Acronym

I’m sitting in the “Open Access” Learning Lab, and Susan Fox is sharing some interesting thoughts on how you should handle the question of open access in your association. She says that the first question to ask your board is “What role do you think the journal plays in the association?” She recalled having problems with a board discussion in the past where a conversation about open access went south … only to discover that the root of the problem was that the board didn’t agree on what the journal really was.

Next, she says to ask (in this order):

- “How does the journal support our mission?”
- “How broadly do we want our journal distributed?”
- “What is our position on open access?”

And then: “What impact would converting to open access have on the association, economically, politically, and culturally?”

It’s worth noting something Fox said: “The business model is changing whether you want it to or not.” If your association has a journal, this is probably a conversation you should be having.