“EDP Open, the Open Access publishing arm of EDP Sciences, has today released the results of a survey to appraise attitudes toward Open Access amongst learned society publishers. The survey was answered by 33 learned societies and the results were further supplemented by a focus group held at the annual UKSG meeting in Harrogate in April.

Key findings include:

• Learned societies overwhelmingly agree that Open Access will inevitably place some learned societies’ journals into financial jeopardy.
• Competing with large Open Access specialist publishers was also considered a significant challenge for learned societies.
• Gold Open Access is the Open Access method that is least offered by learned society journals, however nearly two-thirds of learned societies indicated that they would like to be offering this option.
• More than ever before, with so many journals being published Open Access of dubious origin, learned societies should look to endorse content with a stamp of quality and authority.
• Collaboration between learned societies could help in the transition to Open Access, by pooling resources and sharing complex tasks.
• Two-thirds of all learned societies are also looking for support on best approach to OA, and compliance with funder mandates.”