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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY |
PUBLISHING Volume 79, Number 8 CENEAR 79 8 pp. 58-63 ISSN 0009-2347 [Previous Story] [Next Story]
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Scientific Publishers "no longer live in a stable world," according to Robert D. Bovenschulte, director of the American Chemical Society's Publications Division. "Technology is rapidly transforming our capabilities and the functionality of the products we publish. It's changing the way in which authors submit articles to journals; it's changing how peer review is conducted; and it's changing how editing, proofing, and production are done. It is also fundamentally changing the very economics of the business," he says.Bovenschulte describes the marketplace as "turbulent," rife with "uncertainty about any action we may take or any activity we may invest in. It's difficult to anticipate the reception and impact that a new activity may have."
Growth in division revenues in recent years has primarily derived from increased advertising in its magazines and from online versions of its journals, according to William J. Cook, director of business operations and publishing services. He expects ad revenues to level out this year, but subscription revenues should continue to grow. New products--particularly the magazine Modern Drug Discovery and the journal Organic Letters--are becoming significant contributors to the revenue stream, Cook says. He adds that the division is reducing expenses through steps such as negotiating a better purchase price for paper. The Publications Division--or "Pubs," as it is dubbed by staffers--has about 350 employees, who wrestle with an enormous volume of material. The division publishes 30 journals, four magazines, and two directories. In conjunction with the Membership Division, Publications also manages a database of some 245,000 subscriptions--including approximately 145,000 C&EN subscriptions--and about 161,000 member records. The Governing Board for Publishing, which is chaired by ACS Executive Director John K Crum, oversees the business operations of the Publications Division. The Joint Board-Council Committee on Publications oversees the editorial side. The division also reports on a quarterly basis to the ACS Board of Directors. THIS OVERSIGHT structure rests fairly lightly on ACS journal editors. Mary E. Scanlan, director of publishing operations, says they are given "total editorial freedom. After all, if it wasn't set up that way, it would be harder to attract editors." The Publications Division is currently seeking an editor-in-chief to succeed University of Texas chemistry professor Allen J. Bard, who will be stepping down at the end of 2001 after 20 years at the helm of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). An editorial search is being conducted by a committee appointed by Crum. The committee, headed by Joan E. Shields, who chairs the Joint Board-Council Committee on Publications, is devising a short list of candidates and will contact the top choice to find out if he or she would be willing to take on the job, Scanlan says. The proposed appointment must then be approved by the ACS Board of Directors. JACS, which is the society's oldest journal, was first published in 1879. Publishing has undergone a tremendous change since that time, particularly since the emergence of the World Wide Web. ACS began putting electronic editions of its journals on the Web in 1996, starting with the Journal of Physical Chemistry. The entire lineup of ACS journals is now available online as well as in print. The digital versions of ACS journals have been a big hit with readers, who access articles at a rate of about 1.3 million views per month, says Dean J. Smith, sales manager in the Sales & Marketing Department. And usage is growing 10% per month. Scanlan points out that "some people are more receptive to electronic publishing; others still want their print edition." But as more readers log on to the Web, she anticipates that the society will eventually shift to electronic-only publication. " 'When' is the 64,000-dollar question," she says.
