Society Publishing
Unique challenges shape society plans
A BMJ-hosted symposium in June saw decision-makers from a range of biomedical society publishers discussing the future of society journals publishing, writes Charlie Rapple
Society publishers are subject to many of the same pressures as other publishers – falling library budgets, emerging technologies and competition for authors, to name just a few – but despite these common issues, society journals have a subtly different role in the scholarly community. Consequently, they face some unique challenges, including parent society relationships and funding, market segmentation and business models, member engagement, and publishing partnerships. In June, a group of biomedical society publishers met together in San Francisco at a symposium hosted by BMJ Journals to discuss these issues. Consultant Morna Conway opened the ‘Today’s Essentials, Tomorrow’s Strategies’ event with an exploration of the complexities of society stakeholders – the journal owners, publishers, customers and content providers. The various objectives of these different groups create potential for conflict: financial imperatives, academic credentials, community service, intellectual currency, moral expectations and ideals.
Balancing members and quality A society has a dual role of publishing a high- quality journal and meeting members’ needs. Tensions can arise if society members submit papers that aren’t accepted for publication. The proliferation of research leads to higher
www.researchinformation.info Society publishers met in San Francisco to discuss the challenges of meeting the needs of members, authors and readers
rejection rates for journals that don’t have room for more articles or that are focusing on increasing their impact factor. Societies must be mindful of potential frustration when communicating their publishing strategy to members and reviewers. The growth in submissions also increases competition for reviewer services and societies must consider appropriate incentivisation, noted Conway. There are also potential threats from librarians, which some people foresee as becoming repository publishers. However, ‘the institutional publishing venture is the ultimate in parochialism,’ said Conway, with research readership restricted to institutional silos. The journal is more than an article repository; it’s an icon for quality, subject coverage, peer review and audience, with symbolic and intellectual value, she argued. Interlinked repositories, while technically providing access to all published papers, cannot replicate the ability of the journal to confer stature on its contributors. The trend
of querying what value a publisher brings to the process shows that ‘we have failed in explaining what publishing means.’
Delivering benefits Choice of publishing partners plays an important role in striking this balance and showing the value of publishing. Journals are assets that contribute to the profile, prestige and brand of the society. It’s therefore vital that partners are selected for their ability to help protect and grow the value of the asset. As potential members start to limit the number of societies to which they belong, revenues that are not from membership fees (such as those that can be generated from publishing activities) become more important. To help understand some of society’s
perceptions of publishing challenges and opportunities, Melinda Kenneway, director of TBI Communications, introduced the results of a survey to explore this, carried
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