Should scholarly societies embrace open access (or is it the kiss of death)?

Abstract

In assessing the role that organizations of scientists with publishing activities - such as scholarly societies - can or should play in furthering the science and practice in their chosen fields, they face a dilemma: should they primarily be fund-raising organizations for other activities in their disciplines, using their publications to brine in the necessary money, or should they be promoters of efficient scholarly communication and use their publications more directly to that end - for instance, by embracing 'open access'.