Co-Action Publishing – What can smaller publishing houses bring to scholarly communications?

In addition to Open Access, a recent trend within the publishing industry is the emergence of mega journals and large scale operations in order to take advantage of economies of scale to reduce open access charges and to reduce processing times. The current climate begs the question: Can small, independent publishers survive in the future? Founded in 2007 as one of the first publishing houses to join the efforts of pioneers like PLoS, BioMed Central and Hindawi, Co-Action Publishing has chosen a different path and remained true to its strategy to provide tailored open access solutions. The founders have no ambitions to become one of the largest publishing houses. In this short presentation, I will discuss the role that can be played by smaller publishing houses and the challenges they face within the current marketplace.