Cssp presentation

1. Fighting on Three Fronts Joseph J. Esposito CSSP Washington, D.C. April 27, 2013

2. Processed Media is a management consultancy working in the areas of publishing, software, and education. Clients include both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. [email protected]

3. Topics How will the new open access mandates affect professional societies? How do I navigate our organization through a publishing environment dominated by huge commercial concerns? Is the management and governance structure of our society equipped to deal with pressing environmental issues ?

4. Varieties of OA Mandates Mandated deposits into institutional repositories (Green OA) Stipulations by funding organizations (e.g., the Wellcome Trust) Government policies (e.g., recent statement from U.S. OSTP) Some mandates may include embargoes Let’s not forget piracy ( unmandated !)

5. Implications of Growth of OA Growing amount of literature available—putting increased pressure on search and discovery Likelihood of multiple versions of same material online—making usage harder to assess, driving down measurable accesses In some fields, migration of papers, even some of the finest, toward Gold OA services

6. OA Implications #2 Rapid growth of new OA services to absorb all the new material Greater competition—likely to result in downward pressure on pricing and a need for greater investment in technology New premium on marketing No clear path to long-term preservation Overall, higher expenses and less revenue

7. But why not simply create our own Gold OA service and migrate our business from subscriptions to the author-pays model?

8. New OA Service: Benefits Retains authors Potentially can be additive to subscription journals Potentially Gold OA fees can be combined with membership dues, creating a path to an enlarged membership “If we don’t do this, someone else will”

9. New OA Service: Limitations Competitive environment Could cannibalize subscription revenue OA revenues typically lag behind traditional journals Could challenge standards of peer review More speculatively, likely to change the nature of desirable content over time (e.g., more topical)

10. The second front: commercial behemoths (John Wiley, Springer, Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer , Sage)

11. Structure of the Marketplace Today 85% of journals revenue derives from libraries (percentage varies by discipline) Libraries prefer to purchase aggregations Large aggregations marginalize small publishers, including many society publishers Market is growing modestly, mostly internationally Largest publishers are well positioned to remain dominant for the next several years

12. A Society’s Typical Path Go it alone—no partner, use own tech Outsource tech, but remain independent Join a consortium Place journals under the umbrella of a university press Place journals under the umbrella of a larger not-for-profit entity Create an arrangement with a behemoth

13. The real issue for a society publisher today is how to get access to the library budget, and increasingly the gateway to that income is controlled by the largest commercial publishers.

14. The Third Front: Governance Need to be responsive to environmental changes—and to anticipate them Efficient decision-making Open channel of communication between the Board and the publishing management

15. HighWire Illustration Large group of all HW publishers Presentation: How will OA affect your publishing program? Multiple requests for slide deck Need to inform society management of publishing issues Concern that societies were not attentive to business concerns

16. If governance is a problem, it is likely to become the defining problem for the entire program.

17. Practical Steps Empower a special committee to oversee publishing operations; put outsiders on that board/committee Hire “high”—that is, seek publishing managers who are strongly qualified to run operations Exercise bias in favor of personnel with at least some commercial experience

18. Practical Steps #2 Explore aggregating publishing operations with other societies Explore Gold OA programs, tying publishing fees to society membership Annual strategic planning review: place program into context of marketplace In working with large partners, seek to retain rights for markets outside libraries

19. Thank you! Joseph J. Esposito [email protected]