With the publication of his article “Meaningful Consumption” in the Journal of Macromarketing, Dr. Aditya Gupta, assistant professor in the Department of Marketing, secured the achievement of an important milestone in the University’s support for scholars. Gupta is the first scholar from the College of Business to have published an article open access under one of the 10 active journal open access agreements negotiated by Milner Library. Authors from all colleges have now benefited from these agreements; by publishing open access, authors increase access to their work, enhance their stature as public scholars, and contribute to the public good.
“It is a pleasant surprise to be the first person from the College of Business to get an open access publication!” Gupta said. He further noted the value of open access publishing, not only to individual researchers and an academic discipline but also at the institutional level. “Scholars, particularly those on the tenure track, can benefit from the higher level of accessibility such agreements provide because it makes it easier for us to disseminate the findings from our work to a larger audience. At the end of the day, the more our work is read, shared, and discussed, the better it is for all of us and for the University.” Illinois State University is enriched by the excellent work of its scholars in their classrooms, labs, and stages; the reputation of the university benefits greatly when this research can be freely read by all.
Dr. Somnath Lahiri, professor of strategy and international business and research director in the College of Business, adds his congratulations to Dr. Gupta: “Every publication is a scholarly success, and Dr. Gupta’s publication is special because it happens to be the first College of Business open access publication under university journal agreements. We hope to see many more open access publications from the College of Business faculty in the future.”
Milner Library is working to support expanded open access publishing across diverse publishers that serve all academic disciplines. Milner entered into its first open access agreements with Cambridge University Press and IGI Global in 2021. A positive response from scholars whose work was published open access via these agreements led to additional agreements with ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), ACS (American Chemical Society), Annual Reviews, Company of Biologists, IOP (Institute of Physics), Microbiology Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, Sage Publications, and Taylor & Francis. Additionally, Milner Library has contributed to open access support for open access publishing ventures including the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, MIT Press e-books, Open Book Publishers, and PhilPapers.
Works published open access via these agreements are deposited in a collection in ISU ReD on behalf of the authors. Materials that are not published open access are also welcome in ISU ReD; green open access, or open access via deposit, is viable for many publications. If you would like more information about open access publishing or would like to discuss your publishing goals, please reach out to Milner’s Scholarly Communication Team.
