BioOne is pleased to announce the publication of an article describing BioOne’s continuing business model transition, which was launched in 2004 and continues to be well received in the scholarly communications community. “BioOne’s Business Model Shift: Balancing the Interests of Libraries and Independent Publishers” was published in the September issue of Serials Review. The article explains the background situation faced by BioOne and its participating publishers, provides details on all components of the initiative, and outlines some of the goals BioOne hopes to achieve with each component. It further examines the successes that have been achieved in the first year of the initiative and explores some of the challenges that BioOne continues to face.
As many of you are aware, BioOne is in the process of a multi-year and multi-faceted shift of its business model to address the long-term stability and sustainability of participating publishers. Recent circulation and income trends described in detail in our 2004 article published in portal: Libraries and the Academy (available to subscribers at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v004/4.4carpenter_t.html) and formed one of the main basis for the business model shift described in the Serials Review article.
The five key aspects of the business model transition described in detail in the article are: support of participating publishers individually, support for participating publishers collectively, internal cost control, growth in different markets, and modest subscription price increases. These five points aim to increase the breadth of support that BioOne provides to its publishers, both financially and logistically without placing the burden for these shifts solely on the serials budgets of BioOne subscribing libraries.
BioOne continues to provide detailed and open, peer-reviewed analysis of its business model development to the community. From its beginning, BioOne has involved the various constituencies — libraries, scholars, and publishers — in the development of our business strategies. We hope that publication of this article will help to improve understanding among these different groups of the competing interests and needs of the various participants in BioOne.
The article is available via the Serials Review website: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00987913