Aggregating with GeoscienceWorld (GSW) What

1
Aggregating withGeoscienceWorld (GSW)Whats in
it for us?
2
1 Awareness.

• Awareness visibility of participating societies
• The easier you can find a publication, the more
  it will used.
• Wider use increased stature.

3
2 Maximize publishing advantage for authors.

• Highly cited authors publish in journals that are
  widely cited.
• Authors favor publications with easy (online)
  submission process.
• GSW will encourage authors to publish regionally
  focused papers with smaller societies. Why?
  Because the aggregate gains them national and
  international circulation.

4
3 Keep societies competitive.

• Libraries subscribe to most-used journals.
• On the basis of usage or impact factor, most
  societies competitors are journals published by
  multi-million if not billion dollar commercial
  publishers.
• A society cannot afford to ignore the benefits of
  co-operation.
• Small societies that do not aggregate could
  become extinct.

5
4 Increase readership/circulation.

• Societies are likely to reach new markets as GSW
  users discover new journals through searches,
  reference linking and easy access.

6
5 Maintain readership/circulation.

• It will be easier for a library to make a case
  for a single online collection of journals than
  30-100 individual subscriptions.
• A society-based aggregate is insurance against
  being picked off one by one.
• Aggregate cuts costs to libraries

7
6 Maintains readership/circulation.

• Societies will risk losing the print
  subscriptions whether they participate or not.
• Libraries may not pick up individual online
  journals if they drop print versions.
• GSW offers way to maintain presence in libraries
  if print subscriptions are dropped.

8
7 Preservation and use of past literature.

• Readily accessible publications will be used.
• Aggregate avoids the probability of not bothering
  to check old refs because they have been moved
  off-site.
• For example SEG. Entire journal put online.
  Downloads of the earliest articles were observed.
  
• Especially true when GSW can put pre-2000
  articles online (the Legacy Collection).

9
8 Greater Accessibility to a Wider Audience.

• Most journal subscribers are academic libraries
  in advanced degree-granting institutions.
• A cooperative effort like GSW may have the
  content diversity and resources to develop a
  pricing scheme to market to industry, public
  libraries, developing countries, etc. creating
  subscriber diversity.

10
9 Enable small societies to go electronic.

• Experience, procedures, and economies of scale
  will benefit and assist a small society to
  publish electronically.
• There may be direct financial support for
  digitizing archives.

11
10 Decrease costs to libraries.

• Economies of scale and resource sharing from
  publishers (societies) dedicated to disseminating
  the geological sciences by making their
  publications available at lowest costs possible.

12
11 Decrease cost of keeping up with technology.

• Members and subscribers will soon want more than
  current publishing systems. Electronic
  publishing will become increasingly complex.
• Unlikely that most societies could continue to
  manage or afford the file preparation, software,
  and hardware expenses.
• Joining an aggregation of journals holds the most
  promise.
• Sharing production costs, whether print or
  electronic, makes management and financial sense.

13
12 Library Consortia.

• Processing an institutional paper subscription
  order is relatively inexpensive and quick. But
  there are a growing number of library consortia.
  
• Electronic subscriptions for these will involve
  contracts, which likely will differ between
  consortia.
• Society will need more legal help to process
  these subscription orders.
• For single journals this does not make economic
  sense. A small society with few titles is apt to
  lose out to publishers offering journal titles in
  bulk lots. A society participating in GSW would
  benefit from being part of a larger group.

14
13 Marketing.

• It is difficult to market a scientific journal
  today, especially internationally, with the hope
  of increasing subscriptions.
• Aggregating a society's journal with other,
  related journals is the first mechanism that has
  the potential to increase circulation.

15
14 Less Developed Countries.

• Most journals, whether print or electronic, are
  too expensive for many institutions in less
  developed countries.
• Societies find it hard to develop subscription
  arrangements that reflect ability to pay.
• A larger or cooperative group would have the
  resources to develop and market a business plan
  for the less well-off markets.
• Electronic format could eliminate printing and
  mailing costs

16
15 GSW is Non-profit.

• A commercial aggregator relies on significantly
  higher library subscription prices.
• Not in the tradition of societies providing
  scientific papers of dedicated (unpaid) authors.
  
• Society-based aggregate can allow societies to
  continue making publications available at lower
  cost.

17
16 GSW is a Co-operative.

• Even with a "customer relations department" a
  society, particularly a small one, has relatively
  little leverage for change over a commercial
  vendor.
• GSW participants will have more clout in
  determining their distribution.

18
17 Covering Journal Costs.

• Some commercial arrangements require the society
  to support the journal from sources other than
  electronic subscription revenues, or rely on the
  continued sale of paper copies.
• In some cases the commercial aggregator is an
  additional publishing expense with no returned
  revenue.
• Clearly if the future of publications for a small
  society is electronic-only, the society would be
  hard pressed to continue to deliver hard copy.

19
18 GSW is a Discipline Aggregate.

• Many commercial aggregates contained a large
  number of journals, but few are science- or
  Earth-science related.
• An Earth science publication adrift in a sea of
  unrelated journals may not in itself bad, but it
  would mean the grouping would be marketed
  generically rather than specifically.

20
19 GSW is Non-exclusive.

• A society can make its electronic publications
  available through existing or new channels.
• While the financial aspects of multiple
  distributors are yet to be fully anticipated, at
  the minimum it means that various societies could
  continue to make their online publications
  available to members and institutional
  subscribers who do not subscribe to GSW.

21
20 Inclusion of Non-journal Material.

• Long term, GSW would like to include books, field
  guides, maps, databases etc.
• All of a society's published material available
  digitally from the same source.
• The richness of the material available from GSW
  would increase the attractiveness of subscribing
• This in turn would make each societys
  publications more visible.

22
21 Inclusion of Non-English Languages
Publications.

• GSW plans to include non-English pubs. asap.
• Some have English abstracts, already. With
  translation software, articles will soon be
  translated as needed.
• English publications will be translatable through
  the same software.
• Richness of the material available from GSW would
  increase the attractiveness of GSW.
• This would make each societys publications
  circulated more widely than ever imagined.

23
22 Secure a Broader Earth Science Voice.

• Unlike the physics community, the Earth sciences
  tend to be less cohesive and consequently less
  visible, scientifically and politically.
• Visible co-operation may change that to benefit
  all Earth science societies.

24
23 Better Integration of Earth Science
Literature.

• Literature searching will be easier, faster, and
  ought to be more complete.

25
24 Less research duplication.

• A researcher may find there is already an answer
  to their question.