1. Developing Scholarly Journals
Panel Discussion: How to attract quality submissions
John Haynes
Vice President, AIP

2. Overview
Take a strategic view
Adopt a proactive development attitude

3. Take a Strategic View of Your Journal and its Market
State your vision Understand your market and stakeholders Compare / benchmark against the competition Position the journal Set meaningful (“SMART”) objectives that will achieve the mission Measure performance Review and refine objectives

4. State your vision
Where do you want the journal to be in 3 to 5 years time?
What are the strategic objectives of the journal’s owners?
Is the vision for the journal consistent with the strategic direction of the owners?

5. Stakeholders Contributors: Authors & Research Institutions Researchers
Increased awareness, submissions and participation so more engagement
Consumers: Researchers, Scientists, Engineers, Faculty, Students and Educators
Improved “destination” and “stickiness” so more usage and demand
Buyers: Institutional, Consortial and Individual Buyers
Better usage, attractiveness and value so more retention and upselling
Intermediaries: Libraries, Librarians and Information Intermediaries
Better usage, attractiveness and value so more recommending
Society Members
Higher attractiveness and satisfaction so more commitment and participation
The Research Community and Outreach
A strong place in the community

6. Understand the market Who are the authors? Who are the readers?
What are the defining characteristics of the field?
Where is good research being done?
What is happening to funding?
How is the research field changing, emerging areas, hot topics?
Who are the competing journals?

7. Benchmark the journal What are its: Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities
Threats
Identify your competitors
How does your journal rate against the competition

8. Benchmark the journal Benchmarking Impact factor Immediacy index
Usage (downloads)
Speed to publication
Feedback from authors, editors and referees
Does the editorial board support the journal?
Price per page
Cost per page
Revenue per article

9. Position the journal Where do you want the journal to be?
Set “SMART” objectives
Emphasize the journal’s strengths
Eliminate its weaknesses
Take up the opportunities
Avoid or minimize the threats
SMART: Specific; Measureable; Achievable; Realistic; Timely

10. Plan – Do – Review Set out a plan Measure performance
Review and refine the plan
Remember:
Understand the needs of your market
Apply benchmarks / targets
Be clear about your mission
Set SMART objectives to achieve your mission
Follow through with a plan of action

11. What Can Canadian Science Publishers Do …

12. The Circle of Growth Drive up content usage
Raise publisher profile & author visibility
Encourage author submissions
Raise quality and volume of content
Grow sales and revenue

13. Circle of Growth Drive up content usage
Raise publisher profile & author visibility
Encourage author submissions
Raise quality and volume of content
Grow sales and revenue

14. To Grow Readership & Usage
Marketing and other techniques
Use free content to profile topical content and best authors
Focus on publishing topical content of good quality
Prominently flag most popular and most cited content
Create meaningful related content recommendations
Provide alert and RSS options to drive repeat traffic
Search engine optimization
Social media (blogs…)
Clear article title and abstract
Get included in secondary services
Monitor site analytics (visitor loyalty, bounce rate, conversion rate, entry / exit pages
Business model
Open access
Wide sales distribution, multi-journal bundles, consortia

15. Circle of Growth Drive up content usage
Raise publisher profile & author visibility
Encourage author submissions
Raise quality and volume of content
Grow sales and revenue

16. To Raise Publisher Profile and Brand
Attend conferences and exhibits
Connect your journal brand to the publisher, e.g. ACS Nano
Web presence
Branding in all the appropriate places
Journal cover
Web site
Sponsor events, lectures and awards
Journal road show

17. Circle of Growth Drive up content usage
Raise publisher profile & author visibility
Encourage author submissions
Raise quality and volume of content
Grow sales and revenue

18. To Attract the Best Authors
Increase your Impact Factor – see next slide
Speed of publication
Fast, fair rigorous, constructive peer review
Make sure your editors publish in your journal
Market the journal to authors and referees
And market your authors…
Cover image, podcast, interviews, media coverage
Invite them! E.g. special issues, review articles

19. To Increase Impact Factor
Get more citations to recent content
Identify highly-cited papers in your journal
Identify zero-cited papers
Free access campaigns and consider increasing volume of open access content
Publish more high quality and topical content
Review articles and special issues
Invite colleagues
Make sure you tell people that you have published good stuff
Target top cited people (e.g. from Web of Science, invited speakers, your own journal, competing journal authors)
Speed of publication
Online first
Media promotion

20. To Manage an Efficient Editorial Office
Have a well-defined workflow
Understand who does what and when
Have a clear mechanism on how to respond to authors (e.g. their questions and complaints)
Use a software system to manage the workflow
e.g. Editorial Manager, ScholarOne
Well-trained professional staff
Set targets for productivity and turn-round times (receipt to acceptance / publication times)
Clear communication at each step of the process
Thank your referees!
Work closely with your editors and editorial board

21. To Shorten Publication Time
Receipt to acceptance
Set deadlines for referees, but…
What happens if the referee report is late?
Timely reminders to referees
Set deadlines for authors to respond to referees comments
Have a fast-track route to publication
Invite an appropriate number of referees
Choose more referees than you need at the initial point of assessing the manuscript
Have a rapid “editorial rejection” channel

22. To Shorten Publication Time
Acceptance to publication
Go to an online first production model, article at a time production
Post an accepted version of the manuscript immediately after acceptance
Standardize workflow and processes
Get rid of all unnecessary steps
Set deadlines for all steps in the process
e.g. Author proofs
Manage your production vendor
Increase frequency

23. Circle of Growth Drive up content usage
Raise publisher profile & author visibility
Encourage author submissions
Raise quality and volume of content
Grow sales and revenue

24. To Maintain the Quality of Peer Review
Clear guidelines for authors and referees
Clear acceptance / rejection criteria
An adequate pool of experts / referees
Use a mechanism to rate referees
Recognize good referees
Use a central database of referees
Mentoring / training the next generation of referees
Keep your referee database fresh – new recruits
“Strategic” refereeing
A fair appeals process
Fair, constructive and rigorous

25. Circle of Growth Drive up content usage
Raise publisher profile & author visibility
Encourage author submissions
Raise quality and volume of content
Grow sales and revenue

26. Growing Sales and Revenue
Business model
Who gets access to what and how and at what price?
Usage
Pay attention to low use customers
Turnaways
Renewals process
Marketing strategy
Drive traffic
newsletters
marketing campaigns

27. Key Takeaways

28. Adopt a proactive development attitude
Key Takeaways
Target and commission the best authors
Engage with your editorial board
Speed up publication
Provide a great user experience at every stage of the article lifecycle – from creation to consumption (workflow)
Cultivate and nourish all your communities
Take a strategic view
Adopt a proactive development attitude

31. To Organize An Excellent International Editorial Team?
Be aware of your market
Where top research is done
Top institutions, key people
Editorial board needs to represent the global market for your subject
Start inviting
Personal contacts
People who have already gained experience by working on an international journal
Set out the role and expectations
Hold an annual editorial board meeting