Joseph Esposito, writing for The Scholarly Kitchen, discusses the paths that professional societies might now take on the publishing landscape. Although standalone independence might seem the ideal, that is often no longer possible for smaller societies. Esposito suggests: Joining forces with other societies; engaging in strategic technology partnerships; broader partnerships for member services; larger not-for-profit partnerships; and commercial arrangements. Details here: http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/05/08/the-inexorable-path-of-the...

The May 2013 issue of New Media & Society is devoted to the them Scholarly Publishing and the Internet. Articles examine scholarly monograph publishing, sharing scholarly work using Web 2.0, historical perspectives, and the role of publishers. Details at: http://nms.sagepub.com/content/current

Kent Anderson, writing on The Scholarly Kitchen website, calls into question some of the assumptions about the open access movement and invites a more nuanced assessment of the stakes involved: "Today, we face very different threats from large, consolidated entities who seem to be poised to take control of scientific and scholarly publishing. However, this time, we don’t have a clear way to fight fire with fire, or to resist the changes being imposed by these well-funded and well-coordinated forces.This time, we’re facing a philosophy, an attitude, and a belief system, all of which have taken root in large, rich bodies like funding organizations and governmental agencies." More ominously he observes: "But by reaching into independent third-party organizations and claiming the next stages of refinement and professional effort, funders and agencies cross a line they no longer see. In fact, some funders believe this line is so smudged that they have become a publisher of their own, and others’, research papers.The label 'open' sounds harmless and simple, but it is a label behind which various incentives can go unexamined." The full article is here: http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/05/07/its-not-1995-again-why-the...