How to sustain a journal and beat the academic publishing racket

Starting a new academic journal is an uphill struggle from the outset, but that’s not to say it shouldn’t be done. In fact, it should be done – and here’s why.

Back in 2016, as a draft-submitted PhD student, I co-founded a postgraduate journal alongside a friend and fellow soon-to-be graduate, with the intent of creating a platform for early career music researchers (ECRs) to publish their work without facing the challenges that we are all so familiar with within the academic publishing industry.

To me, the aim seemed simple: to create a journal that allowed for the rigour of peer review, produced interesting and current studies, and with a publishing team who were personable and interactive – but also a journal that would omit publishing fees, rights waivers and access/subscription fees.

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The thing was, it needed to be operational. How were we going to make this work? There was no money, no sponsorship and no reference points. Fortunately, we had a lot of time. What else are finishing students supposed to do with their days, weeks and months as they wait for their corrections to be ratified?

A framework for setting up an academic journal

Musicology Research Journal (now the International Journal of Music, Health and Wellbeing [IJMHW]) began when I registered the domain. Step one complete. Step two was to find criteria – a framework for setting up a journal. OK, there wasn’t one (and still isn’t). So I made one up. You’ll need:

• a scope – to detail the areas/disciplines/fields of relevancy
• an editorial board – to consider submissions
• a list of willing academic contacts as peer reviewers – expect to hear “I’m too busy” 10 times for every “Of course, I’d be happy to help.”
• a theme/initial call for papers (CFP) – to generate interest and specificity
• a means to market CFPs (jiscmail is useful) – always begin with the courteous “Sorry for the cross-posting”!
• a spreadsheet – for accounting what is, where and when
• a site – built to allow a submissions portal and downloadable content
• a legitimacy/credibility stamp – we registered with the British Library
• specialist helpers, friends and/or colleagues to help look at incoming abstracts
• a style/publishing guide for writing standards and referencing
• a step-by-step process guide for parity when tracking manuscripts
• a journal or manuscript template – for formatting and typesetting
• helpers with copy-editing experience.

It was amid grappling with these issues that an academic colleague (whom I’d rather not name) asked why I was bothering. They also questioned why anyone would submit something to a journal that had no kudos, no backlog of excellence (and thus no impact rating) and no visibility. Good point, I thought, but I’m going to do it anyway.

While my co-founder and I went our separate ways on the journal, I’m pleased to say that nearly eight years later, IJMHW is a great success – more than I could have imagined – and, importantly, it’s a sustainable success. Sustainability was the journal’s greatest threat – something that has had to be hurdled many times.

How to sustain an academic journal

Instead of more tips on how to create a journal, the following pointers will hopefully offer useful guidance on how to grow and sustain a journal in what can be a pride-oriented, pedantic and prejudiced industry (perhaps you’ll note the similarity of this article’s title to Judith Johnson’s 2019 piece).

1. Create volumes

CFPs with submission deadlines can allow you to put limits on the quantity of work you anticipate accruing. CFPs are also a useful means of grouping articles into collections or volumes. Aim for what you and your team can manage – annual, biannual, biennial – to your ease.

2. Collaborate with conferences

Reach out to conference organisers in subject areas relevant to your scope and offer to work with them or invite them as editors to produce conference proceedings. This is a win-win situation: they have increased awareness through published work, and you have editorial support. Your journal will host the material.

3. Adjust your journal’s scope

Narrowing the scope of your journal will allow for a more specific authorship and readership. Starting broad is good – but in time, the breadth will render more than you can cater for, and increasing requests for free, good-willed or volunteered work is not sustainable. Refining your journal’s scope will not only help you manage the workload, but it will also help your USP. I think we are one of only a few international journals that publish specifically on applied musicianship in health and well-being contexts. This was also the reason for the name change.

4. Get funding

Mainstream academic publishing companies make serious profits – from your work. And you are funding them when you pay for them to take your work away from you and then allow them to sell it to subscribers (often universities with copious library budgets). To me this is crazy. So, if you do need funding to cover certain overheads (such as site management or domain renewal), ask for money from investors or interests whose values align with your publication’s. My academic institution helped to support IJMHW – it’s a tiny figure to them, but a real help for us. Thank you to the University of Derby.

The IJMHW exists only with thanks to the people who have contributed so much.

Thank you to our contributing authors – especially those early on who took a leap of faith to publish their work with a completely unknown team. All types of researchers – graduate students and ECRs through to world-renowned professors – now publish through us.

Thank you to our thousands of readers from across the globe.

Thank you to the team – anyone and everyone who has been involved – from the international editorial board, to peer reviewers, to copy editors and volume editors. A particular thanks to Asma, who has not only helped me in putting this article together but has been absolutely instrumental over the past few years in copy-editing and typesetting so many manuscripts.

A final thank you to co-founder Sarah – for embarking on this journey together.

James Williams is founder and principal editor of the International Journal of Music, Health and Wellbeing (IJMHW), an ethnomusicologist and senior lecturer in therapeutic arts (music) at the University of Derby. Asma Mohseni is assistant editor on IJMHW.

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