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The Panelists
Moderator – Alma Wills, The Kaufman-Wills Group, LLC
Editorial Benchmarking– Jane Rea & Jayne Sutton, Editorial Experts
Production Benchmarking– Jim Donahue, Am Institute of Physics
Marketing Benchmarking– Patricia Hudson, Oxford University Press
Benchmarking: What is it?
A point of reference A standard Best performance Best practices Benchmarking is the systematic measurement of business
performance against an outside group. Through benchmarking, a company uncovers gaps in its performance -- areas to target for improvement
Benchmarking is a practical tool for continuous improvement. It disturbs companies into action, uncovers new ways of improving business processes and activities, and provides external examples for success.
Why benchmark?
Evidence of a problem The environment is changing New goals New competition New opportunities Ongoing effort
Why benchmark?
Continue to support your mission– Educate members and your non-member
community– Support quality publishing efforts of authors– Return revenue to support Society programs
Why benchmark? continued
Find ways to increase influence – Through market share of high impact papers– Through large direct circulation/usage and licensing
venues– Through capturing advertising market share
Why benchmark? continued
Ensure that your publication is responding appropriately to market changes– Publishing industry changes– Disciplinary changes– Needs of the readership, membership, advertisers
Why benchmark? continued
Position your journal to counter threats from new and existing competitors – How do your authors perceive your journal? Are
other journals publishing papers that you wished you had published? Why?
– How does your readership rank your journal relative to your competitors?
– What does industry think about your reach and frequency?
Why benchmark? continued
Improve quality– Original and solicited content– Author services, review process, production process– Electronic publishing features and functionality– Circulation management and customer service– Advertising promotion and sales– Business and financial management
Types of benchmarking
Internal – Comparing similar functions in different business units of
your organization External
– Comparing similar functions in other organizations Functional
– Comparing similar processes within an industry (unlikely direct comp w/ cooperate but could get similar)
Generic – Comparing operations between unrelated industries (focuses
on processes) Collaborative
– Group of organizations collaborate
Steps
1. Decide which functions to benchmark2. Identify the key performance variables to measure
(must be quantified)3. Identify the best-in-class companies4. Measure BIC companies5. Measure your performance6. Identify ways to close the gap7. Set goals!!!8. Implement9. Monitor results
How to identify best practices organizations
Authors Suppliers and distributors Trade associations Employees Customers Librarians
Where to find info
Published information Web sites Surveys User groups Online discussion groups Ex-employees Consultants In-house competitive information system
Publishing Benchmarks
Internal– Dept vs dept– Change over time
External– Vs other publishers– Vs other industries
Editorial Production
Marketing Sales
– Subscriptions– Advertising– Ancillary products
Finance– ROS– ROI
What’s important/what’s not?
Key Performance Indicators are those factors that are essential to your organization’s success
Just because it’s measurable doesn’t mean it’s critical
Keep the number of indicators to a manageable number
Editorial
Is your journal…– Attracting high-quality content?– Supporting the publishing efforts of authors?– Competitive in its manuscript processing?– Efficient? – Reaching and read by your target audience?– Trending upward in terms of its influence?
Editorial metrics
Number of manuscripts received
Number of manuscripts published
Accept/rejection rates Submit to 1st decision Review cycle Revision cycle Accept to publish Submit to publish Impact Factor
Manuscript backlogs Issue size Article length Geographic/topical mix Costs of editorial office Term limits Author satisfaction Reader satisfaction Reviewer satisfaction Editorial Board
organization/composition/performance
Ask authors
Journals: Randomly select a few authors from each issue
Books: Post publication follow-up Identify authors who have published with you
and other publishers. Ask them to compare experiences.
Measure change over time
Content mix
Types of articles Editorial features Online functionality Subject coverage e-only
– Articles– Features– Supplemental data
Express publication
Case study
Problem– Number 1 read journal in field but not number 1 journal in
scientific impact– Competitors gaining ground in growing scientific impact– Journal’s impact factor dipped while two main competitors’
impact factors continued upward trend
Objective– Improve scientific impact
Method– Publications Committee and publishing consultant to
determine strategy to meet objective
Impact FactorSurgery Journals 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999
Ann Surg 1 5.937 1 6.073 1 6.674 1 5.987 1 5.647
Am J Transplant 2 5.678 2 4.940 139 0.000
Am J Surg Pathol 3 4.535 3 4.122 4 3.691 2 4.269 3 3.916
Liver Transplant 4 4.242 5 3.786 8 3.030 18 2.130
Brit J Surg 5 3.772 7 3.444 5 3.464 7 2.935 11 2.732
Transplantation 6 3.608 8 3.265 3 4.184 3 4.035 4 3.463
Ann Surg Oncol 7 3.574 4 3.824 6 3.308 12 2.799 14 2.427
J Vasc Surg 8 3.507 6 3.467 7 3.145 5 3.114 6 3.009
J Thorac Cardiov Sur 9 3.319 11 2.842 10 2.818 6 3.057 7 2.986
Endoscopy 10 3.227 37 1.700 42 1.459 29 1.817 28 1.726
Case study continued
Strategy More active recruiting of high-impact articles
– Associate Editors to help recruit not just review articles Document distinctive competencies, reasons to publish in journal Identify ongoing research and set acquisition goals
Greater international representation – 50% of papers submitted outside the US, but none of senior editors and
only fifth of editorial board from outside the US– Competitor A has 4 Associate Editors and competitor B has almost half
its board outside the US Solicit particular types of articles
– Reviews, guidelines, for example tend to increase citations– Examine ISI data presenting top cuts of most cited authors, papers,
institutions, countries, journals– Rush publication of articles pre-scientific meetings (PR)
Case study continued
Reduce acceptance rate improve impact factor and ranking
Journal A accepts 10% now, 20% 15 years ago impact up Journal B accepts now 15%-18%, 25% 10 years ago impact up Journal C papers in last 10 years declined 30% impact up
Prepare statistics to monitor trends– Submission to reviews (measures speed of reviewers)– Submission to first decision (measures speed of associate editors)– Submission to acceptance (measures revision cycle)– Acceptance to issue assignment (measures backlog)– Issue assignment to publication (measures time in production)
Cara S. Kaufman, PartnerAlma J. Wills, Partner
Kaufman-Wills Group, LLC24 Aintree Road
Baltimore, MD [email protected]
[email protected] www.kaufmanwills.com