Although online publishing offers many advantages--such as fast access and multimedia capabilities--it is shaking publishers up because of its potential impact on longstanding traditions. For instance, biochemists are circulating a letter calling for their fellow scientists to patronize only those journals that permit their articles to be posted on a free, public website within six months of initial publication (C&EN, Dec. 18, 2000, page 7). Potentially even more thorny is the issue of preprint servers, which are online sites where authors post scholarly papers prior to peer review. Preprint servers have ramifications both in terms of copyright and prior publication, Cook says (C&EN, Jan. 15, page 10). Even as these issues are being debated, ACS journals publish almost 21,000 articles annually, which are selected from a pool of about 34,000 submitted manuscripts, Scanlan says. Once a manuscript is sent to a journal, the journal editor sends it out to reviewers, whose comments help the editor decide whether to accept or reject the paper. If it's accepted, the editor's office then forwards the paper to the Journal Publications and Composition Services staff based in Columbus, Ohio, for editorial production, including copyediting, sizing of graphics, and formatting. Composition Services then ships a galley proof to the author to review the changes that have been made. The author returns the proof with any necessary corrections to the journals group in Columbus. After the corrections are made, the staff prepares the article for the printer and for publication on the Web. Some ACS journals have recently begun to accept manuscripts submitted via the Web. This method was introduced with the launch of the journal Organic Letters in mid-1999. Since then, eight other journals have also begun taking Web submissions and another 10 or so are in the process of adopting this feature. The manuscript submission process isn't the only aspect of journal publication that is being updated. In fact, ACS is moving toward a completely electronic journal publication system, Scanlan says. The journal publication group has already completed the transition from paper to online editing. And she notes that the Journal Publications and Composition Services staff is testing a digital document management system "that will provide considerable flexibility in both print and Web production." THE NEW SYSTEM will automate work flow and document management, including "tasks that have been done for many years on paper, such as the correspondence between author, editor, and reviewer, and between the Columbus staff and the staff in Washington as well," Youngen says. The Oracle database at the core of the new system will make journal production more flexible. "Say we want to publish some figures in color on the website but want to use a black-and-white version of them in print to cut down on printing costs," Youngen explains. "Or we might want to choose one frame of a QuickTime movie from the Web article to put in the printed article. It's very difficult for us to accommodate something like that now." Once the new system is in place, however, "we will be able to do that." ACS's magazines are also due for a new production system. Over the years, the society's magazines have been produced on a series of different publication platforms, C&EN Managing Editor Rudy M. Baum says. "These platforms, which in some sense have been cobbled together as publishing technology evolved over the past decade, are not entirely compatible with each other and do not allow straightforward Web publication," he says. In March 1999, Bovenschulte assembled a team led by Youngen to search out a new magazine publishing system. Baum, who was one of the team members, says the group identified three capabilities that it wanted the system to have: interactive electronic workflow from a central database that encompasses all editorial and production functions, simultaneous publishing of print and Web products, and a relational database that allows storage and retrieval of all ACS magazine content.
William R. Succolosky, who is general manager of the division's Publishing & Creative Services unit, is heading the team responsible for implementing the system. If all goes well, the first magazine--Modern Drug Discovery--will transfer production to the new system this July, he says. The rest of the division's magazines will follow suit soon afterward. SUCCOLOSKY'S UNIT recently completed a yearlong project to convert the steps needed to prepare publications for printing--such as placing ads on the pages and transferring the finished pages to printing plates--to a completely digitized process. This has cut prepress costs from an average of from $50 to $125 per page down to $15 per page, he says. In other software-related news, the Publications Division's Member & Subscriber Services (M&SS) unit plans to replace the fulfillment system that hosts its database of members and subscribers, Cook says. M&SS, which is located in Columbus, maintains the database and uses it to provide ordering and billing assistance and customer service to members and subscribers. As the software available for publishers becomes more sophisticated, and as users gain experience with online publications, the Publications Division will continue to upgrade its electronic products. Indeed, the division has many choices in terms of new features to offer its customers. There are so many possible features that the society can't adopt them all. So Bovenschulte formed the Innovation Process Management (IPM) unit last August to facilitate the priority-setting process. The unit focuses on the features and functionalities--rather than the content--associated with the Publications Division's online products, IPM Manager Cheryl J. Shanks says. In weighing decisions, IPM checks out the competition and gathers input from customers to find out which features would be most desirable. IPM also stands ready to coordinate or colead joint projects involving other Publications units. For instance, IPM is working with the Information Technology and Journal Publications Departments to facilitate the implementation of online manuscript submission and review for journals that add this feature. Shanks's unit is also responsible for gathering the knowledge of Publications' staff and establishing a mechanism for sharing that information across the division, a function known as "knowledge management" in