Join us on September 19th at 10 AM EDT / 2 PM UTC for “The Small But Mighty Journal Publisher: How to Succeed in the Changing Research Landscape,” a free virtual ALPSP Conference session sponsored by Scholastica. You can register for the session here (all attendees will get a link to the recording). Read on for more details!

As emerging technologies and the open access (OA) movement reshape the world of scholarly communication, many small and medium publishers are experiencing challenges trying to keep up with the pace of change. But, times of flux are also ripe for innovation.

Amid the uncertainty, small and medium publishers are also increasingly leading efforts to lower the cost of research and pioneering novel OA models to advance equity in academia. Such actions have augmented the value of not-for-profit publishers, in particular, to ensure healthy competition in the market and promote diversity and inclusion.

During “The Small But Mighty Journal Publisher: How to Succeed in the Changing Research Landscape,” a free virtual ALPSP Conference session sponsored by Scholastica, industry stakeholders will discuss a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of scholarly publishing today and steps small and medium publishers are taking to not only survive but thrive in the evolving digital landscape with actionable takeaways.

The session, moderated by Scholastica’s CEO and Co-Founder Brian Cody, will feature the following speakers:

  • Clare Hooper: Director of Journals Publishing, Liverpool University Press
  • Derius Galvez: Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Black Excellence in Engineering, Science, & Technology
  • Kristen Overstreet: Senior Partner, Origin Editorial
  • Rob Johnson: Founder and Managing Director, Research Consulting

Click here to register for the session — everyone will get a link to the recording!

Session details

While corporate consolidation of scholarly journals has increased in recent years, not-for-profit publishers have also been taking steps to strengthen their positions in the marketplace. Examples include The Society Publishers’ Coalition, launched in 2019 (uniting scholarly societies that publish independently and with corporate partners), and the Purpose-Led Publishing Coalition, announced this year. There has also been a new wave of cooperative publishing infrastructure and funding models introduced, such as the Scholarly Publishing Collective, launched by Duke University Press in 2022, and shift+OPEN, started by The MIT Press in 2023. Through such initiatives, small and medium society and university press publishers are increasingly piloting new OA models focused on expanding equity in research and developing strategies to reduce publishing operation costs, experiment with new revenue streams, and improve the services they provide authors and readers.

“You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone: The changing landscape of UK learned society publishing,” a 2024 report by Rob Johnson and Elanor Malcolmson of Research Consulting, also argued that there are benefits to publishing small. They found that “analysis of financial data for a subset of 21 [UK] societies indicates that self-published societies have achieved sustained growth in their revenues from publishing.” The report also found that “the number of different partners used by UK learned societies rose from 17 in 2015 to 25 in 2023” and that “this increase is being driven primarily by partnerships with university presses and, to a lesser extent, other societies.” Johnson and Malcolmson concluded, “our findings should provide encouragement to society publishers that outsourcing to a large commercial publisher is not the only viable strategy […].”

The upcoming virtual ALPSP Conference session, “The Small But Mighty Journal Publisher: How to Succeed in the Changing Research Landscape,” will explore the implications of these recent industry reports as well as on-the-ground insights from society and university press publishers about how they’re innovating through industry changes, including:

  • Examples of solo and collaborative strategies small and medium publishers are applying to adapt to changing market conditions
  • Ways not-for-profit publishers can amplify their unique value propositions
  • The role of vendors in supporting efficient and sustainable publishing processes

Following the panel discussion, there will be time for audience Q&A.

Register for the session

We invite you to register for this free virtual ALPSP Conference session here. As noted, we’ll send everyone who signs up a link to the Zoom recording.

Scholastica is also exhibiting at the in-person ALPSP annual meeting on September 11-13. We invite those attending to stop by our booth to say hello, learn more about our latest journal publishing software solutions, and get some fun goodies!

If you haven’t registered for the ALPSP meeting, there is still time to do so. This year’s conference is a hybrid event with a virtual attendance option. Visit the conference program to learn about all the great sessions on the schedule.

Many thanks to ALPSP for the opportunity to host this sponsor session, and thanks to the panelists for taking the time to be part of it!