Challenges and Adaptations in Journal Publishing in the Humanities

– a publisher’s view

Museum Tusculanum PressUniversity of Copenhagen

www.mtp.dk

Managing Director, Dr. Marianne Alenius, alenius@mtp.dk

Marketing Manager Niels Stern, niels@mtp.dk

Nordic Scientific and Scholarly Journal Publishing (NSSJP), Uppsala, 2009-11-25

CASE STUDIES

Ethnologia EuropaeaJournal of European Ethnology

Classica et Mediaevalia Danish Journal of Philology and History

Ideas in HistoryThe Nordic Society for the History of Ideas

MoG Meddelelser om Grønland | Monographs on Greenland

FACTS www.mtp.dk/ethnologia_europaea

ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA, est. 1966

Editors: Prof. Orvar Löfgren (Lund university) & Prof. Regina Bendix (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)

Covering: Cultural Studies, ethnology, anthropology

ERIH ranking: A

Traditional subscription based paper journal (two issues annually)

320 subscribers (87 % outside DK)

Online available since 2003 (individual sale and licence based sale)

Holding period for OA to back issues: three years

Indexed by major databases like SCOPUS, Proquest, Google Scholar etc.

Supported by NOP-HS

CHALLENGES www.mtp.dk/ethnologia_europaea

Declining number of subscribers

Hard to attract new subscribers

Visibility

ADAPTATIONS www.mtp.dk/ethnologia_europaea

New marketing strategies– Direct e-mailing of informational material about the journal to subject specific

institutional and NGO websites, blogs, fora etc.

– Letters for the editorial board to distribute in their networks

– Giving articles for free

– Subscription button on each page of the free articles

– RSS feed

– Newsletter with direct access to online articles, print and e-journal

– Google Adwords

– EBSCO’s new database, Proquest’s Periodicals Archive Online etc.

CONCLUSIONS www.mtp.dk/ethnologia_europaea

The effects of new marketing strategies– Increased visibility

– Low effect on sales and subscriptions

New strategy– Migration to immediate open access (demands increased funding)

– Intensified marketing

– Further innovation of marketing tools

FACTS www.mtp.dk/classicaetmediaevalia

CLASSICA ET MEDIAEVALIA, est. 1938

Editor-in-chief: Ass. Prof. Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen (Univ. of Southern Denmark)

Covering: Classical and medieval history and philology

ERIH ranking: B

Traditional subscription based paper journal (one issue annually)

310 subscribers (91 % outside DK)

Online available since 2003 (individual sale and licence based sale)

Indexed by major databases like Proquest, Google Scholar etc.

Supported by FKK (Danish Research Council for the Humanities)

CHALLENGES www.mtp.dk/classicaetmediaevalia

FKK demands open access (one year embargo)– fear of losing subscribers

– fear for the death of the journal

ADAPTATIONS www.mtp.dk/classicaetmediaevalia

Author pays model– editor and publisher say NO

Advertisement– editor and publisher say NO

Print on demand– editor and publisher say MAYBE/YES

Extra funding– editor and publisher say YES

CONCLUSIONS www.mtp.dk/classicaetmediaevalia

Gratis or libre open access (one year embargo)

Extra funding raised by the editor

Print on demand (if necessary – philologists are paper sensitive)

Yearly evaluation

FACTS www.ideasinhistory.org

IDEAS IN HISTORY, est. 2006

Editor-in-chief: Prof. emer Ingrid Markussen (University of Oslo)

Covering: Philosophy, history of philosophy

ERIH ranking: not listed

­ Level of indexing unknown (not in DOAJ)

Traditional subscription based paper journal (three issues annually)

­ Almost no subscribers

Online available (almost all issues are gratis open access)

Supported by NOP-HS

CHALLENGES www.ideasinhistory.org

New journal

No subscribers

Low visibility

ADAPTATIONS www.ideasinhistory.org

Change of publishing house

Immediate libre open access

Database indexing

Marketing

Print on demand

CONCLUSIONS www.ideasinhistory.org

Publishing model– Collaboration with Univ. Library on the publication of the journal (for

instance using OJS)

– Branding and marketing done by publisher

– Print on demand by publisher

Business model – Editor raises funding

– Editor pays publisher up-front for the given services

– Print on demand sales

FACTS www.mtp.dk/MoG

MoG (Monographs on Greenland | Meddelelser om Grønland), est. 1878

One head series, three subseries

Editors-in-chief: Prof. Hans Chr. Gulløv (National Museum, DK), Prof. Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen (Univ. of Copenhagen), Ass. Prof. Svend Funder (Univ. of Cph.)

Covering: All scientific disciplines relating to Greenland

Varying annual publications in the series (in total approx. 1250 since 1878)

Low number of subscribers

Online available since 2001 (gratis open access)

Varying funding

With MTP since 2008

CHALLENGES www.mtp.dk/MoG

Former publisher gave up the series!– new publisher needed

– handling of sales and distribution

– increased visibility and awareness

ADAPTATIONS www.mtp.dk/MoG

Transfer of the series to publisher database and webshop

Sales, marketing, and distribution

Reactivation of the series

Retrodigitization

New publications

CONCLUSIONS www.mtp.dk/MoG

Reviving of the series– New awareness

– New sales

Public funding for services provided by publisher

A lot of enthusiasm and drive!

GENERAL REMARKS

Journal and publisher match is imperative

Branding and service provider

An exiting move towards Open Access (gratis or libre)

Costs and Effects

Publishers versus Libraries

Transitional times

OPEN ACCESS TO MONOGRAPHSwww.oapen.org

Project co-funded by the EU

Seven European university presses

Aiming at new OA publishing and

business models for monographs

in the humanities and social sciences

Services targeted at publishers and libraries

Creating a network

Sign up for newsletter at www.oapen.org – or contact me!

CONTACTwww.mtp.dk

Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen

Njalsgade 126, DK-2300 Copenhagen S

www.mtp.dk :: info@mtp.dk :: +45 353 29109

Managing Director, Dr. Marianne Alenius, alenius@mtp.dk

Marketing Manager Niels Stern, niels@mtp.dk

Thank you for your attention!