| Abstract: | The effect on the editorial policy of a scholarly journal of its being published by a learned society rather than by an independent commercial owner can be examined through consideration of a number of questions that define possible influences on policy. The evidence from a look at the genesis of scholarly journals in learned societies and their evolution suggests that the answers can be many and that the qualities of scholarly journals depend more on the stage of a journal’s evolution, pressures for its profitability, and the editor’s decisions than on the question of a journal’s ownership. Some first–rate journals are non–society, commercially owned journals; some are society–owned and published. |
