How BioMed Central works with societies

Stefan Busch Associate Publisher (Society Journals)

Case studies of society journals in BioMed Central’s portfolio

Case study 1

Transferred in 2006

Reasons for transfer

- Wider dissemination / web integration

The journal needed:

- Improvement of bibliometric performance / impact factor

- Increase in number and quality of submissions

Impact factor trend (5 years)

Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica

0.3180.408 0.375

0.717

0.899

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Impa

ct F

acto

r

The 2001 – 2006 back archive was converted and retrospectively added to PubMed and PubMed

Central

Submission statistics (2006 – 2008)

20072006

2008

Case study 2

Launched in 2004 as the journal of the Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

- so far a relatively small journal with high-quality papers

- but the numbers will explode once the first official impact factor is out

High SJR rankings are frequent for BioMed Central’s journals

Red arrows point to BioMed Central

journals

(category “Nutrition and Dietetics”, 2008)

Case study 3

Transferred in 2008

Important reasons for transfer

- Looking for better publisher services and faster turnaround times for articles

- Aiming to improve position in a competitive field

- In a field relying heavily on image reproduction, “colour charges” for publications in subscription-based journals are often higher than BioMed Central’s article processing charges

Financial aspects of society journals

(1) Article Processing Charges

(2) Revenue Sources

Article Processing Charges

Scenario 1: author-side payment– BioMed Central’s standard APC– Plus an optional surcharge to give society

additional revenue

Article Processing Charges

Scenario 2: Society covers all APCs – Discounted APC– A membership arrangement with the society

leads to further discounts

Article Processing Charges

Scenario 3: Societies pay on behalf of their members– Either in full or in part (creating a benefit for

members)– Discounts available for society-covered APCs– Can be combined with surcharge on top of

standard APCs (creating incentive to join society)

From ISBNPA members page:

If you are submitting a manuscript to IJBNPA and the lead or corresponding author is a member of ISBNPA, then you are entitled to a 50% reduction in the Article Processing Fee.

http://www.isbnpa.org/journal/

Journal-related revenue for societies

– Surcharge to APC – Supplements – Advertising

SummaryFinancially

Societies can choose between supporting their journal financially, or generating revenue from their journal, or various options in between

Societies launching new journalsBioMed Central’s services and technology, combined with broad indexing (PubMed from launch), have helped set new society journals in various fields on the path to success

Societies transferring journalsTransferred journals have seen marked improvements in submissions and ranking