Yes, but if not financial motive, why not a university press? There are
university presses with journals programs in most subjects, including most
of the sciences. This includes some very large presses unlikely to be at
risk of going out of business. (I say this as a press without a journals
program so this isn't blatant self-interest.) Intended or not, the
behavior of learned societies in outsourcing journals can make it very
difficult for the same people to argue against high commercial press
pricing in a different context. I worked in university press journals for
a number of years and saw more than one instance of a journal or suite of
journals going to a commercial press solely because the money was better.
How do I know? The journal owners admitted it quite freely.
And no, taking the money doesn't always connote greed. If a home
university that previously offered support withdrew all or part of that
support, what was the journal supposed to do to meet costs, from editorial
office expenses to subscription maintainence to marketing?
Whenever university-affiliated folks in any department start to cast
aspersions about the commercial publishing world sucking the university
dry, I think of Shakespeare--"The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars
but in ourselves."
Alex Holzman
Director
Temple University Press
On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 7:06 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: Anthony Watkinson <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:08:31 +0100
>
> I totally agree with Rich on these two points. I would also add the
> financial benefit, not necessarily for more income, but for a reliable
> income because a feature of these deals is a guaranteed minimum income.
>
> Anthony
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rich Dodenhoff <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:40:58 +0000
>
> Societies may outsource their journals for many reasons. Some have
> only one or two journals, and it isn't cost effective to self-publish.
>
> There is also the often justified fear among society publishers with a
> small number of journals that they are being squeezed out of the
> market by large package deals from commercial publishers. Titles from
> small nonprofit publishers are often passed over, no matter how low
> their price or how high their impact factors, because there isn't much
> money left after a library purchases big deals. Nonprofit society
> publishers may move to a commercial publisher because they feel that's
> the only way their journals will survive.
>
> Richard Dodenhoff
> Journals Director
> American Society for Pharmacology
> & Experimental Therapeutics
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:46:49 -0500
>
> It does seem odd that societies would outsource their journal
> publishing to large commercial publishers because they can be assured
> in advance (1) that the prices will go way up, (2) fewer individuals
> will be able to afford to subscribe to them, and (3) any profits made
> will not redound to the benefit of academic research since they will
> go to pay shareholders or be used to grow the size of the company
> further so as to increase its market share. Why do scholars complain
> about commercial journal practices and then turn around and allow
> their societies to help those companies profit even further at the
> expense of academe?
>
> Sandy Thatcher
>
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