Five lessons from four centuries of journal publishing – What the history of the Philosophical Transactions tells us about academic publishing | Impact of Social Sciences

peter.suber's bookmarks 2022-10-30

Summary:

"The Society found the journal to be a money-losing proposition early on. It cost, on average, upwards of £300 a year to produce, of which they seldom recouped more than half.  Because two-fifths of the copies were distributed for free to the journal’s natural market, sales were generally slow, and although back issues sold out gradually it would usually be ten years or more before there were fewer than 100 left of any given print run.  The problem was perhaps compounded by the fact that contributors were allowed to take off-prints (copies of individual papers that were part of a whole journal) of their papers for their own use; a Council decision of 1773 limits this to 100 copies (a strikingly high figure).  Prices fluctuated with the size of the volume, from 7 shillings in some cases to £1 in others! Clearly not an excellent business model, but this was also not the point of early scientific dissemination – somewhat in contrast to the situation today. Rather, the point was to increase scholarly understandings of new research, ensure quick and cheap dissemination of knowledge amongst experts, and provide a system of communication that could sustain international communities of learning.... This shift first took place in the commercial journals that were bought up by media magnates in the twentieth-century. Figures like Robert Maxwell brought in models of commercialism to a publishing culture that had previously not had to compete, fight to attract articles, nor make a profit. As the number of journals and publishing options ballooned in this century, even learned societies like the Royal Society had to grapple with competition, the cost of publishing each page and image, and the bottom line. Efforts like the one above were attempts to align the old journal with new capitalist business strategies, and ultimately succeeded in saving the journal. While never making much money, the Transactions nevertheless survived this period by adjusting yet again, including streamlining staff, creating more journals, developing a website, and hiring leaders with more commercial publishing experience. However, just as the old journal found its feet in the new commercial system, a backlash was brewing through the work of activists and publishing insiders who found the notion of making science profitable unethical.... The Society has tried a number of approaches to Open Access. It has launched two completely Open Access journals, and it offers both ‘green’ and ‘gold’ routes to Open Access on its other journals. In addition, it offers ‘delayed open access’, allowing papers in the physical sciences (series A) to be available freely twelve months after publication, and papers in the life sciences (series B) after twenty four months.  After a major review of its publishing activities, the Society’s Council agreed in July 2020 to transition the existing (hybrid) research journals to Open Access within the next five years. By mid-2021,  over half the articles published by the Society were already OA.   Flipping all its journals to Open Access will have significant long-term effects on the Society’s finances, and it is not currently clear how the Society (nor other learned societies) will balance the demands of differing elements of its scholarly mission. It is worth noting, however, that reaching a broad audience has preoccupied the minds of those coordinating the Royal Society’s publication for decades before the contemporary and rather more public discussion of access to research."  

Link:

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2022/10/25/five-lessons-from-four-centuries-of-journal-publishing-what-the-history-of-the-philosophical-transactions-tells-us-about-academic-publishing/

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Tags:

oa.south oa.societies oa.publishing oa.peer_review oa.new oa.journals oa.history_of oa.economics_of oa.case.journals oa.case

Date tagged:

10/30/2022, 16:07

Date published:

10/30/2022, 12:09