business circles. The Information Technology unit has just set up an intranet where staff can post information such as summaries of conferences they have attended, project updates, marketing reports, analyses of the competition, and customer feedback. "The major focus of the IPM unit is on making our existing products and services better and more attractive to our customers," Ochs says. His unit, on the other hand, is focused on creating new products. Recent additions include the journal Biomacromolecules, which debuted last year, and Nano Letters and Crystal Growth & Design, which were introduced this year. Bovenschulte, who says his objective is to launch two new products annually on average, will take a proposal for another new journal to the Governing Board for Publishing later this month. OCHS SAYS the New Product Development unit is focused on three types of publications: "niche journals in emerging fields; alternatives to high-priced, heavily used competitors; and products in formats which would be new to the Publications Division, like a newsletter." In considering a new product, "we look very carefully at whether there's a critical mass of both research and readers for the material," he says. "Do they have a need for this research to be brought together in one place" Starting new publications in hot areas is well and good, but ACS doesn't abandon journals in areas that are cooling off. "The primary consideration is whether the journal is advancing the practice of chemistry and related sciences--it's not to maximize the wealth of the society," Ochs says. "If the journal is running a deficit, is the society willing to fund the dissemination of that science" Bovenschulte agrees. "Net contribution or breakeven is not the only criterion for measuring the success of an ACS journal," he says. Success can also be measured through the number of citations and the impact factor, as well as "how the community for a given journal evaluates it," he adds. A journal may run a deficit because the field it covers is undergoing a decline in terms of research funding and activity, Bovenschulte says. "Or it could be the reverse--that the growth of papers is so rapid that we are unable to raise prices responsibly in the short run to cover those increased costs. We have several journals that are editorially outstanding which, because of the explosive growth in the numbers of papers, are operating at a deficit," he notes. "We will eventually have to catch up with pricing in order to make up for the rapid rise in costs." Despite these instances, Bovenschulte says, the journals program is financially successful overall. ONE FORCE behind that success is the journals marketing program, which has been completely revamped. "Traditionally, publishers marketed print journals by mailing out a price list to library customers and watching the orders come in," Smith says. But the advent of electronic publishing brought the introduction of new types of products, new pricing models, and a wider range of purchasing options for customers. As a result, the Publications Division's marketing department decided to switch its focus from subscriptions purchased by members to those purchased by academic and corporate libraries for a large population of users. These changes meant Publications needed to approach customers more proactively, Smith says. To that end, the department established a Sales unit in 1998. The initial sales force of one has since expanded to five account managers, including two international consultants based in Europe. Since 1998, the number of sales calls they've made annually has shot up from 30 to 400. The department also established a Product Marketing group to increase the visibility of the ACS journals and to develop marketing campaigns. An Information Services unit handles exhibits, data analysis, and interaction with journal editors. The Sales & Marketing Department is working in a complex environment, given the changes occurring in the scientific/technical/medical publishing market. For instance, subscriptions for scientific publishers' journals are eroding at an average rate of 7% per year, Smith says. ACS is fortunate in that its journal subscriptions are falling at a lower rate. The declines are due in part to pressure on library budgets. But they're also related to the shift from print to electronic publishing, which allows multiple users to access a single online subscription. "The future is scary," Smith admits. "How will we create new pricing models based solely on electronic access" Regardless of the ultimate shape of the market, the society's journals are recognized as providing good value. The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) citation data show that ACS publications garner almost half the citations in ISI's chemistry subject category, Smith says. And more than half of the society's titles place first in their subject categories in terms of total citations or impact factor. The ACS Publications Division offers a number of products in addition to journals, including books, magazines, and directories. The book publishing program has faced a rocky road in recent years. "ACS restructured the department four years ago in order to eliminate million-dollar losses," Bovenschulte says. "We then entered into a production, marketing, and distribution agreement with Oxford University Press. Today, we are publishing just as many books--30 to 35 titles per year--as we did before the restructuring." As a result of the reorganization, the unit has recovered to the extent that it is now essentially breaking even. THE DIVISION'S Special Publications Department encompasses Analytical Chemistry (AC) and Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T), both of which contain magazine and journal sections; the magazines Chemical Innovation, Modern Drug Discovery (MDD), and Today's Chemist at Work (TCAW); and two annual buyers' guides, LabGuide (which lists lab products and services) and Chemcyclopedia (chemicals and related services). Because both AC and ES&T are semimonthlies, "it's hard for them to publish news that is at all timely," Special Publications Director Mary Warner says. "By the time a story appears in AC or ES&T, it may already have been covered in newspapers or weekly magazines, so we try to add analysis and put the story in context for our readers." The department is also exploring ways to post current news on the publications' websites. Some