The costliest part of running an online journal is the work that its leaders and volunteer or paid staff do. But you should be clear-eyed about the monetary costs, too. So let’s take a moment to talk about where you will need, and sometimes choose, to spend money on your online publication.
Most online publishing expenses fall into two categories: fees for services, some of which are essential; and payment for work performed, which is usually not essential at a journal’s first inception…but may become necessary if the publication enjoys success.
Fees, fees, fees #
First of all: you’ll need to access certain services for your online journal services that you’ll need to obtain from specific providers, by way of fees and membership dues. Here are some examples.
Software and technology fees. There are a number of line items that fall into this category. If you want your own domain name (newjournal.org, rather than newjournal.youruniversity.edu), that will cost you money. If you want to keep digital backups of your files, cloud services will cost you money. If you want to use peer-review software for your workflow, most options will cost you money, too. Some of these are more or less optional (though, as we’ve said, we’d advise that you think carefully about whether you’d prefer to pay in dollars, or in work-hours), but as an online publication, odds are very good that you’ll need to pay for some amount of technological support.
Membership fees for your DOI registration agency. As we discussed here, publishers of academic journals commonly join Crossref to obtain DOIs for their journals and articles (and we highly recommend that you follow suit). The fee structure involves both an annual membership fee for your organization, and a smaller fee for each DOI you register. If not Crossref, you’ll likely need to sign up with a different DOI registration agency, which will probably have a similar fee structure.
Plagiarism-checking service fees. To avoid and thwart bad actors, many journals subscribe to automated services, such as iThenticate, which compare submitted manuscripts against documents pulled from around the web. This precaution reduces the risk of needing to retract something later, which can be harmful to a journal’s reputation, and which comes with its own labor costs down the line.
Fees for archival services. We talked about these in a recent post: outfits like CLOCKSS and Portico that provide a safeguard against the complete disappearance of digital content, should its publisher cease operating. Librarians and authors alike are deeply invested in keeping published works available; this should rank high on a publisher’s priority list, too. Membership fees for publishers are typically scaled to the publisher’s revenue, ranging from a couple hundred dollars per year to several thousand.
We should note that, in many cases, a new journal can gain access to services like these with help from an editor-in-chief’s home institution (many journals are perfectly happy at newjournal.university.edu, after all). In-kind support and tech support from universities and libraries is extremely valuable, and can be a critical factor in getting a fledgling publication off the ground. But while this is a great starting point, you should keep in mind that continued assistance of this kind is never truly guaranteed for the long term. If you really want your journal to succeed regardless of trends in research funding, budget prioritization, or administrative turnover, you need to be prepared to handle the items on this list yourself.
…And work, work, work #
Many journal founders, of course, choose to take on the labor cost of running the new publication themselves. But at some point, you may wish to consider shifting that expenditure into a financial one — to start paying for help, rather than doing it all yourself.
An editor-in-chief might choose to hire staff for a number of reasons. Some realize that, after all, they don’t actually enjoy wrangling TeX files or checking metadata; perhaps they’d prefer to devote that time to teaching, research, organizing conferences, or whatever other work they’ve set aside in favor of journal management. Some recruit volunteer help, only to find it unreliable, inconsistent, and in constant need of active management. Some simply decide they’d like to step down, and have difficulty finding someone willing and able to take up their mantle. And of course, in the best-case scenario, some editors come to realize that their publication has grown beyond their own ability to manage it directly — that a dedicated, stable workforce is required to keep the submissions moving and the metadata workflows churning.
Start small, but think big #
For a small publication, the required fees likely don’t amount to very much per year — perhaps a few hundred dollars, depending on which services you choose to use. Similarly, the administrative tasks of an online journal with relatively few submissions can, indeed, often be handled by just one or two people. So, in most circumstances, your budget at square one can be quite modest.
But be aware that that your publication grows — in size and in reputation — your expenses will grow as well. The more articles you publish, the more DOIs you’ll need to pay to register. Crossref, CLOCKSS, and Portico will charge you more for their services. You’ll need to pay more for digital storage, and likely for your peer-review system if you use one. And the larger your journal, the more likely you’ll find yourself wishing for an assistant or two. Check in with yourself regularly about the trends you’re noticing: If this continues for a year, will the journal be able to keep publishing on schedule? How about in two years? In five? It’s better to notice these changes as they begin, rather than letting them catch you by surprise.
Freedom isn’t free #
In our many years publishing journals, we’ve often encountered resistance to the idea that publishing, particularly electronic publishing, costs anything at all. If, like us, you came to journal publishing for independence from for-profit publishers, you may have expected that you could do it for free.
The reality, as we hope we’ve made clear, is that there are costs to publishing (under any sustainable model). With your eyes open to that reality, and with a mindful approach to your journal’s budgetary needs, you can give your journal its best chance at success for years to come.
Header image by micheile henderson, available from Unsplash. Free to use under the Unsplash license.