The Case for Data Sovereignty
January 7, 2025 | By Michael Clarke, Pam Harley and Colleen Scollans
Associations face a critical challenge when outsourcing publishing to commercial publishers – the loss of control over valuable data. While publishers provide aggregate statistics, they restrict access to detailed data about subscriptions, audience behavior, and marketing performance. This article makes the case for data sovereignty – associations securing unrestricted rights to access and use their data, even when working with external partners such as commercial publishers. Establishing data sovereignty is not just a matter of principle – it has profound practical and commercial implications. Access to journal data is especially valuable – its high discoverability, its structured nature, and the significant daily traffic – make it one of the most valuable assets an association has.
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