Last Friday, I announced that The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies celebrated its twentieth anniversary with an astounding 22,209 global article requests from JSTOR and Project Muse (not counting print subscriptions). As it happens, though Project Muse will continue offering current issues as part of its program, JSTOR will be ending its policy of offering current journal issues by December 31, 2021. What does this mean for the JARS e-subscriber?
Well, all electronic subscribers to the journal will continue to have access to what will be 21 years of JARS back issues through the JSTOR platform. According to JSTOR, back issues will continue to be accessible as the “moving wall advances each year.” So where will new issues of JARS be published starting in 2022?
The Scholarly Publishing Collective, that’s where! From a February 9, 2021 press release comes this news:
Duke University Press is pleased to partner with nonprofit scholarly journal publishers and societies to provide journal services including subscription management, fulfillment, hosting, and institutional marketing and sales in a collaboration called the Scholarly Publishing Collective (SPC).
Beginning in 2021, the SPC will provide subscription management and fulfillment services, in partnership with Longleaf Services, to Cornell University Press, Texas Tech University Press, and the University of North Carolina Press. The SPC online content platform will launch in 2022, hosting journals and fulfilling digital access on behalf of Michigan State University Press, Penn State University Press, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the University of Illinois Press.“Finding a powerful hosting platform for our eighty scholarly journals, as well as securing the expert sales and marketing services of the SPC, will transport our journals to new levels of impact,” said Patrick Alexander, director of Penn State University Press. “We’re thrilled about offering enhanced services to our societies, journal editors, and libraries, and we are eager to work with colleagues at Duke University Press, one of the most talented teams in university press publishing.”
Through the SPC, publishers will have access to resources that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive, such as a best-in-class web platform, proven customer relations and library relations teams, and a network of global sales agents with insight into university press content.“We are honored to be working with this prestigious group of publishers,” said Duke University Press director Dean Smith. “The SPC gives us an opportunity to support a healthy ecosystem for nonprofit, mission-driven publishing and to help ensure that these publications and organizations remain vital to the communities they serve.”
More information will be forthcoming to JARS subscribers, but the expansion of the journal’s global visibility, accessibility, and scholarly impact can only be enhanced by this new endeavor.
