online availability for the first time

• Change supplier to enable additional functionality (reference linking, RSS feeds, ability to cope with different business models etc)

• Greater level of customization (e.g. publisher’s URLs)

• Cost reduction

Problems for librarians

• Dealing with a “long tail” of Society publishers

• Current electronic access• Issue of perpetual rights• Access through same system and under

same terms• URL links• Pricing policy• Future inclusion in big deal / consortia

arrangement

Problems for publishers

• Inconsistent subscriber data• Who owns what?• Format and functionality issues• Liability of perpetual access• Linking to previous publishing platform • Customers need additional support• Unhappy customers

ALPSP Learned Journal Collection

• In partnership with Swets• Working on multiple language for ALJC

website• 627 journals in 8 sub-collections

(Archaeology; Law; Life Sciences; Linguistics & Arts; Medicine; Science; Social Science; Technology)

• Standardize arrangements for libraries and publishers

Making the process easier

• Hope we understand the issues – tell us if we don’t!

• ALPSP an important role to play in education and advice (e.g. addressing continuity of access in agreements)

• ALPSP Advice note 18 (2002) “When a Society journal changes Publisher”

• Guidelines are pro-competitive (less concern that change will be disruptive)

• UKSG Transfer

Project Transfer

• UK Serials Group• Launched April 2006• ALPSP and STM “highly supportive” and

directly involved • “building on guidelines” issued by ALPSP• Good for our members, good for their

customers

Thank you!

LinksUKSG Transfer - www.uksg.org/transfer.aspALPSP advice note - www.alpsp.org/socjourn1.pdfALPSP Learned Journal Collection - www.alpsp-collection.orgCrow 2006 Publishing cooperatives: An alternative for non-profit publishers - www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/crowBergstrom & Bergstrom 2001 The Economics of scholarly journal publishing -octavia.zoology.washington.edu/publishing/