Professional societies are under threat from new technology. But, Harriet Swain says, they could turn a threat into an advantage
In their early days, learned and professional societies could concentrate simply on reporting the proceedings of meetings and
keeping a benign eye on the interests and conduct of their members.
No longer. In recent years they have found themselves under threat on all sides - from advances in technology, declining journal circulations, extra demands from government and constant preoccupations with cash.
How to fight back against these threats - and whether some are in fact advantages in disguise - is the subject of a seminar held today in London by the Association of Learned and Professional Societies.
"There are no definite answers at the moment," says Jerry Cowhig, managing director of the Institute of Physics Publishing. "But that makes it all a lot of fun."
Most of the fun comes from new technology. The principal - and most profitable - activity of learned societies has long been refereeing, selecting and publishing articles in journals. But the worldwide web has thrown the future of this into question.
Electronic publishing is thought to be cheaper than paper publishing because it saves on printing and distribution and, more importantly, has the potential to reach a much wider audience.
For this reason, some universities have considered starting up their own journals, bypassing learned societies and encouraging colleagues in their discipline to submit papers without the middleman.
Eventually, says Mr Cowhig, patterns of communication between academics may become entirely different with no further need for traditional publishers. But this has not happened yet and, even if it did, he sees a continuing need for learned societies to act as intermediaries.
"The reason why traditional journals are surviving, and I believe will survive," he says,
"is that the most important
thing about them is their endorsement."
It is also the most expensive thing about them. What really costs a lot of money is not paper or distribution but finding and managing referees and choosing which articles to publish. That will hold true whether or not publication is in paper or electronic journals.
In any case, maintaining
servers and software and
hardware does not itself come cheap - last year the Institute
of Physics spent Pounds 750,000 on
information technology.
Since 1996, all 32 of the journals it publishes have been put up on the worldwide web and anyone subscribing to the paper journal also has automatic access to its electronic version. The institute's website attracts more than a million hits per month, a quarter of which were hits to its electronic journals.
More radically, the institute last year started a new publication, the New Journal of Physics, which appears only on the net and is free for anyone to access but charges authors about $500 per paper to publish.
Some see this as the way of the future. Indeed, the New Journal of Physics has between 3,000 and 4,000 downloads per month. But it is noticeable that so far it is costing more money than it makes.
It is less clear what the alternative could be. While the research assessment exercise is producing plenty of authors eager for journal publication, cash-strapped libraries are struggling to pay even for existing journals, let alone new publications or extra pages. Attempts to recoup losses by upping prices simply force libraries to cut back elsewhere and most journals are now estimated to be losing between 5 and 10 per cent of their circulations per year.
A key worry for many learned societies is that while their main income stream - publishing - is looking shaky, their expenditure is rising.
For a long time they have been dependent on volunteers to help with administration, peer review and editing journals. This is becoming increasingly tricky as demands on academics' time rise and universities can no longer spare free premises or administrative support.
While some societies have large premises in exclusive areas of London, which can bring in revenue, the upkeep of these old buildings is expensive. This, combined with a volatile stock market, has made investments a less reliable source of income.
At the same time, demands for grants and scholarships have increased as higher education becomes poorer.
Many learned societies are also receiving more calls on their time from a government and media keen to consult experts on the issues of the day.
BSE and the dangers of drug-
resistant antibiotics have kept
the Society of General Microbiology busy recently, while Ian Forbes, president of the Political Studies Association and chair of the Association of Societies in the Social Sciences, says political learned societies are having to do more policy influencing than they ever had to in the past.
Societies have tried to solve some of these cash problems by pooling resources, diversifying into providing conference, publishing or administrative services for other organisations or money-making ventures, such as credit cards, involving their own members.
The Institute of Physics has diversified into book, magazine and database publishing. It is also keeping a strong investment portfolio so it has something to fall back on should disaster strike, as well as a separate events company for conference organising.
Like many others, the Zoological Society markets resource packs for schools and its own Christmas cards.
The Society for Endocrinology, a relatively small body, has a strong trading subsidiary, which handles for other learned societies and pharmaceutical companies anything it already does for itself.
"We have to be very clear if there are any particular conflicts of interest," says Sue Thorn, the society's executive director and managing director of its trading subsidiary BioScientifica. "The reason for having a trading subsidiary is to ensure a clear separation between where we are controlling quality and input and where we are not."
In broadening their brief, learned societies have to be particularly careful not to do anything which could jeopardise their charitable status.
Glyn Jones, executive secretary of the Biochemical Society and managing director of its publishing subsidiary, Portland Press Ltd, said: "It could get to the stage of manufacturing widgets but we cannot do much more than organise conferences and seminars without straying from our own purposes and our charitable status will not let us do that."
