Kalle Lyytinen
Brett Young
Version 4.0
Background, Aims and Scope
Background
AIS publication portfolio and publication capabilities have expanded significantly over the last 10 years through member initiatives, mergers and several separate decisions. Each of these measures sought to improve some aspect and problem of the publication cycle. At the same time a more encompassing and holistic view of the direction and strategic priorities has been lacking. Some of these issues were addressed and discussed when responding to the Francis-Taylor proposal in Spring and Fall 2011 to manage all AIS journal content and this process brought to daylight several issues that need the council’s attention. After rejecting this proposal the need was clearer for a more focused and holistic strategy given also the recent efforts to better coordinate our conferences and develop a sense of how we manage and partner with different types of publications (Administrative Bulletins for Affiliated and Chapter and SIG Journals in 2011).
Scope
The scope of this review encompasses all AIS Publications currently included in AIS e-library which includes all AIS journals and conferences, all partnership journals (MISQ, MISQE), andall affiliated journals and conferences. The presumption is that AIS publication processes can be improved and streamlined, costs can be reduced while increasing quality. AIS publication operations should have a goal of increasing revenue that helps reduce current operational risks and also supports other member activities. This can happen through additional subscription sales outside members to both individuals and institutions, finding ways to balance the cost of publishing and membership benefits.
Aims
In general, the goal of this document is to provide a holistic view of AIS publication challenges and seek input from affected AIS stakeholders while increasing the impact of AIS publications through several key initiatives. Specifically, the aim is to provide a foundation for thinking about and planning AIS publication strategic direction for the next three years while developing a more holistic understanding of several multidimensional AIS initiatives. As such, it seeks also to solicit and integrate ideas from VP of Technology, VP of conferences and VP of membership who all have a stake in, and are influenced by, how AIS publications are managed. Similarly we seek input from all AIS owned journals and partnership journals as they have a stake and natural interest in the success of AIS publication strategy.
We also seek ways to increase impact of AIS journals and affiliated or partnership journals through growing citations. Two significant main processes of publications are reviewed: 1) Content creation and management, and 2) marketing, subscriptions and support systems. We also make a distinction among AIS owned journals and conferences which have distinct “inside-the-AIS” processes for content capture and creation from AIS-affiliated and partnership journals and conferences which are not under AIS control where the stake is distribution of the content to AIS members. These distinctions are detailed in the following pages. Also identified and highlighted are key challenges in these processes in terms of cost, quality and/or impact for key stakeholders. We proposefive strategic key initiatives that help address these challenges along with specific suggested paths for moving forward. Finally, we identify five task forces with suggested members to coordinate and execute these initiatives within the suggested timeline.
Contents
Background, Aims and Scope
AIS Owned: Content Creation and Management Process
AIS Owned: Marketing, Subscriptions and Support Systems
AIS-Affiliated and -Partnership Journals and Conferences: Publishing and Distribution Process
Key Initiatives
Task Force Initiation
AIS Owned: Content Creation and Management Process
The Content Creation and Management process includesthe following sub-processes: submissions, reviews, editing, publishing, and distribution of AIS publications including submission, publication, and distribution platforms. We separate detailed process reviews for journals and conferences and (potentially) detailed sub-processes for each for AIS-published and – partnership and affiliated journals and conferences.For each category, we provide a summary, the current characteristics, key issues, available alternatives, and cost/benefits of alternatives. Currently, processes are often distributed across journals or centralized within the AIS or some combination of centralized, distributed, or ad hocoften without any clear logic explaining why specific a form of process execution has been chosen.
Categories / Summary / Current / Key Issues / Available Alternatives / Alternative Costs/Benefits(1) Content Creation and Management
Submission Management / Each journal and conference responsible for managing its own submissions process. / Distributed.
Centralized for JAIS and CAIS (ScholarOne); The rest have moved or are moving to use bepress (JITTA, SJIS; THCI). (no information about PAJAIS or RELCASI)
ICIS, AMCIS use ScholarOne (very expensive)
For other AIS conferences (regional) each conference runs it separately / Goal is to have consistent experience across journals
(e.g. if you are a member or input information to one journal it can be shared with others)
Some coordination required for the journal submission process.
Each journal currently maintains its own process within each platform; no unified JAIS experience for process or interface.
Sharing of membership data not done for the review and author databases. / Develop / Implement an end-to-end platform that supports submissions, reviews, document management, workflow, collaboration, editing and publishing support at BEPRess
Develop a unified user interface and experience for AIS journals / Benefits: Provides submission management system for all AIS publications and conferences to use in centralized way.
Costs: Potential upfront costs of moving conference submission and distribution platform to bepress
Ditto for all our journals so that we have a unified experience.
