Free e-journal publishing services: the University of Pittsburgh experience

The University Library System (ULS), University of Pittsburgh has evolved an innovative program to support journal publishing services free of charge for partners worldwide. Moving beyond support for the home institution, the ULS now offers its services to partners worldwide who share a commitment to Open Access for high-quality peer-reviewed scholarly content. By offering our services and expertise for free, we provide real material support to the principle of Open Access to scholarly research, and we incentivize scholars worldwide to join in this commitment. The ULS has developed an efficient process and suite of tools with OJS as a foundation to work with new publishing partners and encourage them to become nearly self-sufficient in publishing new peer-reviewed content. Thus, we have been able to add each new journal to our portfolio with only small incremental costs. Future directions focus on ensuring the sustainability of the library’s new role as publisher.