Stefan Busch, Associate Publisher (Society Journals), BioMed Central

1. How BioMed Central works
with societies
Stefan Busch
Associate Publisher (Society Journals)

2. Case studies of society
journals in BioMed
Central’s portfolio

3. Case study 1
Transferred in 2006

5. Reasons for transfer
The journal needed:
- Wider dissemination / web integration
- Increase in number and quality of
submissions
- Improvement of bibliometric
performance / impact factor

6. Impact factor trend (5 years)
Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica
1 0.899
0.8
Impact Factor
0.717
0.6
0.408 0.375
0.4 0.318
0.2
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

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

9. Submission statistics (2006 – 2008)
06 07 08
20 20 20

10. Case study 2
Launched in 2004 as the journal of the
Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

12. - so far a relatively small journal with
high-quality papers
- but the numbers will explode once
the first official impact factor is out

14. High SJR rankings are frequent for
BioMed Central’s journals

15. (category “Nutrition and Dietetics”, 2008)
Red arrows point
to BioMed Central
journals

16. Case study 3
Transferred in 2008

18. Important reasons for transfer
- Looking for better publisher services
and faster turnaround times for articles
- 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
- Aiming to improve position in a
competitive field

19. Financial aspects of society journals
(1) Article Processing Charges
(3) Revenue Sources

20. Article Processing Charges
Scenario 1: author-side payment
– BioMed Central’s standard APC
– Plus an optional surcharge to give society
additional revenue

21. Article Processing Charges
Scenario 2: Society covers all APCs
– Discounted APC
– A membership arrangement with the society
leads to further discounts

22. 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)

25. 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/

26. Journal-related revenue for societies
– Surcharge to APC
– Supplements
– Advertising

27. Summary
Financially
Societies can choose between supporting their journal financially, or
generating revenue from their journal, or various options in between
Societies launching new journals
BioMed 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 journals
Transferred journals have seen marked improvements in submissions
and ranking