What Do Editors Want?: Assessing a Growing Library Publishing Program and Finding Creative Solutions to Unmet Needs

Abstract

The University of Rhode Island (URI) University Libraries publishes five active open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journals on our DigitalCommons@URI platform. Our journal publishing program has grown slowly but steadily over the last decade, with new services added incrementally as needed. In early 2019, we conducted three focus group interviews with nine editors and assistants representing all of the journals on our platform in order to assess our journal publishing efforts. We asked editors to identify the successes, challenges, and unmet needs that they have encountered in the publishing process and what resources they have found to support their journals outside of library offerings. We highlight what we learned from our editors: what they value, what they need, and what they want from library publishing services. We also outline our plans going forward to facilitate ongoing conversations among editors and to find creative solutions to help them with their biggest challenges.