Review / Submitted articles must be assigned to editors and reviewers. This should happen in a ‘system’ so that all submissions are accounted for and tracked. / Centralized
Review/Edit/Storage AIS Proceedings (ICIS/AMCIS) Only use 1 review system currently. Charged fee per submission. The system is geared toward journals.
In 2007, The AIS selected Manuscript Central from Scholar One. MISQ pays a 1/3 of the annual license fee for Manuscript Central.
JITTA, SJIS and THCI use bepress system / Financial stability:
Cost of using the ScholarOne system for conference and journal submissions is significant.
Consistent Experience:Conferences use different submission systems. This requires conference editors and reviewers to procure, implement, and understand different systems. / Use single submission system for all conferences and journals.
Negotiate with bepress (or other submission system provider) for reduced price for managing all conference submissions.
Could be offered as a platform for affiliated conference as part of the conference fee. Would help also manage better member and reviewer data bases. / Benefits: Streamlined submission process for all AIS publications and conferences. Utilize single login and user data base. User familiarity with submission systems. Provides a much-needed stable service for conferences.
Costs: There is additional cost for transitioning and also cost estimate per submission.
Accept / Selected articles are accepted for publication in a journal. These require editing and formatting and are moved to be edited and published. / Distributed
Accepted articles continue through the process. Authors of rejected articles are notified. / N/A / N/A / N/A
Edit / Once accepted, each article must be edited for formatting, grammar, etc. / Distributed
Each journal editor is required/ expected to coordinate editing of his/her own journal. Articles are packaged into issues and delivered to the publisher. / Quality:
Each EIC is responsible for own quality of journal. No systematic quality control between EICs or journals. Limited resources to maintain and copyedit the journals (even with CAIS / JAIS)
Unable to leverage professional publishing house contacts, copy editing & publication standards reflected in the outlook and management of references / Acquire and develop, employ a professional copy editing resources shared by AIS journals (and conferences). This could be internal or externally sourced. / Benefits: Able to leverage professional publishing standards across all publications which should increase journal quality and consistency.Would offer expertise in publishing across the publication committee
Would help collaborating with journals and publishing processes
Costs:Significantadditional costs to employ more professional editing
(c.a. $60,000-100,000 / yr.)
Publish / Once edited, articles are formatted and packaged for printing and online distribution. / Distributed
Each journal is published on a varying schedule across X publishers. Some are online some are print and some are both. / Quality:
bepress performs some controls for formatting. Otherwise, minimal QC. / Benefits: No specific new benefits
Costs: No new costs
Distribute / Articles are distributed in various formats. This requires uploading to the e-library and transmission to the journal publisher.
Conference proceedings are accumulated and published in the e-library. / Distributed
Journals available in print others only online
Some journals available in print and online
Conference proceedings available online / Impact Factor:
The current distribution process does not include making articles or summaries available outside the AIS or its journals and e-libraries.
No systematic way of integrating this with social media channels
Thus, it may be difficult to get wider influence.
A wider distribution stream is needed. / 1-page executive summaries available for newspapers, practitioner journals, magazines, and other media (online, TV, NPR, etc.)
Make executive overviews available and send to newspapers and practitioner magazines for EACH issue.
I.e. 1-page overview for each article highlighting key practitioner takeaways.
Encourage authors to create case studies whenever possible – even mini case studies– for (or from) their articles. / Benefits: creating summaries, case studies, executive overviews, etc. will have the benefit of making the AIS publications available for a wider audience including those outside of the AIS.
Costs: More effort is required to take these additional steps once an article is accepted and published. Could be part of any new marketing responsibilities inside AIS.
AIS Owned: Marketing, Subscriptions and SupportSystems
Marketing, subscriptions, and support systems encompass the marketing of the association and the marketing of AIS products and services, the operations supporting subscriptions and sales, and the internal support systems used to manage subscriptions and memberships, including AIS website(s). For each process, we provide a summary, the current characteristics, key issues, available alternatives, and cost/benefits of alternatives.
Categories / Summary / Current / Key Issues / Alternative Options / Alternative Costs/Benefits(2) Marketing, Subscriptions and Support Systems
Marketing / The AIS must be marketed and the AIS journals must be marketed as a single ‘brand’ / Distributed and ad hoc / Impact Factor & Financial Stability: Currently, there is little to no marketing of the AIS or journals. The AIS relies on word of mouth, its own journals, and AIS conferences for its marketing activities.
Leaflets produced by journals and the central office occasionally ; no systematic marketing development
Better integration of publications, membership and communications / Advertising in other IS and business journals
Put together Media Kit (e.g. see Am. Marketing Assn.).
