There can be little doubt that the last two years or so have been difficult for everybody, but especially for anybody working collaboratively in a global environment. And that very much includes academics and researchers. So, one of the things we wanted to know from our latest survey of society members was, is there hope on the horizon? As we slowly emerge from the pandemic, are there signs that we’re returning to a new version of normality? The short answer, as you will see, is ‘sort of’. First, let’s look at the demographics behind the 8th Wiley Society Member Survey. The first thing you’ll notice is that the range of responses is comprehensive and truly global.

Who are the survey respondents?

We received survey responses from 118 different countries across over 40 different disciplines. As holds true in previous years, the largest number of responders has come from Europe (22%) followed by APAC (17%, up from 13% last year), the US (16%), Central Asia (15%), and Africa (15%). Subject-wise, social science was the largest group at 10% (same as last year), followed by engineering, business, finance and accounting.

Once again, the number of women responders to our survey has stayed steady at 36% for the third year running. But there are some important differences in diversity, depending on subject and geography. Take chemistry, for example. 81% of chemists are men along with 79% of engineers, and in Africa, almost three-quarters of our responses also come from men. In the field of nursing, 76% are women as are 64% of those in psychology. It’s important not to read too much into this, but it does show that there is still a way to go in terms of diversity across research. On a positive note, over half of those with under 5 years of experience are women. This is 6% up from last year, so change is coming.

Valuing society membership

The big takeaway this year may well be that the value of society membership is at an all-time high. The NPS or recommendation rate is 25, which is a 5-point increase from last year and more than twice what it was in 2020. This is perhaps not surprising, as that survey was deployed at the height of the pandemic, when society engagement was necessarily but severely limited. Nonetheless, there’s no doubt that this is an encouraging response from members, which points to a positive future.

The ongoing impact of the pandemic

Our survey also showed that the effect of the pandemic is still being felt. Over half feel that they missed opportunities from not attending in-person conferences and 43% have felt increased stress and anxiety impacting their work and productivity, which is about the same figures as last year. So, it’s safe to say that the impact of Covid will be with us for some time yet.

Society membership levels

The pandemic may also have contributed to the continued, though slow, decline in society membership. Levels are down to 57% this year, which is 10% less than it was 4 years ago. The number that have never been members is consistent at 23% and those that left a society in the last 12 months has also remained steady at 12%. It may be an indication of the extraordinary times we’ve been living through, and each year’s decrease is so small that this  is hardly a crisis yet. But with such a long-term downward trend, societies need to remain vigilant. We’ll be providing further insights over the coming months on how you can counteract this trend and attract more members to your society.

The continued growth of open access

Open access publishing continues to increase, with society members telling us that it adds to the value of their membership. Getting access to the society journal at no extra cost remains extremely valuable, with 82% saying that it’s important or very important to them. Of those whose society publishes a journal, 62% say that there is an OA publishing option on some or all journals, which is a similar figure to last year.

Publishing OA is also on the rise. 47% told us that they had published an open access article, which is up 4% from last year, and 63% of those told us that they will do so again.

Equally, open data continues to grow in importance. 41% say that their society supports open data and 55% say that open data is more or much more important than it was 12 months ago.

So, what are we to make of this quick dip into the first findings of this year’s society member survey? Firstly, the value of society membership is stronger than ever. Secondly, the pandemic may continue to be felt, but researchers are striving to return to normality. For example, 32% attended an in-person annual meeting compared to 19% last year. Finally, open access and open data continue to be strong drivers of member satisfaction, increasing in both importance and ubiquity. The challenge to societies is how they are going to support their members in this area, but this is a challenge that societies are uniquely capable of meeting.

We’ll be digging into all of this and more over the coming months, so stay tuned for deeper dives into different aspects of society membership in the future.