Some Emerging Trends in Academic Publishing

1. Some Emerging Trends in Academic Publishing AAA Committee on the Future of Print and Electronic Publishing AAA Editors Conference, November 17 2015Denver, Colorado

2. Publishing Oversight Working Group • The POWG has reviewed and accepted all final five-year plans • Extremely appreciative of the detailed engagement with the portfolio • Accessibility: ongoing interest in Open Access but except for Cultural Anthropology no specific plans • Breadth: new audiences, some new content types • Quality: affirmative statements to help position the portfolio, concrete steps to improve review process • Sustainability: cumulative efforts the portfolio is on stronger footing, a difference of nearly $120K

3. Five-Year Plans as a Group • All of the five year plans submitted addressed the substantive concerns identified by CFPEP, and all were accepted by the POWG and ACC • Result makes the portfolio significantly stronger as we enter into the RFP process for the next publishing contract (or “service level agreement”) • Please pass along AAA’s thanks to section leadership and other members of the editorial team

4. Trends in the Five-Year Plans • Lynne and Susan Coutin read every plan • They noted the following themes: • Measures to reduce costs • Measures to raise of shift revenues • Need for marketing, outreach, and presentation of relevance • Innovation in content, format, and structure of journals • Collaborations • Continued concerns: improve reach, questioning for-profit publishers, publications revenues, open access

5. Request for Proposals (RFP) • Current contract (with Wiley Blackwell) is in place until December 31, 2017 • In Jan/Feb 2016, AAA will request publishers provide proposals to begin 2018 • Kaufman Wills Fusting is a publishing consultant hired to help AAA with RFP • All final five-year plans were sent to Cara Kaufman and Fred Fusting to ensure that the RFP reflects as many of these requirements as possible

6. Request for Proposals • Feb 2016 – request proposals • Apr 2016 – initial proposal review • May 2016 – select finalists for interviews • Jun 2016 – receive revised proposals • Jul 2016 – interview finalists • Sep 2016 – recommend publishing partner • Dec 2016 – complete contract negotiations • Spring 2017 – transition (if needed) • Dec 2017 – current contract ends

7. RFP Elements

8. Proposal Evaluation – A Package • Alignment with AAA core publishing values: Quality, Breadth, Accessibility, Sustainability • Publisher Profile: location, size, portfolio • Editorial Support: Editorial management, stipends, metrics, services • Production Quality: Specs, vendors, process, speed, color, archives • Digital publishing: platform, features, branding • Dissemination: Rates, global reach, usage, Open Access policies, HINARI/AGORA/Tribal Colleges • Communications: Contacts, reporting, meetings • Strategy and Innovation: Product development, investment • Terms: Ownership, time, post-termination rights • Finances: Royalties, guarantees, signing bonus, editorial

9. Observed Trends Impacting Scholarly Publishing • Subscription–based business models have been under increasing strain • Calls for open access from funders • Fewer but larger scholarly and commercial academic publishers • Value of collective approaches • Metrics for the quality of journals shifting

10. Emerging Trends That May Impact Scholarly Publishing • Print-based assumptions and legacy workflows may not apply to born-digital content; file format standards are shifting • Reader overload • Demand for curated content will likely increase • Increased diversity of multimedia and interactive formats • Alternative peer review forms may make publishing more process-based

11. Workflows Are Changing with Born Digital Content • Shift from publishing in issues and volumes to publishing single articles • Collabra from University of California Press, still compiles into issues after article-based publishing • https://royalsociety.org/journals/authors/continuous-publication/ • PLoS One uses continuous publishing model • http://www.plosone.org/#news • Much faster publication for authors

13. File Formats • Without issues, less need for PDF • PDFs are hard to read on mobile phones and smart devices, compared to “responsive design” HTML pages • Universal design and accessibility (text-to-speech readers and speech recognition) • https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/pp/article/view/869

15. Reader Overload • In the four year period between 2006 and early 2010 PLoS ONE published more than 10,000 articles • In PubMed alone, the rate of growth is approximately one article per minute • ArifJinha of the University of Ottawa estimated that the total number of journal articles (not including books and gray literature) was in excess of 50 million articles, and the rate doubles every 24 years • Currently more than 28,000 journals

16. Curated Content • With the increase in digital data and online only journals and publications, content is more easily curated • With more publications online, more information freely available, and more authors contributing content, reader needs for filtering will grow • Curation was historically driven by humans • AnthroSource is a collection of curated content selected by editors and their peer-reviewers • Acquisition librarians purchase and assemble selections of content in library portals • Curation may be increasingly be done by software

17. Curated Content • Browzine is an example of a tool available to many in academia through your library • iPad App that enables you to “shelf” journal articles, journal issues, mark up a PDF, share it with a friend • This approach changes the nature of how scholars conduct research and result in easy access to journals in more disciplines • One no longer needs a file cabinet of articles

19. Experiments in Open Peer Review • Prepublication Peer Review: submit manuscript to external service, receive peer review prior to submission and assistance in placing manuscript with one or more journals • May link to cascading submission systems • Axios Review: http://axiosreview.org/ • Rubriq: http://www.rubriq.com/ • Peerage of Science: https://www.peerageofscience.org/ • Placing submissions in front of scholarly community for open review

21. Cascading Submission & Review • Author submits article to most-preferred journal • If, following review (editorial or peer review), article is rejected, it is passed to next most preferred journal • Article “cascades” from one title to the next in order of preference until it is accepted • While some authors do this manually, cascading systems follow this pattern as a matter of course • May reduce ‘reviewer burnout’

23. Open Peer Review • Internet Archaeology • Author submits article to journal • Manuscripts taken through a fairly double-blind review • After publication, comments are published alongside article • Comments are signed

25. Interactive Peer Review Peerage of Science • Author submits article to journal • Article is opened for discussion of review • Author may respond to reviews or revise • Depending on journal, article and reviews are published, and in some cases editor decides whether to publish the revised article in typeset form, with links to the discussions and reviews • Results in an increase in the number of ‘objects’ potentially cited for each individual contribution

27. Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics • Article is submitted and assigned to co-editor, and reviewed for technical issues and fit with journal’s scope • Article is published into ACPD discussion area • Open discussion and comment for 8 weeks • Author response to all comments within 4 weeks • Final publication with direct link to preceding stages in discussion, revision and response

29. Growth in Variety and Use of Interactive Elements • Basic rule: In digital publishing, multimedia-based content increases readership • Good images and videos, as well as interactive content, can drive internet traffic as much as written material

30. Larger Use of Video • Anthropologists are increasingly using video to collect data • Journal of Video Ethnography dedicated to the format, offers peer-reviewed videos • Author guidelines indicate that 80% of uploaded video must be recorded by author/video maker • Authors grant DePaul a three year non exclusive license to distribute and display the video

33. Use of Images and Photos as Basic Part of Web-based Content • Increased role in both research and digital publishing • Photo essays in Cultural Anthropology and Medicine Anthropology Theory • Image+text series in Somatosphere • Archiving may be unclear right now

36. Interactive content • For scholarly journals, this trend is likely a few years out • Innovation happening on home pages • Need to integrate the ability for readers to click and to share • This increases viewership & dissemination • Readers want to do things with the content, and journals that facilitate this interaction benefit through increased online readership

38. Possible Implications for AAA and its sections • Costs, financing and revenue • Marketing opportunities for born-digital content • Opportunities offered by digital tools and workflows • Archiving of non-print content • Relevance of changes to anthropological community • Role of AAA and its sections in developing trends rather than just responding to them

39. Discussion