The Society for Endocrinology's trading arm will refuse to be involved in anything that could be considered unethical or produce a conflict of interest between its clients.
It already has a turnover of about Pounds 500,000 in only its second year, around half the turnover of the society itself. Surplus profits are ploughed back into the charity, which means the society is likely to give out Pounds 150,000 worth of grants this year, compared with only about Pounds 30,000 five years ago.
Ms Thorn concedes it would be easy to get carried away with the prospect of expansion and profits and says the society is determined that its trading arm will increase business only slowly and with constant reviews.
It tries to be more tolerant of its academic clients than a purely commercial business would be, recognising that both gain from the relationship.
This is still a long way from the original learned societies and professional bodies established between 100 and 150 years ago.
They were the result of the expansion of trade, industry and commerce which followed the Limited Liability Act of 1850. Established by Royal Charter, they were natural successors to the livery companies, which were beginning to go out of fashion at about that time.
Now, nearly 1,000 learned and professional societies exist in the United Kingdom, ranging from the tiny British Sunflower Society to major scientific and professional bodies with disciplinary responsibilities.
According to Keith Lawrey, learned societies liaison officer at the Foundation for Science and Technology, this number is likely to fall.
The real danger, he suggests, will be to professional bodies. With the increase in vocational degrees and more interaction with Europe, which does not organise its professions in the same way, the role of professional bodies will have to change. There are also murmurings from government which suggest it favours removing regulatory functions from practitioners and replacing them with statutory regulatory boards.
"Professional bodies will become more what learned societies have always been - talking shops," Mr Lawrey says.
He says smaller learned societies are also likely to fall by the wayside because of financial pressures. Those without resources such as fine buildings or large membership lists will be unable to cope in the new climate.
But he can see no reason why the need for learned societies as a whole should disappear. "Those who are really interested and keen to rise to the top of their organisations will be looking around for all advantages and one of those is being a member of a professional body with a journal and opportunities to talk to colleagues," he says.
Without the obligation on people to join for professional accreditation, pressure to entice members and then ensure they renew their subscriptions will be high and the future success of the learned societies will depend more than ever on the services they offer.
If the service is good, their future looks promising.
Sally Morris, secretary general of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, says: "The sense of community and the benefits of meetings and publications are pretty highly valued," she says. "I have heard nothing to suggest these are going away."
POLITICAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION
Number of members: 1,000 internationally.
Subscription: Pounds 49 with separate membership for people who are retired, full-time postgraduates and corporate institutions.
Mission: to promote the development of political studies and to encourage education and advancement of learning in the art and science of government and in other branches of political sciences.
Journals: Political Studies, published five times a year; Politics, a small article magazine, published three times a year; British Journal of Politics and International Relations, a new journal that will be published four times a year. All three are free with membership of the association, in addition to the newsletter, which is published four times a year.
Conferences: an annual conference, which includes all aspects and sub-
areas of politics and international relations and conferences for heads of politics departments and
graduate students, seminars and meetings.
Other activities: produces media handbook, a UK staff directory and a guide for A-level students on studying politics; gives prizes for the best book, best dissertation and best teacher; is consulted on policy issues; holds a liaison group with the Economic and Social Research Council; supports meetings held by political studies departments around the country; sponsors specialist research groups; organises a regular survey of the profession.
Number of staff: one full-time and two part-time.
Turnover: around Pounds 160,000 per year.
Rejection rate for the journal Political Studies: 85-90 per cent.
BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY
Number of members: 8,500, of which about 6,000 are from the UK.
Subscription: Pounds 47 (Pounds 14 for students).
Mission: to advance the science of biochemistry in principle and through meetings, publications and affording scientists the chance to discuss developments in their field.
Journals: Biochemical Journal, published fortnightly, price Pounds 1,010; Biochemical Society Transactions, published four times a year, price Pounds 162; Clinical Science, published 12 times a year jointly with the Medical Research Society, price Pounds 258.
It publishes another journal on behalf of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, another three that use electronic publishing for the Society for Endocrinology and handles subscriptions and distributions for another handful of clients.
Conferences: three major meetings per year attended by up to 1,500 people plus a number of smaller workshops and meetings. Next year it will host Congress 2000 on behalf of the IUBMB and Federation of European Biomedical Societies.
Other activities: produces educational materials for schools; gives talks to schools; presents three careers conferences per year; works on curriculum development with the Quality Assurance Agency; coordinates activity with the funding councils and government, including responding to consultations on the research assessment exercise and specialist consultations; funds scholarships.
Number of staff:
52 full-time.
Total income: Pounds 1.25 million, including a
publishing surplus of about Pounds 468,000.
Publishing turnover: Pounds 2.8 million.
Rejection rate for
journal articles: higher than 50 per cent.