Coming of Age: portal at 20

Nearly 20 years ago, Gloriana St. Clair, then dean of Carnegie Mellon University Libraries in Pittsburgh, noted the challenge of writing a journal's inaugural editorial. As portal's first managing editor, she acknowledged the need to "expound the reasons for the creation of a new journal" and proceeded to do just that. St. Clair outlined the circumstances that led to portal's creation, which have become legend among academic librarians. Just before the turn of this century, a band of librarian-scholars decided to buck the existing journal publishing system to create something different and better. It was a bold move, predicated primarily on three goals: to offer an affordable alternative to serials that had risen exponentially in cost; to provide a more inviting and supportive environment for authors; and to model a new scholarly communication framework. To make something like this happen, a publisher was needed—one that was reputable, forward-thinking, and not risk averse. Enter the Johns Hopkins University Press (JHUP). And the rest, as they say, is history.

Now, two decades later, it is time to review and celebrate that history. I confess to feeling a challenge not unlike that described by St. Clair. How does one capture the elements of a journal's coming-of-age? This editorial will attempt to do so by providing a progress report on the three goals outlined above; describing some of portal's other significant accomplishments; and offering a preview of potential future directions.

Fulfilling the Mandate

As portal embarks on its 20th year, it has achieved its three initial objectives. Regarding affordability, it has continued to offer quality, reasonably priced content as the subscription costs of many academic journals have skyrocketed out of reach. At the time of its inception, portal was available at the individual and institutional print subscription rates of $48 and $145 annually, respectively. Today, an individual may purchase a print subscription for just $55 or obtain online access for $60. An institutional print subscription runs $235. portal also is offered through JHUP's diverse, interdisciplinary Project MUSE (http://www.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/), which ensures that content is archived and will remain available.

From the outset, portal has been committed to providing viable publishing options for both seasoned and novice authors. Regarding the latter group, the approach was—and still is—radical. St. Clair explained it well:

The major journals in most disciplines have prided themselves on their high rejection rates. The rationale has been that a high rejection rate signifies a strong commitment to and compelling evidence of quality. Nothing could be more wasteful of the scarce resources for library research than to replicate a system that encourages authors to create a finished product to be judged and rejected … The portal board and editors want to help authors from the moment they decide to engage in research to the moment when they elect to submit the finished product either to portal or to some other journal. Precious librarian research resources should be encouraged and fostered.

To actualize the commitment to this second goal, portal created a mentoring system for authors. At a minimum, this took the form of offering deep, rich feedback to prospective contributors, allowing them to benefit from expert insight and guidance on the suitability of their topics, the nature of their research, and the soundness of their approach. One need look no further than portal's tables of contents over the years to see the wide array of authors whose work has appeared on its pages, many of them early in their careers, whose original work might have gone unpublished without portal's mentoring, encouragement, and support. Both prospective and published authors regularly send notes of appreciation for the help they receive.

In concert with recommendations made by the Association of American Universities and the Association of Research Libraries in 2000, portal sought to "guide the transformation of the scholarly publishing system" as its third goal. As noted earlier, the directives to contain costs, provide electronic access, and ensure archival preservation have largely been achieved. Additional considerations involve processes attendant to journal production: clarity about submission and...