Introduction

Journal publishing is a business; like any other business it needs management to determine policies and objectives and to make sure that the necessary resources are available and used to their best advantage. Existing journals need regular review to ensure that they are fulfilling their potential; proposals for new journals should be appraised in the light of the publisher's overall strategy. Decisions have to be made about investment in people and systems, in existing journals and the launching of new ones as well as the setting up of overseas offices either for individual journals or the business as a whole. Policies on pricing, marketing, design and production, copyright and copyright licensing, document delivery, electronic publishing and bibliographical standards have to be developed. Management and staff need to be aware of what is happening in their markets and what their competitors are doing. This chapter looks at the overall management of journals and journal publishing strategies, including how journals are acquired, managed and developed and conversely how they can be sold to another publisher or terminated if necessary.

Some background

Most academic journals make their living from publishing the results of original research; unpublished research is worth very little, except as an experience for those who did the work. Not all research is worth publishing; even when it is, many submitted papers need substantial work before they are ready for publication.