Choosing a Publisher for PNAS’s New Open Access Companion Journal
National Academy of Sciences
Publishing Services Agreements
Selecting the best publisher partner to help launch a new OA journal to complement a prestigious, self-published flagship.
Background
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is the publisher of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), one of the world’s most-cited and comprehensive multidisciplinary scientific journals. NAS wished to explore launch of a new fully open access title as a companion to PNAS to provide authors with a high-quality publishing venue that is fully compliant with funder OA mandates. However, rather than self-publish the new journal (as with PNAS), NAS sought to work with a publisher partner, and engaged C&E to facilitate the publisher evaluation, selection, and negotiation process.
What We Did
C&E created a model to evaluate publisher proposals that allowed side-by-side comparison of financial offers, incorporating scenarios for projected submissions (both direct and transfer) into the analysis. In addition, C&E helped NAS to identify where and how publisher capabilities aligned with NAS’s needs and strategy. C&E facilitated discussions and led iterative negotiations between NAS and publisher candidates. Throughout the project, C&E supported NAS staff in their internal evaluation of strategic and financial requirements, ensuring that the new publisher relationship would support NAS’s editorial, strategic, and sustainability goals for the new journal.
Outcome
C&E helped NAS successfully negotiate a publishing partnership with Oxford University Press to launch PNAS Nexus, a new highly selective, multidisciplinary open access journal with a focus on innovation and rapid publication. PNAS Nexus opened its call for papers in summer 2021 for launch in January 2022.