Scientific publishing may have grabbed the lion’s share of attention over the past year or two due to the ongoing open access debate, but humanities and social science subjects often pull in more students to an institution.

As a result, the information industry has been adapting to meet the needs of students, academics and libraries alike. Among the changes in this sector are backfile digitisation, increased web access, an expansion of portfolios and rising interest in business-related studies. The same forces of consolidation that are blowing through other sectors have also left their mark.

Just as in scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing, the takeover of Blackwell Publishing by John Wiley & Sons was the most significant consolidating move recently seen in the market. Blackwell has always been one of the most significant non-university press humanities publishers and is the market’s largest society publisher. Wiley was no wilting wallflower in the sun of the humanities market either and the two becoming one will have significant ramifications for the market over the medium term.

But consolidation in the sector should not be viewed negatively. Commentators from across the market say there are genuine reasons for it and that it will benefit academics, students and libraries.

Gillian Etienne, head of corporate communications at Emerald, a Bradford-based publisher with a growing portfolio, explains its recent spate of acquisitions as “seeking to fill gaps in our portfolio”. She says that Emerald and other publishers continually consider swapping titles with each other so that each house has a more complete portfolio set.

Winning combo
But what about that Wiley Blackwell deal? “It will have significant benefits for our users,” says Philip Carpenter, MD for social sciences and humanities at Wiley Blackwell. Trying not to sound like a political party spin-doctor, Carpenter explains that he really believes the combined organisation will offer its authors better services and therefore attract better authors and papers as a result.

David Bull, journals director at Palgrave Macmillan, adds: “We want to grow; so do our competitors. The way we do it is either through buying journals, launching titles, publishing on behalf of clients or innovating.” Palgrave is looking to do a little bit of all four to meet the needs of its users.

Rolfe Janke, vice-president and publisher at Sage Reference, doesn’t mince his words: “There is no new money about. Our job is to take other publishers’ money away.”

To some academics, studying business may not appear to be a humanities or social sciences subject, but just as our TV schedules are filling up with new reality-format business shows, so university faculties are discovering that business courses are increasingly in demand.

“Business is the biggest subject in the world and there has to be a management aspect to everything,” says Emerald’s Etienne.

Bull agrees. “It’s a great area,” he says. “Just look at the growth of people doing business degrees.”

Humanities soon followed STM publishing into digitising its backfiles, and projects at various publishers are still ongoing, but has the sector embraced the digital archive with the same gusto as scientific researchers?

Bob Campbell, former president of Blackwell and now senior publisher at Wiley Blackwell, thinks so. The Oxford-based company has been busy digitising its backfiles because its society clients are “keen to see their heritage out online”. Emerald and Palgrave haven’t rushed headlong into archive digitisation, but both are planning programmes.

Backfiles or not, the humanities market is as much an online beast as business information or science.

“Libraries are making sure that humanities and social sciences are well represented,” says Campbell. Carpenter, his Wiley Blackwell compatriot, adds that the merged company will be able to offer users a better web-based experience.

Etienne at Emerald believes the web-based goalposts will keep moving: “As publishers we have to support the library and its users as much as we can and that means constantly finding out what they need.”

Googlepedia
The web also means the great dominators of user behaviour, Google and Wikipedia. Sage is looking at working with Google to develop an abstract and pay-per-view model that it hopes will improve user information literacy and drive traffic to its peer-reviewed works. Wikipedia has been banned by some faculties in the US and Janke thinks the ban could extend further.

Open access publishing has so far has shown little presence in humanities. Bull believes open access could wreak more damage in the sector than it could in science. “Our content remains valuable for a longer time,” he says of the damage that processes such as the six-month embargoes from the likes of the Public Library of Science could do.

But Wiley Blackwell’s Carpenter doesn’t believe the humanities community is very different. “They are less sensitive about open access arguments,” he says.

Emerald has begun experimenting with an open access programme.

Unlike the scientific arena, the humanities sector requires a portfolio with a books list as strong as its journals and online offerings. But as Carpenter points out, this is in no way an indicator of a user community out of touch with the modern world.

“Certain communities are very attuned to the digital world,” he says. “Classicists are not only the die-hard book lovers you’d expect, they also have internet resources with some very imaginative ideas.”

Campbell agrees that the role of books is still very important: “Sage and Informa all have quite big book lists, as do all the university presses.”

Meanwhile Wiley Blackwell is bringing its humanities and social sciences journal and book divisions together into a single super-humanities and social sciences division under Carpenter.