Are you a mathematician who wants to launch a community-owned journal or convert an existing journal? Or do you simply want to be better informed about scholarly publishing? MSP wants to help. In our series The MSP Guide to Journal Publishing, we’ll talk about what goes into starting and running a journal. We’ll describe our publishing practices and discuss alternatives, so that you can find the best approaches for your goals.
Why does MSP want to help? We’d like to encourage mathematicians interested in launching a journal — and support those who already have — because we believe that well-run, independent, scholar-led math journals benefit the research community. We want you to know that there are other mathematicians successfully running independent journals, and we want you to understand the work involved so that you too can succeed.
Why should you trust us? MSP is a successful, scholar-led, nonprofit publisher, and we’ve earned respect in the math community. Our first journal, Geometry & Topology, is a leader in its field. We have a growing portfolio of high-quality journals, and EditFlow, the journal-management software we developed, is now the preferred peer-review system among mathematicians.
Has MSP perfected independent publishing? Not yet. But we have learned a lot about what’s likely to contribute to success and what’s not. We know firsthand how things can go wrong, mistakes to avoid, and essentials for success.
What are some of the questions we hope to help you answer? How will we fund our journal? How does our journal incorporate as a nonprofit? What are identifiers and why does our journal need them? How will we manage peer review? How much of our resources should we devote to copyediting? How will we host our journal’s published articles on the web? Why are there so many questions?
Whether you are preparing to launch a journal or have never even thought of doing so, we hope you’ll find something helpful. Stay tuned!