Strategic Considerations for Launching or Repositioning a Journal Mary Rose Muccie Director, Current Journals Program JSTOR

 Growth in the number of scholarly journals described in various forums as “exponential,” “explosive,” “extreme,” “egregious,” etc.  Some stats  Estimated 50M+ scholarly research articles in existence 1  ~1200% increase in number of journals included in the Science Citation Index,  ~59% increase in number of journals included in the Social Science Citation Index, The Landscape 1 Arif E.Jinha, Article 50 million: an estimate of the number of scholarly articles in existence. Learned Publishing, 23(2010), pp Peder Olesen Larsen and Markus von Ins, The rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by Science Citation Index. Scientometrics, 84 (2010), pp. 575–603.

 Couple this with the decline in institutional library acquisitions budgets  State-funded institutions particularly hard hit  Per the 2012 EBSCO Library Collections and Budgeting Trends Survey (Feb 2012) of 395 academic libraries  69% had reduced or flat budgets that year  52% expect flat budgets next year  22% expect reduced budgets next year  Cuts will come from print journals (80%), p+e journals (63%), print books (55%) 3 The Landscape 3 periodicals-price-survey-2012/

 Why launch a journal?  How might an existing journal be repositioned? Given All That…

 New fields are developing constantly  Renewable Energy Engineering  Sustainability Science  Proteomics  Social Learning  Digital Culture and Communication  Food and Energy Security  Multi-scale Modeling and Simulation Research Areas Are Growing

 Data on 4200 ScholarOne client journals shows significant increases in submissions from 2005 to  Overall submissions increased 215+%  China: 484% increase  India: % increase  Japan: % increase  US: % increase  Relative portion from developing world increasing as well  China: 6.1% of 2005 total subs; 11.3% of 2011 total  India: 2.9% to 4.9% of total  South Korea: 2.5% to 2.8% of total  Iran: 0.7% to 2.1% of total  Yet acceptance rates decreased by ~3% Submissions Are Increasing 4

 Access models  OA  Subscription  Hybrid  Freemium  Format and presentation  Multimedia as content, not just as supplement  User interaction  Commentary, blogging, social features  Post-publication peer review Models and Options Are Evolving

 Mission support  Dissemination  “This field is increasingly relevant in [Asia] [Africa] [the UK] and we need to get the information out.”  Perception of publisher  On the cutting edge, experimental, traditional  Cost recovery  Which costs? Goals Are Expanding

 Launching a new journal  Charismatic and connected champion essential  Build network of supporters at all levels  Ensure a submission pipeline  Set clear and realistic goals  ID the business model  No wishful thinking  Considerations  Is field mature enough to support new title?  Is author base/content unique enough/separate enough to support new title?  Is format/editorial model/publishing flow different enough to warrant new title? Launch or Reposition?

 Repositioning an existing journal  Modify the editorial policy  Change the editorial board  Introduce new article types/sections/formats  Market, promote, rinse, repeat  Expect it to take a while to sink in  Considerations  Is field undergoing evolution rather than radical change?  Will solicitation of papers in key areas of focus achieve sustained expansion in new areas?  Will changes in article types/sections/formats address new needs?  Is the journal brand strong enough to sustain a content/format revamp or to support spin-off titles? Launch or Reposition?