From: Chris Beckett - Personal capacity <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 2 May 2012 03:13:05 -0500

Doesn't Fred's argument presuppose that outsourcing to a commercial
publisher, by definition, requires adoption of a subscription model. I
am not sure that this is the case.

With increasing numbers of commercial publishers offering an Open
Access publishing model, surely to suggest it does is to conflate two
issues, namely the legal status of the publisher and the business
models by which it delivers content.

If for instance a society publisher outsourced to BioMedCentral or
Hindawi, to name just two of the increasing number of commercial Open
Access publishers, they would be outsourcing to a commercial publisher
whose products and services are all OA based as far as I am aware,
i.e. are free at the point of use and don't charge subscriptions.

Conversely, if they outsourced to OUP or CUP on a conventional basis,
they would be outsourcing to a not-for-profit publisher whose product,
in this example, would be subscription based.

I think there are two separate questions here.

Firstly does a society think it can make more money, reach more
readers, get better citations, or whatever - essentially "publish
better" by undertaking the operation of publishing itself, or by
outsourcing to another publishing organisation?  (Which of these
metrics or combination of metrics are most relevant to the society
will presumably vary according to its specific mission and the goals
for the journal(s) concerned).

Secondly, when a decision has been made to outsource, what business
model is most appropriate for the society concerned (given its goals
for the journal and overall mission): Subscription based, Open Access,
hybrid, advertising based or some other model that has yet to be
invented.

As long as the society's goals are met in respect of the second
question surely the organisation selected might be a for-profit (such
as  Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor and Francis, BMC, Hindawi, Springer, and
many others,) entity offering some or all of the business models
mentioned  or it may be a not-for-profit publisher such as OUP, CUP,
or other society publisher.

I am not sure conflating the business model question with the legal
status of the publisher (essentially whether or not it pays tax on its
surplus or profit) is entirely helpful.

What have I missed?

Chris Beckett