Back to disciplines: exploring the stability of publication regimes in chemistry: the case of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (1879–2010)

Abstract

Based on a case study, this article explores the stability of publication regimes (as defined by Hilgartner (2015, 2017)) in chemistry. Starting with a slight detour via open access (OA) policies, it concentrates on the conditions of editorial production and trade of a scholarly journal, from an historical perspective enriched by a sociology of valuation and pricing. Prices are seen as social constructs as I consider the modalities of market coordination among actors of the publishing enterprise in a major scholarly society, the American Chemical Society (ACS). The study focuses on the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), a periodical that was founded in 1879 by the ACS, of which it is the "flagship" journal. The investigation relies mainly on a detailed examination of the JACS imprint from a diachronic perspective (1879-2010). I describe how scientific papers (as singular entities) gradually entered into a commodity market, first with the page-charge mechanism and the imposition of authors' fees, up to the emergence of the Article Processing Charge (APC) model, where the authors/institutions pay fees to have the electronic versions of their articles in OA. The proposed timeline in five periods is marked by two points of rupture that correspond to State intervention and the adoption of federal laws. Inherited from the deployment of science regimes in the post-WWII period, revenue collection models were collectively invented by the ACS and its members as successive adjustments to address massive imbalances caused by changes in scientific, institutional, and regulatory environments. Specific market mechanisms and modes of coordination have been put in place to support the development and guarantee the continuity of a disciplinary program (that of chemistry) in the frame of what I call a disciplinary publication regime.

Opening Up of Editorial Activities at Chemistry Journals. What Does Editorship Mean and What Does It Involve?

“…When it comes to chemical substances and products, but also to publishing, chemists rely on historical relationships with government regulations (the history of JACS is marked by massive imbalances caused by changes in scientific, institutional, and regulatory environments, cf. Noel, 2020 ). In 2017, three learned societies (the ACS, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the German Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker) succeeded to launch, then manage, the preprint server (ChemRxiv) “designed specifically for the global chemical sciences community.” They became partners in regulation.…”

“…ACS journals are embedded within communities. Unlike the (British) Royal Society (Fyfe, 2020 ), the ACS took the turn of internationalization without too much hindrance in the 1950–60s, notably because special attention was paid to its international authors (Noel, 2020 ).…”

The transformative relation between publishers and editors: academic autonomy at stake

“…In between, we should mention two cases that can be classified as "learned publishing companies", such as the Royal Chemical Society and the American Chemical Society. Nöel (2020) analyzes the Journal of the American Chemical Society from a diachronic perspective (1879-2010), describing how it gradually entered the commodity market, first with the page-charge mechanism and the imposition of authors' fees, up to the emergence of the Article Processing Charge (APC).…”

What does it mean to correct the scientific record? A case study of the JACS (2000-2023)

“…Considering the magnitude of the task of delineating the perimeter of the journals in the field of "nanos" and building a reliable corpus of publications linked to their possible correction or retraction notices, we chose to start with a particular case study that would constitute a first material. For reasons of consistency with other works in progress in the project, and a study already carried out by a member of the project (Noel, 2020), we chose a leading journal in the field of chemistry, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, more often referred to as "the JACS". The JACS is published weekly and is devoted to the publication of fundamental research papers in all fields of chemistry (The ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication, 2020).…”