To outsource or not to outsource?

Transcription

1 To outsource or not to outsource? Tips and tools for the society publisher Caitlin Meadows, Publishing Services Director, The Charlesworth Group group.com

2 Why I m here! Our client base Professional Socie;es Associa;ons Not- for- Profits University Presses Commercial Publishers Over 80 years experience in publishing services to the scholarly/ professional sectors ACP (American College of Physicians) AGU (American Geophysical Union) APS (American Physiological Society) AMA (American Medical Associa;on) ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) Bri;sh Standards Ins;tu;on (BSI) CHEST American College of Chest Physicians Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Columbia University Press European Respiratory Society GSA (Geological Society of America) GSW (GeoScienceWorld) ICE Publishing IMF (Interna;onal Monetary Fund) NPG (Nature Publishing Group) NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) NRC Research Press (Canada) MediaSphere Publishing Inc OECD PLoS (Public Library of Science) PNAS (Na;onal Academy of Sciences) Royal Society of Chemistry SGM Society of General Microbiologists University of Columbia Press United Na;ons Press World Bank

3 What do we mean by society publisher? Many socie;es choose to outsource full publishing arrangements to a commercial publisher, retaining copyright and editorial control. Other socie;es choose to retain the publishing ac;vi;es in house, but may need to outsource elements of the publishing workflow

4 A simple model of the evolu;on of publishing Print era: 1600s Packaged as books and ar;cles Physically distributed Access and discovery through libraries Digital Lib era: s Packaged as books and ar;cles Digitally distributed Access and discovery through search engines Placorm- as- a- Service era: 2010s Packaged as apps and APIs Digitally distributed Access and discovery through social networks Bradley P. Allen, Elsevier Labs

5 Outsourcing isn t new (few socie;es have self printed for some ;me, or perhaps even mailed, typeset, edited ) Technology creates opportuni;es, but makes the whole publishing process more disparate and subtle to manage

6 The publishing workflow Ref valida;on. DOI look- up PDF enhancement: XMP Styling tools PubMed/PMC deposits etc

7 Context: It s not just technology that s changing fast Top 10 countries submitting manuscripts Projected 5% 4% 5% 5% 6% 42% United States United Kingdom Japan Germany Italy 4% 6% 6% 4% 3% 32% China United States India Iran, Islamic Republic of United Kingdom 6% France 6% Taiwan 7% 10% 10% Canada China Spain Australia 8% 10% 21% Turkey Japan Korea, Republic of Brazil 38% non-native English countries 5% China, 42% USA, 10% UK Source: Thomson Reuters 63% non-native English countries 32% China, 21% USA, 6% UK

8 CompeAAon is tough! The need for speed Growing impetus to capture the best global content, and publish it quickly to gain compe;;ve advantage; cita;on advantage; and meet the needs of authors/readers/ society members

9 The need for speed How easy is speed to achieve from submission > publica;on with a fully in- house workflow

10 The publishing workflow: how quickly could you get through this solo?! Ref valida;on. DOI look- up PDF enhancement: XMP Styling tools PubMed/PMC deposits etc

11 What can t be outsourced? Skills related to the intellectual remit of the society and its publica;ons (including, I would argue, peer review assessment and editorial board decision- making) [NB that peer review decision- making was missing in my graph ] ExperAse behind the crea;on and development of CPD/educa;onal resources and their posi;oning RelaAonships: the unique engagement between a society s staff, members and community

12 What can be outsourced? Peer review management Ecommerce management Edi;ng/language polishing Typesemng/design/XML conversion Digi;sa;on/format conversion (EPUB, HTML) Hos;ng Special tech projects e.g. apps; XMP/seman;c tagging; podcasts Subscrip;on/membership services Full project management from acceptance to publica;on Marke;ng/conference planning etc.

13 These are more than just logos Integrated solutions Peer review systems Styling software Online hosting Printers CrossRef PubMed Central and many others

14 What if you could Create opportunity cost savings (free up internal ;me for what you can t outsource) Know what you don t know. U;lise partner exper;se and ;e- ins with other industry experts/systems/models Gain new relaaonships and perspecaves Find opportuniaes for scalability/workflow enhancements without even having to think about them...

15 What if you could Automate processes and re- purposing of content Automate quick pagina;on and proofing/publica;on Integrate systems and author touchpoints Automate genera;on of table of contents & index from XML save ;me avoiding manual genera;on

16 What if you could Enable author proofing via link to PDF from XML, and reminder s, checking if downloaded U;lise PDF XMP seman;c enrichment Create XML in mul;ple DTDs, HTML/HTML5; legacy content Facilitate online author correc;ons (the future happening now)

17 The publishing workflow: where XML fits Ref valida;on. DOI look- up PDF enhancement: XMP XML Styling tools PubMed/PMC deposits etc

18 Word>paged file workflow in minutes (driven by XML) Editor/ typesetter Conversion sotware Editor/typeseQer uploads styled Word file and graphics by FTP to server XML Styled Word RTF file converted to XML graphics XML PDF proof XML and graphics auto- typeset Editor downloads PDF proof and checks. Process can be re- run if needed. THE WHOLE PROCESS CAN TAKE AS LITTLE AS A FEW MINUTES PDF proof

19 Workflow comparison what can be achieved ü Workflow is streamlined and condensed. Blue was previous client workflow, Yellow new workflow ü A typical fast- track schedule is 4-6 days (2 days to 1XO, 2 days for revisions if required, 2 days to delivery of online deliverables). ü Other journals typically take days from ini;al submission to online release.

20 XML can be used to drive more design- led publica;ons

21 Manuscript transferred directed from peer review system avoids re-keying data. One way to track status of the manuscript is on the Production Status Grid shown here. The columns show the various production tasks, and desired completion dates (if required) The file inventory link provides access to all the files associated with this manuscript.

22 Checklist for the poten;al outsourcer Consider what you can/can t keep in house, but seek advice Be really clear about what you want, and when by What other systems/tools do you plan to use they can mesh Talk with organisa;ons following a variety of publishing models Work with partners you can build long- las;ng rela;onships with, to help ride challenges and grow together

23 Be mindful of offshore cultural considera;ons Two- way process: keep partners up to date with policy or content changes, and also developments in your field Consider flexiloan op;ons to cover difficult periods/boslenecks (temporary copy- edi;ng; project- management; graphics work) Be mindful of the sensi;vi;es internally for managing change lemng go of some control. Easiest approach is to take small steps and see where they lead

24 Thank you!