Financial stability was a critical area of focus throughout 2023 but particularly in the first and second quarter. Publishing income continues to decline due to the impacts of Open Access (OA) on the financial return from all three of the Society’s journals. The Society had the opportunity to renegotiate its contract with its Publisher in 2021 and the decisions taken during this renegotiation will protect the Society from the true impact of the declining income base for at least 2023 to 2025.
However, the Trustees expect this trend to continue as we progress towards another potential renegotiation point before the end of 2027. In preparation they undertook two significant activities in 2023; the formation of a publishing working group to explore opportunities to stabilise and expand the publishing portfolio and an operations and resourcing working group to stabilise and align the staffing structure to the current strategy framework. The operations and resourcing working group recommended actions to Council which were agreed and implemented in May and June 2023. This resulted in four individuals exiting the business - we thank them for all their contributions to the Society and its work.
The publishing working group reported its recommendations in June. These were informed by a survey shared with our members and the wider pharmacology community which sought to explore current and future publishing preferences and needs. The recommendations will be progressed throughout 2024. It is clear that the publishing landscape has changed and that OA, whilst an opportunity for science and the open sharing of scientific findings, will result in reduced income from publishing and the need for the Society to expand and diversify its income base.
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