of this content may reside solely online, or it may appear in a brief write-up on the website and in an expanded version in the print edition. Chemical Innovation, which debuted in January 2000, is the new incarnation of the 30-year-old magazine CHEMTECH. "A lot of people who had been reading CHEMTECH from the beginning loved it, but we were getting very few new, younger readers," Warner explains. "CHEMTECH was viewed by many as 'that old staid magazine that everybody's father reads.' We decided to relaunch it as Chemical Innovation, keeping the most popular features of CHEMTECH and adding new content as well." MDD, which was introduced in October 1998, is "going gangbusters," Warner says. She notes that it has "attracted many more subscribers and published much more advertising than anticipated." Like TCAW, the society's magazine for industrial chemists, MDD is a controlled-circulation magazine, fully supported by advertising and sent free to qualified subscribers. The Special Publications unit's "biggest thrust at the moment is brand extension, both through the Web and other publishing activities," Warner says. "All of our magazines are available on the Web, and we're exploring ways to enhance that content." Chemical & Engineering News, too, falls under the aegis of the Publications Division. Editor-in-Chief Madeleine Jacobs views the publication's role as a filter for readers. "There is a lot more happening in the chemical world than we can possibly write about," she explains. "We choose what we think are the most important things for the readers to learn about. We try to present a balanced package of stories on news, trends, events, and insights that relate to the chemical world, and to make it as accurate, timely, and informative as we can." Jacobs notes that "the editorial independence of C&EN is the same as that of the journals. The journal editors are not told what to do by ACS management, and I'm not told what to do. I've never had any pressure to write about anything. We try to make decisions that are going to serve the society well, but we do not shy away from covering something that's controversial." The same goes for advertisers, Jacobs says. "Advertising is very important to us, both financially and in providing information to readers. But we don't do a story on a company just because it advertises with us. We have very strict separation between the advertising and the editorial side." That independence provides credibility with readers and hasn't scared off advertisers. "We had an extremely successful advertising year in 2000," Jacobs says. "We are the leaders among the chemical news weekly magazines in readership, advertising revenue, and market share of pages of advertising." The magazine has just been redesigned. "Our goal was to update the look so we could capture the dynamic nature of the chemical enterprise," Jacobs says. "And we're trying to continue along the path of making C&EN look more like a newsmagazine and less like a journal." The new style is also intended to "give the reader more entry points into stories by using headlines and artwork more effectively." C&EN put its content online in August 1998, the first ACS magazine to do so. And this past November, the magazine added a link on its Web page to "C&EN Today," which features a selection of stories from the upcoming week's edition. Readers generally use the online edition--which is free to ACS members--to search through back issues. "And people who live in areas where the mail service isn't very good check the online edition as soon as it goes up," Jacobs says. Job seekers also turn to the online edition, because it posts the C&EN classified ads of quality job openings at midnight on the Sunday prior to the print edition's cover date. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING is a significant source of revenue for C&EN and for the Publications Division, Jacobs says. In fact, the magazine set a record in terms of revenues from classified ads in 2000.
At the same time that Publications was digging into this issue, the Membership Division's Career Services Department decided it wanted to enhance its online career offerings. The directors of the two divisions decided to build a new online employment site together. Dubbed Employment Online until it receives its official name, the e-recruitment site for the chemical community is due to go live in August 2001. Mary L. Funke, general manger of the Employment Online unit, believes the site will offer some advantages over the large boards such as Monster.com, Headhunter.net, and HotJobs.com, "which are hard to maneuver for both employers and candidates. Monster.com is trying to be all things to all people, and the front page is overwhelming," she says. "Searches aren't clean, so you get a lot of employees or jobs that aren't relevant and temporary services like Kelly, so you don't really know who the employer is. Employers and job seekers will be much more apt to use a specialized site that focuses on a special community," Funke says. The Employment Online site will alert candidates via e-mail when jobs that fit their profiles are posted and will alert employers when suitable new candidates sign on, Funke says. Candidates will be able to store résumés on the site, and employers will be able to obtain statistics on who is viewing their ads. The site will offer articles and a career help desk. Members will be able to obtain individual help with résumés and career questions and use a salary calculator. Access to the job listings will be free for job seekers. Employers will pay a range of fees based on services used. Bovenschulte says the Publications Division is "making a multi-million-dollar investment in Employment Online over the next several years, and the plan calls for it to break even and eventually generate a reasonable net contribution." Clearly, the environment in which the Publications Division operates is undergoing a transformation. As it positions itself to respond to the corresponding opportunities, "the division is in excellent condition--strategically, operationally, and financially," Bovenschulte says. "ACS governance continues to provide strong support and enthusiasm for the division's activities, innovations, and initiatives. As a result, the division is well positioned to meet the challenges, and to take advantage of the opportunities, arising from the electronic revolution in scientific publishing."
