Challenges Facing Society Journals

Clinical Chemistry , a society journal, was introduced in 1955.7 At that time, Clinical Chemistry and other society journals were published in a manner that changed little for the next 40 years. Production costs of journals were supported by member dues, individual/library subscriptions, or article processing charges (author page charges). If you were a society member or paying subscriber, you received a printed copy of the journal. If not, access to the article was achieved by walking to the library and pulling the journal off the shelf and photocopying it. Or you could mail the authors and ask for a reprint of the article (authors purchased reprints of the article to mail to individuals asking for a copy). Times have changed. In 1955, there were approximately 3000 scholarly peer-reviewed journals. As of 2014, there were approximately 28000 peer-reviewed journals, a number that ballooned to approximately 33000 in 2018. And this includes just English-language journals. Add to that the increase in the number of scientists worldwide, which has outpaced the rate of expansion of peer-reviewed journals. More journals plus more publishing scientists equals a staggering amount of available information. The world is now digital, and access to this wealth of information is at our fingertips. Yet, although access is more achievable than ever, society journals now face challenges to their survival. The financial models that have previously supported society journals have been disrupted. Most professional and academic societies are nonprofit, relying on membership dues to support the mission of the society and subscriptions to finance the costs of publishing a journal. However, the subscription model is becoming less and less sustainable. A 2018 report by the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers included data showing that, between 2012 and 2016, the proportion of journals in the Scopus database …