Publishing cooperatives: an alternative for society publishers

Abstract: This SPARC discussion paper proposes a federation of discipline-specifi c publishing cooperatives as an alternative operating model for society publishers. Publishing cooperatives would be owned, capitalized, and controlled by nonprofi t publishers as users, with publishers sharing risks and benefi ts proportional to their use of the cooperative. Such publishing cooperatives can provide a scaleable publishing model that aligns well with the values of the academy while providing a practical fi nancial framework capable of sustaining society publishing programs and supporting their transition to non-subscription funding models.