Presence at other business conferences (SIM; CIO council; use partner IBM / Microsoft conferences) / Benefits: Offers a way to improve marketing strategy and use outside expertise.
Costs: Increased responsibility on AIS office and VP of publications and marketing. Additional effort for authors. Potential problem with “buy-in” from authors to create additional materials necessary for marketing purposes. (for example, case studies, executive summaries, etc.)
Subscription Sales & Management / Institutions can subscribe to bundled content; Includes collection of fees and membership and subscription renewals / Distributed Sales
Centralized Management
Done mostly through word of mouth and general awareness.
Individual memberships allow access to e-library at varying prices for regions and membership type.
Institutions subscribe to e-library @ $995/yr.
No clear strategy for pricing and bundling across different stakeholders. / Impact & Financial Stability:
Little to no growth in subscriptions and related income.
Mostly organic and word-of-mouth. / Activate plan for sales and marketing to individuals and institutions.
3rd-party salespersons or
Internal salespersons to market to select market segments?
Incentivize sales made by members for institutional sales
More bundling options / Benefits: AIS actively and aggressively growssubscriptions using internal / external sales agents to target sales to institutions.
Costs: AIS has no real experience in managing salespeople
AIS Must identify and develop salesforce.
Increased responsibility on AIS office and VP of publications.
Revenue sharing with sales agents (est. 30-40%)
Develop a plan for revenue sharing for buying bundled content
Support / Internal systems are used to manage AIS websites, e-library, memberships, and subscriptions / bepress and Manuscript Central are used to manage submissions. Other platforms are used to manage website, elibrary, subscriptions, membership. / How these different platforms are integrated and offer a single experience / Benefits:
Costs:
AIS-Affiliated and -Partnership Journals and Conferences: Publishing and Distribution Process
For AIS-affiliated publications, the Content Creation and Management process is different from AIS-owned publications. Content Creation (submissions, reviews, editing) occurs outside AIS control. Each journal and conference is responsible for its own content. Then content is published, indexed, and distributed via AIS platforms. During indexing, metadata is assigned. The AIS does not participate in the marketing or sales of AIS-Affiliated or – Partner journals and conferences. It uses however partnership and affiliated journals to acquire more members as the value to member is significant.
Key Challenges:
No systematic content capture.
Noclearly defined path for publishing and indexing content from affiliated journals.
No clear identification of which journals are affiliated and which are AIS owned and we do not offer good “content delivery” for those journals via the publication and distribution process and technology platform.
Key Initiatives
These key initiatives are proposed to give strategic direction to AIS Publications for the next three years. Initiatives are listed in order of strategic priority with strategic impact, current status, dependencies, and proposed deliverable timelines and metrics for measuring success as detailed below. These initiatives are mapped (via the strategic impact) to the previously identified key issues and strategically important areas of financial stability, consistent user experience, quality, and overall impact.
Initiative / Strategic Impact / Current Status / Dependencies / Deliverables & Metrics / Timeline- Move to bepress for all AIS publications & conferences
Consistent experience:
User experience would be consistent across all AIS journals and conferences. The latest version of bepress provides most necessary functionality to manage reviews as evaluated by the technology committee task group in 2010/2011. / ScholarOne (Manuscript Central) is used for ICIS. bepress is used for other conferences.
The only functionality identified where bepress may be lacking compared to ScholarOne is in the generation of the printed program for conference.
The estimate is that these changes will double the work necessary for creating the printed program. However, this would consist of only a few additional days work. / (1)Create task force.
(2) Involve Technology Cmte., Conference Chairs, Editors-in-Chief of AIS journals, and Membership Cmte.
(3) Confirm bepress can meet AIS needs
(4) Setup bepress for AIS
(5) End Scholar One contract by September 2012 / Deliverables:
(1) Approved plan for moving to bepress for all AIS Journals
(2) Implemented system and transition to bepress
Metrics:
(1) Elimination of ScholarOne costs
(2) Use of bepress by all journals and conferences / (1) April 2012: Task force created
(2) May 2012: Task force prepares reports
(3) June 2012: AIS Council approves
(4) September 2012:bepress must be in place by end of Manuscript Central contract end (Sept 2012)
(5) January 2013:bepress must be implemented and running before AMCIS submission date (January 2013)
Involved: AIS office, VP of Technology, VP Conferences, VP of Publications
- Find agents and marketing alternatives
Broadening the AIS reach into the 1000+ targeted universities that do not presently subscribe will require a focused effort. Therefore, engaging a 3rd party agent with sales and marketing experience is necessary. This agent would work on commission to get AIS publications into institutional libraries that are currently not subscribed to AIS journals.
