The Role of Scholarly Societies

The principal focus of most scholarly societies is to encourage the creation and dissemination of new knowledge within their discipline by publishing scholarly books and journals, which greatly benefit their own members and the progress of knowledge generally. When societies use their scholarly output as a revenue generating vehicle to cover costs beyond publication expenses, they create barriers to access and reduce the potential impact of the scholarly work.

Noting this trend, in December 2005 the University of California's Academic Council distributed a white paper titled Scholarly Societies and Scholarly Communication. In that paper the UC faculty committee calls upon societies to follow these principles:

1. reaffirm that development and dissemination of scholarly information is the, or one of the, most important purposes of the society;
2. set publications policies to sustain publication and dissemination of knowledge, without requiring high or rapidly rising subscription prices to support other society operations;
3. acquire only those copyrights for scholarly works that protect their investment in publication, while allowing scholars to retain rights which will facilitate other non-commercial use and dissemination of new knowledge;
4. work collaboratively with universities and publishers to develop and adopt the most economical and technologically effective methods of publishing that also maximize quality, dissemination, and impact; including placing work in open access fora; and
5. provide transparency in society and publication finances to promote efficient and economical resource use in scholarly communication.

Society Best Practices

The principles above can be put into practice by doing things like:

1. Eliminate the use of publication revenues to underwrite other activities which places upward pressure on publishing revenue; generate publishing revenue at or near the cost recovery point, thereby minimizing price inflation and maximizing use and impact of scholarship.
2. Avoid partnering with or outsourcing publishing operations to profit-maximizing commercial publishers.
3. Provide authors the maximum flexibility to use their scholarly work whenever possible by retaining only the "right of first publication" for the society.
4. Maximize the use of research findings in journals and other publications by minimizing price and other access barriers; preferably include an option of open, free access to all potential readers.
5. Provide alternative forms of dissemination that are timely, broad-based, and use technology effectively to enhance the knowledge base of readers.

Best Practices Checklist

Consult the following table and resources to see examples of some societies pursuit of these best practices.

Sample Society Practices

Society	Mission includes knowledge advancement e.g. part of mission statement	Publication price moderation e.g. non-profit or cost-recovery business model	Authors copyright retention (explanation)	Innovative dissemination e.g. open access; web portals	Financial transparency e.g. disclose uses of publication revenue
American Anthropological Association	see mission	Publishes via Univ. of CA Press	but postprint friendly	AnthroSource portal	Financial reports
American Chemical Society	see strategic plan	Journal price increases 2-3 x CPI; "Principal" funding for Society activities from Publications and Chemical Abstracts revenues	Requires complete transfer		Exec. compensation info. avail. only to members
American Physical Society	see "about" info	Decreased 2005 prices	but postprint friendly	experiments wtih online-only, peer-reviewed open access journals	Journal pricing details; Financial reports
Optical Society of America)	see "about" info	Self-publishes; reasonable prices and price increases	but postprint friendly	Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics Optics Express is open access
Society for Neuroscience	see "about" info	Journal price increases ~10% annually (but journal revenue claimed not to support other activities, ie. to operate at break-even)	but postprint friendly	but allows open access 6 months after publication and is activley discussing full open acccess	see annual report
The authors attempt to gather and cite reliable data about society publication practices. However, such evidence can be difficult to assemble and its interpretation is, by nature, subjective. The authors cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. We encourage society members and librarians to contact us with corrections and additions at osc@ucop.edu.