Academy of Social Sciences chief execs - April 2011

Journal tendering for societies: A brief guide
Prepared by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) with support from JISC

Aims of the project
Work being done by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT)
Where the guide touches on “open access” business models, then it is in association with the UK Open Access Implementation Group
Addressing the problems faced by societies tendering for journal publishing services – whether and how to:
renegotiate or go out to tender
change the business model of the journal
use an external publisher for the first time
Preparation of a guide based on the experience from a real tendering process by ALT for their journal.

Background
In their negotiations with publishers learned societies – especially smaller ones – may have difficulty
articulating their requirements, and
assessing the publishers’ offerings
This is true where they wish to compare the newer models with typical “conventional” models, or simply compare different conventional offerings.
The reasons are complex and include:
lack of knowledge of the publishing industry on the part of the society’s executive staff (who cannot always find the time to acquire the knowledge);
lack of time and capacity from society executive staff, and lack of opportunity to share experiences and learn from those of others;
while the “author/research funder pays” business model is becoming more prevalent in STEM, it appears rather less feasible in other domains.

Procuring a new publication agreement: issues to consider before you start
Your current publishing contract and its renewal date
The role of the journal in relation to the society
Disposition or appetite of the society, staff, the board, and the editors
Why are you doing this?
Beneficiaries of revenue from the journal
Esteem and impact of the journal

Deciding to move to Open Access publishing: practical considerations
Open Access publishing: an overview
Business models
Dependence on royalty income
Policy and preferences of the society
Perspectives of the editors
Views of the editorial board
Attitudes of authors
Financial considerations: “funder/author pays” versus “society pays”

The procurement process
Preparing to issue the RFP
The selection process
Following up the decision to change publisher and/or publishing model
A template Request for Proposals
A framework for scoring proposals

Next steps
Peer review (done)
Release: repository.alt.ac.uk/887/#
Seek any comments you may have on the draft paper
Discussions at JISC Electronic Information Resources Working Group and with ALPSP
Final agreed version to be distributed to mailing list of societies, ACSS, Foundation for Science and Technology, others?
Probably jointly with the JISC Collections “Society Journals Transferring Between Publishers”
Case study in transitioning to Open Access, due Dec 2011

Academy of Social Sciences chief execs - April 2011

by JISC

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