Impact:
Creating additional marketing efforts for promoting -AIS and its publications and activities will increase exposure and impact. / AIS subscriptions to publications are handled individually and by word-of-mouth for institutional subscriptions.
Few efforts have been made, thus far, to increase sales especially towards institutions.
Currently, marketing is somewhat limited.
Opportunities exist for creating “talking points” for newspapers and other media, selling AIS publications to businesses, focused sponsorships, etc. / (1) Create strategic marketing plan to identify additional sales and marketing opportunities
(2) Create job description / RFP for sales agent
(3) AIS Council approval
(4) Identify and select agent(s) / Deliverables:
(1) AIS Strategic Marketing Plan
(2) Job description / RFP for sales agent
Metrics:
(1) Number of new institutional subscriptions doubles within 2 years.
(2) Impact of AIS publications on new subscribers as measured by number of downloads from e-library and number of citations from new members
(3) New AIS individual members from new institutional subscribers. / (1)Fall / summer 2012: DevelopAIS Strategic Marketing Plan
(2) Fall 2012: Create job description for sales agent
(3) Fall 2012: Agent Selected
Involved: AIS office, VP of Communications, VP of Publications
- Create centralized copy editing across AIS journals.
The AIS desires consistent and professional quality experience across all AIS publications. Having centralized copy-editing capabilities would help provide this experience. Eliminating the ScholarOne costs would more than provide the funding necessary for this position. / Editing is ad hoc and each journal is responsible for its own needs. / (1) Create job description for AIS copy editor
(2) Establish general AIS editing guidelines
(3) Recruit qualified person(s) to fill position / Deliverables:
(1) Create copy editing job description
(2) Create AIS editing guidelines
Metrics:
(1) Copy editor handles all copy editing for AIS journals in established and agreed priority
(2) Improved and consistent reader experience across all journals – as measured by AIS member survey / (1) June 2012: Create job description for AIS copy editor
(2) June 2012: Establish AIS editing guidelines
(3) September 2012: Recruit qualified person(s) to fill position
Involved: AIS office, VP of Communications, VP of Publications
- Develop a strategic pricing plan
Pricing should lead to a balance of improving the quality and distribution of journals and strengthening the AIS member experience.
For example, options may be available for leveraging increased revenue from institutions which would lower costs for individual members. / AIS publications are available to all members, individually and are included in the AIS membership fee. Non-member individuals may order a subscription for $85 and institutions for $995. / (1) Evaluate what other associations charge given their membership levels and available access (i.e. ACM, AOM, IEEE,INFORMSetc.)
(2) Establish a strategic plan for membership access. For example, should institutions be charged more and individuals less? Should AIS membership and access tothe entire e-library be separated? / Deliverables:
(1) Evaluation of pricing at other associations
(2) Strategic plan for pricing and member access
Metrics:
(1) Pricing plan increases overall AIS revenues (or at worst revenues remain neutral)
(2) Pricing plan is fair to individual AIS members as measured by survey / (1) Summer 2012: Pricing evaluation
(2) Fall 2012: Strategic Plan for pricing
(3) Fall 2012: Develop a new pricing scheme for 2013 membership round
Involved:AIS office, VP of Membership, VP of Publications, VP of SIGs and Chapters
- Establish social media and marketing guidelines
The next platform update provides social media functionality. Therefore, the AIS needs guidelines for how to leverage social networking to maximize AIS impact, member benefits, member engagement (particularly those involved in SIGs and Chapters, social connectivity, marketing opportunities while protecting member privacy and intellectual property. / Presently, the AIS has little to no social media engagement or guidelines for how to maximize engagement once these tools are implemented. / (1) Engage social media experts within the AIS to develop guidelines and best practices for using and exploiting social media capabilities within, across, and outside the association.
(2) Implement new AIS platform with social media functionality
(3) Identify metrics for monitoring and improving use of social media / Deliverables:
(1) Social media guide and best practices for the AIS
Metrics:
(1) Social media is used by AIS members
(2) Impact of AIS publications increases as measured by increased downloads of e-library articles and number of citations.
(3) Impact factors
(4) Number of citations
(5) Social media usage and engagement measures / (1) Fall 2012 (?): Implement new AIS platform
(2) Spring 2013 (?): AIS Social media guide and best practices
Involved: AIS office, VP of Communications, VP of Publications, VP of Technology, VP of SIGs and Chapters
Task Force Initiation
As of May 15, 2012, the key initiatives have been reviewed with the stakeholders. General agreement exists among stakeholders with regard to the strategic direction outlined in key initiatives. Stakeholders acknowledge that the five key initiatives require somewhat difficult, if not chaotic, transitions to new methods and systems and demand high level coordination throughout the AIS leadership and membership.