How Scholarly Societies Solved Their Collective Action Problem

Abstract

Like all organizations, scholarly societies, face a collective action problem. As defined by Mancur Olson, the collective action problem is that individuals are not general prepared to fund initiatives that further their collective interest. This paper explores the collective action problem faced by scholarly societies and how they solved it by generating significant surpluses from their publishing programs. It is argued that this solution will not survive the shift to open access publishing models, especially in light of Plan S.