Learned societies and journal publishing

Abstract

The article reports on a study of approximately 500 U.K. learned societies. An initial discussion is given of the histori cal and present-day roles of learned societies and current per ceptions of the relative roles of commercial and learned society publishers. Characteristics of age, size and subject of U.K. learned societies are presented. The main focus of the paper is on the extent and nature of cooperation between learned society and other publishers. Some 30 per cent of U.K. learned societies cooperate with publishiers, to a much larger extent in science and technology than in the arts and humanities. The nature of cooperative arrangements varies markedly but can be broadly classified into: marketing and distribution; 'commission'; profit-sharing; no payment to the society. There is considerable disparity in the deals achieved by societies, particularly between the last two groups men tioned. Most cooperating societies are satisfied with their cur rent relationships, although a number of societies have changed publishers, and over 20 societies who once cooper ated no longer do so. Agreement documents are rarely suffi ciently clear and unambiguous to give confidence in their interpretation. Societies' and publishers' opinions on coopera tion vary markedly and help to illustrate the different percep tions of their roles in journal publishing.