Howard Goldstein, Senior Consultant (SPARC)

Howard Goldstein, Senior Consultant-Body

sparc [at] arl.org

SPARC Consulting Group Senior Consultant Howard Goldstein utilizes his more than 25 years of experience in scholarly and professional information publishing to provide independent, objective, and comprehensive business, financial, and strategic advice and services. Work products include fundamental documentation such as business plans, pricing and marketing plans, logistical schedules, economic models, and financial plans.

In the field of scholarly and scientific communication with a nonprofit core and mission, Mr. Goldstein’s clients includes university libraries, university presses, learned societies, and other academic and nonprofit organizations. Focus is typically given to validating and possibly modifying an existing concept, and then planning thoroughly for a start-up or early-stage product or project with the objective of becoming financially self-sufficient and viable over the long term. The consultant supplements and complements a client’s experience, know-how and resources, and leverages his prior work to provide new clients with a highly cost-effective solution to their planning and start-up needs.

Consulting Services for Academic and Business Publishers

Specific services include:

General management advice;
Strategic, operational and competitive analysis;
Initiative design and implementation;
Business, strategic and action planning;
Proof-of-concept development;
Funding proposals including start-up and long-term financing;
Forecasting, budgeting, financial analysis and economic modeling;
RFP and contract negotiations;
Business process engineering;
Licensing, joint venture, partnering and agency arrangements;
Due diligence investigations;
Acquisitions, mergers and divestitures.

Professional Experience

Some examples of Mr. Goldstein’s professional accomplishments include:

For BioOne, an aggregation of high-impact bioscience journals:

Developed business/strategic plans and economic models for new launch of bioscience journals aggregation; assisted in many aspects of development and start-up; long term relationship as a consultant on business and financial matters.

For ETANA, an electronic publishing project for the study of the history and culture of the ancient Near East:

Provided business and strategic advice and developed pilot project plan and economic models for ancient Near Eastern studies project led by Vanderbilt University Libraries.

For GeoScienceWorld, an online portal to and aggregation of high-impact geoscience journals and other research literature:

Developing business/strategic plans and economic model for forthcoming launch; assisting in many aspects of research, analysis and start-up planning.

For Project Euclid, a partnership of independent publishers of math and statistics journals:

Provided business and strategic advice and developed business plan and economic models for mathematics and statistics journals aggregation led by Cornell University Libraries.

Select Publications

Gaining Independence: A Manual for Planning the Launch of a Nonprofit Electronic Publishing Venture. SPARC, April 2002. http://www.arl.org/sparc/GI

With Raym Crow:
Guide to Business Planning for Launching a New Open Access Journal. New York, Open Society Institute, First Edition January 2003, Second Edition July 2003.
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/oajguides

Guide to Business Planning for Converting a Subscription-based Journal to Open Access. New York, Open Society Institute, First Edition January 2003, Second Edition July 2003.
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/oajguides

Model Business Plan: A Supplemental Guide for Open Access Journal Developers & Publishers. New York, Open Society Institute, First Edition July 2003.
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/oajguides

View SPARC Publications for a complete list of presentations, papers, guides, articles, and podcasts from SPARC.