FAMILY TREE ACS's Publications Division Has Eight Main Branches Director--Robert D. Bovenschulte Business Operations and Publishing Services--William J. Cook The Business Management Office prepares the division's financial reports and analyses; the Innovation Process Management unit gathers customer feedback, facilitates priority-setting for development of Web-based products, pools and circulates competitive division knowledge, and coordinates projects with other Publications Division units; the Member & Subscriber Services unit, which also serves the society's Membership Division, maintains the ACS's database of members and subscribers and provides customer service to members and subscribers; the Publishing & Creative Services unit handles digital imaging, design, printing, and distribution for journals and production, printing, and distribution for special publications and for other ACS divisions; the Copyright Office grants rights and permissions for the use of ACS publications and protects the division's intellectual property. Chemical & Engineering News--Madeleine Jacobs The unit publishes ACS's weekly newsmagazine, the official organ of the society. Information Technology/Publications--Lorrin R. Garson The Research & Development unit creates Web products and provides the Web environment for them; the Systems Support unit provides computer support to the division's staff, as well as journal editors, authors, and reviewers. Employment Online--Mary L. Funke In collaboration with the Membership Division, the unit is building a Web-based job and recruitment site rich in career content for the chemical community. New Product Development--John P. (Jack) Ochs The unit determines customer needs and develops new products accordingly; the Books Department develops new titles in the ACS Symposium Series and also publishes titles such as the "ACS Style Guide" and "Reagent Chemicals." Publishing Operations--Mary E. Scanlan The unit's two departments--Journal Publications and Composition Services--are both based in Columbus, Ohio, and are responsible for the editorial production of the 30 ACS journals. Sales and Marketing--Justin R. Spence The Sales unit sells subscriptions to the division's publications; the Product Marketing unit handles strategic planning for marketing of the publications; and the Services unit manages the division's exhibits. Special Publications--Mary Warner The unit publishes the periodicals Analytical Chemistry, Environmental Science & Technology, Chemical Innovation, Modern Drug Discovery, Today's Chemist at Work; two buyers' guides; and special issues. AD MAGIC ACS Subsidiary Connects Readers And Advertisers C entcom is a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Chemical Society that sells advertising space in the society's publications, particularlyChemical & Engineering News(C&EN),Today's Chemist at Work,Modern Drug Discovery, Analytical Chemistry, Chemcyclopedia, andLabGuide. Centcom also sells some advertising in non-ACS publications. Centcom President James A. Byrne notes that advertising revenues for ACS publications have grown 63% since 1996 to reach $25 million in 2000. Those revenues help cover the costs of salaries and other expenses for the Publications Division's magazines, and they also help to support ACS programs that don't have their own source of revenue. "Centcom is critical to the success of the Publications Division and of ACS itself," says Madeleine Jacobs, editor-in-chief of C&EN, which accounts for 60% of ad revenues of the Publications Division. Centcom has six salespeople at its headquarters in Wayne, Pa., and an additional 11 salespeople in eight satellite offices elsewhere in the U.S. The unit also relies on eight independent firms to represent its publications outside the U.S. The company, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last June, is not resting on its laurels. In cooperation with the Special Publications unit, it helped launch the magazineModern Drug Discoveryin 1998. That same year, Centcom played a key role in the success of the 75th Anniversary issue of C&EN. Last year, the company was heavily involved in developing the magazine supplementThe Pharmaceutical Century, which provided an overview of 10 decades of drug discovery. Mary Warner, director of the Special Publications unit, notes that the magazine supplement "had the largest distribution--177,000--and generated the most advertising revenue of any single issue in ACS history." Also in 2000, Centcom acquired National Trade Show Press, the publisher of trade show dailies for Pittcon, CPhI, Informex, and the ACS national
Chemical & Engineering News
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COLUMBUS CREW Lee S. Thurston (left), Cheryl A. Carter, and Jacqueline A. Williams are just three of the Publishing Operations staff based in Columbus, Ohio.
CASUAL FRIDAY Publications Division's staff in Washington includes (standing, from left) Irwin B. Wartell, Marie L. Sandrock, Kelly Dennis, Jonathan J. Morgan, Masako Dickinson, April C. Orr, and (seated, from left) Chanté Lampton, Crystal C. Owens, and Susan A. Barclay.
