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2017 SSP 39th Annual Meeting

Concurrent 6A: Signifiers of Relevance or Identifiers of Communities…

Industry Challenges
Concurrent 6A: Signifiers of Relevance or Identifiers of Communities: Brand Equity in Scholarly Journal Publishing

The nature of scholarly journal publishing relies on certain economic constraints like monopolistic competition, imperfect substitutes, and the attributes of a two-sided market. Furthermore, academia itself relies heavily on reputation and a standardised understanding of quality. Yet, the value of brands in such a market remains unclear. Research shows, however, that brands are important for managing audiences of journals: For instance, for readers, brands merely function as filters. For authors, brands generally function as a cascading system: the lower the impact of a brand, the more the authors recognition is replaced with the interest in ease of publication.
This session will provide insights into the role of brands and the origin of brand equity in scholarly journal publishing. The session won’t discuss specific brands, but show where brand equity stems from, how researchers engage with brands, and how publishers can manage brand equity in fast-paced business development processes. The insights of this session draw from research at the UCL Centre for Publishing, which will be highlighted in a brief speech followed by a panel discussion.

Moderator: Marcel Knöchelmann
Twitter Handle: lepublikateur

Speakers

Mark Johnson, PLOS
Mark Johnson has over 20 years of publishing experience including newspapers, cable television, and scholarly publishing. Mark joined Public Library of Science (PLOS) in October 2014 and serves as Director, Marketing. While at PLOS he introduced programs that provide greater recognition for PLOS authors, reviewers and editors. Previously, Mark was VP, Publisher Relations at HighWire Press Inc., where he led the account management and support group. As Marketing Director for Elseviers Cell Press imprint he contributed to the successful launches of many of the Cell-branded journals. Mark received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Kansas, and his master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, both in Radio-Television-Film. On a personal note: Mark, his wife Linda and their three cats live in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a multiple finisher at Ironman Arizona and the Escape From Alcatraz events but has not yet completed The Death Ride.
David Crotty, Oxford University Press
David Crotty is the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversees journal policy and contributes to strategy across OUPs journals program, drives technological innovation, serves as an information officer, and manages a suite of research society-owned journals. David was previously an Executive Editor with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, creating and editing new science books and journals, and was a journal Editor in Chief. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing. David has been elected to and serves on the Boards of the Society for Scholarly Publishing, the STM Association, CHOR Inc., and the AAP/PSP Executive Council. As the Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen blog, David regularly writes about current issues in publishing.
Twitter Handle: scholarlykitchen