Daniel Feerst - What do journal publishers do?

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What do journal publishers do?
Daniel Feerst
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Agenda

• Why are publishers around?
• Some background on Publishing globally
• The evolving world of Science, Technology and
  Medical (STM) publishing
• The economics of Publishing

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Why do journal publishers exist?

• First peer-reviewed journal founded in 1665 by
  Royal Society
• Journal publishing has evolved dramatically
  since, but its core functions remain
• Registration of new research findings
• Quality assurance through peer review
• Dissemination globally
• Archiving in perpetuity

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The Institute of Physics

• Scientific charity founded in 1874
• Promote and support physics in furthering
  scientific knowledge
• Provide economic and social benefits in the UK
  and Ireland, and internationally especially in
  the developing world.
• Increase the practice, understanding and
  application of physics
• Worldwide membership of 36,000
• Fund scientific communities (IOP divisions and
  groups)
• Leading communicator of physics-related science
  to all audiences, from specialists through to
  government and the general public.
• Offers free or concessionary digital membership
  to physicists from developing countries
• Development Aid programme currently benefits
  researchers in over 30 countries

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IOP Publishing

• Wholly owned subsidiary of IOP
• Mission To disseminate a knowledge of Physics
• IOP 2009 300 staff in six countries
• Offices in Bristol (UK), Washington DC and
  Philadelphia (USA)
• Sales and editorial offices in Russia, China,
  Japan, Germany and Poland
• Cooperation with many smaller societies in Europe
  and worldwide

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Publishing globally

• 2,000 publishers publish around 1.5 million peer
  reviewed articles per year in 23,000 journals
• The industry employs (directly) 110,000 globally
  40,000 in EU, 10,000 in UK
• There are a few major commercial publishers with
  hundreds of titles each and hundreds of smaller
  society publishers often owner of just one title
• In the last 10 years major changes in publishing
  practice affected all

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Publishing globally Publishers in STM

• Articles published

Elsevier
Others
Wiley- Blackwell
APS
IOP
Springer
IEEE
AIP
Wolters Kluwer
Taylor Francis
ACS
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Publishing globally Subject areas in STM
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What do journal publishers do?

• 5,000 new editors per year
• 500 new journals launched per year

• 3 million article submissions per year

Solicit and manage submissions

• 2.5 million referees
• 3.75 million referee reports per year
• 50 of submissions rejected

Manage peer review
Archive and promote

• 40 million articles available digitally, back to
  early 1800s

Edit and prepare

• 12 million researchers
• 4,500 institutions
• 180 countries
• 1 billion downloads/year
• 10 million printed pages/year

• 125,000 editors
• 350,000 editorial board members
• 30 million author/publisher communications per
  year

Publish and disseminate
Production

• 1.5 million new articles produced per year
• 350 years of back issues scanned, processed and
  data-tagged

Note industry estimates based on known numbers
for a subset of the industry that are then scaled
to 100 based on the article share of the known
subset.
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Growth in total journals, global RD workers and
STM articles 1996-2007
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Bold Estimated cumulative investment since 2000
Author Submission Editorial Systems gt70
million
Electronic Platforms, e.g. ScienceDirect Wiley
InterScience Highwire Scopus gt1500 million
Other support and related systems gt300 million
eJournal Backfiles eReference Works gt150 million
Electronic Warehousing gt60 million
Production Tracking Systems gt50 million
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Economics of Publishing Delivering research
content

• Journals / E-Books
• Print
• Online
• Combination
• Packages / Bundles
• By subject
• By format (e.g. electronic bundle)
• With / without archive
• Consortium
• Some institutions or whole country

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Economics of Publishing Monthly downloads of
research papers (IOP Publishing figures)
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Economics of Publishing Acquiring research
content

• The ability for libraries to keep up with output
  is not growing
• Library budgets under pressure
• Funding agencies and government bodies engaging
  with the community
• Wellcome Trust
• National Institutes for Health
• PubMed
• Expectation that research will be openly
  available as soon as possible
• Typical embargo 6-12 months

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Economics of Publishing

• Average University Library spend
• Source SCONUL (Society of College, National and
  University Libraries)

100
100
Other O/H 14
Research Overhead 68

Staff 50
Other info 8
Books 9
Instruction 29
Journals 19
2.3
Library 2.7
University
Library
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Economics of Publishing

• Research output is growing
• Scientists cant read every paper anymore
• New services available to help scientists
  identify and obtain content
• Publishers need to ensure that their content is
  accessible in whatever way the researcher may
  want to access it and invest in necessary
  technology

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Economics of Publishing

• Pricing
• Per title, per article, per subject group?
• Open Access for all? Institution fees?
• Universities repository, how costly and effective
  will that be to academics?
• Is there a future for Big Deals?
• New metrics coming into place usage factor, cost
  per download
• Cost cutting
• Price freeze, limited investment

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Summary What for, Publishers?

• Provide the vehicles through which a scientist
  can further their career
• Set high standards of research output
• Act as a quality filter
• Provide a professional and seamless peer review
  service to ensure high standards are being
  achieved
• Provide the means by which content can be easily
  accessed
• Invest in relationship with libraries,
  researchers and resellers
• Continue to invest in offering a high standard of
  service
• IT, expertise, systems, new processes and methods
• Listen to our communities
• Adapt business models
• Provide users what they want
• Ensure that published content is available in
  whatever way the user wishes to access that
  content

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One scientists view

• Philip Bourne, Ph.D., University of California,
  San Diego, Editor-in-Chief, PLoS Computational
  Biology
• Will the contract between scientist and
  publisher change to be more than one of handling
  final manuscripts to one of maintaining the
  workflow of scholarly discourse - ideas,
  hypotheses, protocols, data, interpretations of
  these data, and conclusions, all in a variety of
  formats and modes of dissemination.
• STM International Conference, Cambridge MA 29
  April 2010

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Thank you