SSP Webinar Competitive Strategies for Launching or Repositioning your Publication - Mary Rose Muccie Presentation

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

2.  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 existence1
 ~1200% increase in number of journals included in the Science
Citation Index , 1964-20092
 ~59% increase in number of journals included in the Social
Science Citation Index , 1998-20092
The Landscape
1
Arif E.Jinha, Article 50 million: an estimate of the number of scholarly articles in existence.
Learned Publishing, 23(2010) , pp. 258-263.
2
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.

3.  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
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/04/funding/coping-with-the-terrible-twins-
periodicals-price-survey-2012/

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

5.  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

6.  Data on 4200 ScholarOne client journals shows significant
increases in submissions from 2005 to 20104
 Overall submissions increased 215+%
 China: 484% increase
 India: 443.21% increase
 Japan: 127.50% increase
 US: 177.44% 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
http://scholarone.com/media/pdf/GlobalPublishing_WP.pdf

7.  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

8.  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

9.  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?

10.  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?