The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Scholar Services adds digital journals to online repository

Scholar Services, a program of Information Services at the University of Kansas, is making several KU-based scholarly journals and monographs available online to readers and researchers throughout the world, thanks to a service designed to support the online distribution of campus publications.

The journals include back issues of American Studies, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Social Thought and Research, and Paleontological Contributions. These join other journals already online, including Biodiversity Informatics, Latin American Theater Review and Slovene Linguistic Studies. The journals are available through Journals@KU or KU ScholarWorks.

In addition to scholarly journals, Scholar Services is supporting the digital distribution of monographs by KU faculty. The most recent example is Professor Emeritus of History Richard Kay’s book “Pontificalia: A Repertory of Latin Manuscript Pontificals and Benedictionals,” which was made available in KU ScholarWorks in March. Several other monographs are in preparation.

Support for digital publishing is made possible by collaboration by KU Libraries and Information Technology. Scott Hanrath, programmer for Information Technology, said the Journals@KU site makes use of Open Journal Systems, an open source application that supports the editorial and production activities of publishing scholarly journals, as well as allowing searching and browsing of scanned materials.

Brian Rosenblum, scholarly digital initiatives librarian at KU, said the online distribution of the journals will contribute to the worldwide exchange of research and scholarship and will raise the visibility of scholarship being published at KU.

“Supporting open access to this content is a way to help promote evolving scholarly publishing needs in the digital age,” said Rosenblum. “It is a prime example of the academic libraries’ commitment to deliver content to users.”

Bruce Carruthers, a doctoral student in sociology at KU and editor of Social Thought and Research, added, “The electronic format is fast becoming the standard for academic journals. Conversion of STAR to an electronic format on KU ScholarWorks will make it a more attractive journal for scholars conducting research and seeking to publish. It will help ensure our journal’s vitality and viability.”

Sherrie Tucker, associate professor of American studies at KU and editor of the journal American Studies, noted, “Having nearly 50 years of back-issues scanned and made available online in an open access format through Journals@KU is incredibly important to the journal and to scholars in our field. It serves our authors well because they will be more widely cited; it serves the field because it makes an archive of our scholarship widely available; it serves the journal because it connects our current publishing achievements to our 50 year history; and it serves KU by drawing attention to vast amount of scholarship that has been submitted, vetted, edited and published here.”

Scholar Services’ Digital Publishing Services provides support to the KU community for the design, management and distribution of online publications, including journals, conference proceedings, monographs and other scholarly content. The program supports a variety of software platforms to publish content in different formats and can assist with moving traditional journal and monograph content to an online environment, as well as with publishing “born-digital” scholarship designed specifically for online publication.

“Our goal is to help make this content available online in a manner that promotes increased visibility and access and ensures long-term stewardship of the materials,” Rosenblum said.

For more information about Digital Publishing Services, visit http://kudiglib.ku.edu/epublishing.shtml.

Contact: Rebecca Smith, KU LIbraries, (785) 864-1761.