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Chain Bridge Group
Sustainability strategies for nonprofit publishers
Strategic perspective. Practical plans.
Chain Bridge Group provides sustainability planning, open-access business models, and strategic publishing guidance to learned and professional societies, university presses, research institutions, academic libraries, and other nonprofit organizations.
Our Services
Open access models
We develop business models to support all types of open access resources, including new and existing journals, monographs, and digital humanities initiatives.
Publication analysis
We assess the performance of your publications to provide practical insight that improves the balance of mission fulfillment and financial return.
Collective funding design
We work with communities and scholarly resource providers to design collective-support approaches that provide stable, long-term funding for open resources.
Collaborative initiatives
We help collaborative initiatives identify and implement income, organizational, and governance models appropriate for supporting shared services.
Publishing partnerships
We help scholarly and scientific societies identify publishing partnerships that increase access to their journal and book content while ensuring financial stability.
Business planning
We develop feasibility analyses and business plans—including price modeling, revenue projections, competitive market assessments, and risk appraisals—for nonprofit publishers.
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Our Clients
- Population Association of America
- College Art Association
- Rhetoric Society of America
- EVIA Digital Archive/Indiana University
- Medici Archive Project
- Pennsylvania State University Press
- U.S. Institute of Peace Studies
- Duke University Press/Project Euclid
- Modern Language Association
- Association of Jewish Studies
- California Digital Library
- Érudit
- University of Michigan, Scholarly Publishing Office
- American Council of Learned Societies
- Society for Cinema & Media Studies
- American Society of International Law
- Purdue University, School of Engineering Education
- International Center for East Asian Archaeology & Cultural History/Boston University
- PLOS
- ORCID Initiative
- Association of American Universities
- History of Science Society
- Association of Research Libraries
- Peabody Museum Press, Harvard University
- Purdue University Press
- Renaissance Society of America
- University of California Press
- Marine Biological Laboratory
- Indiana University Press
- University Press Content Consortium
- American Political Science Association
- American Jewish Historical Society
- International Society for Third-Sector Research
- Urban Research Publications. Ltd.
- Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations & Voluntary Action
- Annual Reviews, Inc.
- International Center for Medieval Art
- arXiv
- American Historical Association
- St. Gall Plan Project, UCLA
- Philosophy of Science Association
- American Museum of Natural History
- BioOne, Inc.
- American Educational Research Association
- Athabasca University Press
- Johns Hopkins University Press/Project MUSE
- Database of Classical Bibliography
- Middle East Studies Association
- The HistoryMakers
- Georgia Tech Libraries
- American Sociological Association
- Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management
- University of Alberta Press
- eLife Sciences, Inc.
- MIT Press
- New Music Review
- New York University, Fine Art Institute
- Cornell University Press
- University Press of Colorado
- Open Society Foundation
- Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies
- American Anthropological Association
- Electrochemical Society
- Society of Architectural Historians
- Weed Science Society of America
- New York University Press
- Dictionary of American Regional English, University of Wisconsin
- National Communication Association
- Humanities Commons
About Raym Crow
Chain Bridge Group Managing Partner Raym Crow has over 30 years’ experience in academic and scholarly publishing, specializing in open access business models, collective support design for open resources, and mission-maximizing strategic planning.
We help nonprofit organizations—large and small—design and implement successful sustainability models for all types of scholarly resources and initiatives.
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"Annual Reviews engaged Raym in 2017 to work on a strategy to convert review journals to open access. At the time, we had already witnessed a substantial increase in usage when we opened one title on a trial basis. We had eliminated APCs and read-and-publish deals as being inappropriate for our busines but had not identified a plausible alternative.
Raym set out the underlying concepts of a novel OA approach in our very first meeting, and it immediately became our focus. He advised and partnered with us throughout the development of this program, which we named Subscribe to Open, and in the implementation of the 2020 pilot project that converted five titles to OA. He worked with us to tailor the approach to our products and markets; to refine and test the model on our staff, board and customers; and to develop materials to explain and promote the pilot.
The contribution that Raym made to Subscribe to Open was substantial indeed, and he was a pleasure to work with. I recommend him without reservation."
Richard Gallagher, President and Editor-in-Chief, Annual Reviews"The MIT Press's 2-year collaboration with the Chain Bridge Group was remarkably productive. Raym's comprehensive market research and the subsequent development of a thoughtful and sophisticated collective-action model for the transition of our monograph program to open access ensures that we have been able to provide libraries worldwide with a unique opportunity to envision a new institutional relationship with mission-aligned publishers."
Terry Ehling, Director for Strategic Initiatives, The MIT Press"Raym Crow of Chain Bridge was recommended to us when we were looking for a consultant to advise us on negotiating a renewal of our publication contract several years back. We have not been disappointed. Raym’s grasp of both the detail of our existing contract and the wider context of academic publication was astonishing and he guided us firmly but respectfully through the whole process. His advice was sage and focused taking into account not simply the financial angles but also our values as a publisher. We have since gone back to Raym for further advice on restructuring our publishing operation and on helping us chart our way through the minefield of open access and, in both cases, his advice is proving worth much more than the investment."
Tim Butler, Company Secretary, Urban Research Publications, Ltd."Because of Raym’s knowledge and connections in the publishing space, PAA was able to secure a new publisher with a relatively short turn-around time. We would not have been able to do that without his guidance. Bringing Raym in to help with this process was the key to our success and satisfaction with the outcome."
Danielle Staudt, Executive Director, Population Association of America"We have found the Chain Bridge Group to be an invaluable resource."
Linda Downs, Executive Director, College Art Association"Raym's contributions to the business planning process were instrumental in creating operating and support principles for arXiv. His expertise in crafting financial plans increased our confidence in our business model."
Oya Rieger, arXiv Program Director"Raym’s breadth of perspective, and his thoughtful, pragmatic advice, was invaluable at every step of the way, and not just in assessing prospective publishing partners. He helped us get a clear picture of the PSA’s operations as a whole, crucial for setting the priorities that informed our search for a journal publisher, and he worked closely with us on every aspect of that process. We heartily recommend him to any academic society considering their publishing options!"
Alison Wylie, Philosophy of Science Association"Our grant project was successful due in very large part to Raym’s brilliant work throughout the project. I enthusiastically recommend Raym to any academic book publisher."
Steve Maikowski, Co-lead, The University Press Ebook Consortium"Crow will challenge your assumptions, force you to think through what it is you are attempting, and, as a result, you will build something more sustainable in the end."
Darrin Pratt, Director, University Press of Colorado"Chain Bridge Group's analysis of UC Press's journal portfolio reflected a deep understanding of the operating and market environments nonprofit academic publishers work within. The analysis provided not only strategic perspective but detailed practical advice. A good value for the Press's investment!"
Rebecca Simon, University of California Press