Serving Small Members at CrossRef: Expanding the Sponsorship Model

Carol Anne MeyerBusiness Development & Marketing

CrossRef@meyercarol

ORCID: 0000-0003-2443-280417 January 2014

New England Society of Association Executives (NE/SAE)

Serving Small Members at

CrossRefExpanding the Sponsorship Model

Agenda

• What is CrossRef?• Our Challenge• Our Solution• How?• Results

Not-for-profit trade association of global scholarly publishers

CrossRef has 1900 members, representing 4627 publishers

5

Members from 100 countries

Services

•Reference linking

•Cited-by linking

•Plagiarism screening

•Update identification

•Funding identification

•Metadata feeds to third parties

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We generate more than a billion “clicks” to our member publishers’

sites

In the beginning, only publishers could participate

Now we have 90 affiliates and 2045 libraries

We have two offices:Lynnfield, MA and

Oxford, UK

We have 24 employees (22.5 FTE)

CrossRef Revenue comes mostly from member transactions

Annual Fees

TransactionalFees

Our challengeAnnual Member

Revenue Distribution

Our challenge

• At $50K, 0.32% or 6 members account for 20%

• At $275, 85% or 1600 members account for 30%

Annual Member Revenue Distribution

Our challenge

Our challenge• 1600 members pay annual dues of $250• It costs us more than that to serve them• Small members have less technical

sophistication• They come from all over the world with

different• Languages• Time zones• Cultures

Our solution

Sponsoring Publishers or Vendors represent small publishers• Solve language, time zone issues• Undertake technical obligations • Pay members’ fees

Our solutionMembers•Better service•No annual FeeSponsors•Add CrossRef services•Annual fee discountCrossRef•Fewer resources•Expands network•Uniformity and compliance•Increase diversity•Increase transactional revenue

How?

• Business Development• Travel (Speaking engagements, trade

fairs)• Respond to requests• Face to face or phone meetings• Marketing?

Results

• 25 Sponsors• 15 Countries• 1357 Sponsored Members• Continued financial stability

cmeyer@crossref.org

Thank you!