Jeffers Studies, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by the Robinson Jeffers Association, is now hosted on Illinois State University’s institutional repository, ISU ReD. Jeffers Studies publishes research, analysis, and documents that explore the work and career of the American poet Robinson Jeffers and is edited by Dr. Tim Hunt, professor emeritus of English. Like all journals hosted on ISU ReD, Jeffers Studies is freely available online and does not charge authors publishing fees.
The journal published its first volume in 1997 and is preceded by the Robinson Jeffers Newsletter. Until recently, the journal was solely distributed through print subscriptions, limiting its accessibility. “For more students and faculty, their preferred access to material is online. The world of information had shifted, but we had not,” Hunt said, prompting the association to revisit its approach. The association decided to stop taking renewals and move to an online format, sharing the content open access. They first considered publishing the journal themselves on their website, but Hunt was aware that libraries were increasingly offering publishing opportunities. While publishing a book with the University of Michigan Press, he was introduced to bepress (now known as Digital Commons), the repository and publishing software platform on which ISU ReD is run. Experience with the platform prompted him to reach out to Milner Library.
The association had already digitized the journal’s backfiles as complete issues, available on their website, but began working with library personnel and representatives from Digital Commons to transition the journal to the repository. Additionally, they decided to split the back issues into single-article PDFs and add abstracts and keywords to improve their discoverability. Digital Commons uses search engine optimization to facilitate easy discovery—a key benefit of publishing with ISU ReD. The online publishing model also allows for a flexible publishing schedule and the integration of other media, meeting the needs of Jeffers Studies.
Volumes 20, 21, and 22 are currently available to readers on ISU ReD, and backfiles continue to be added. A new series called Jeffers Critical Heritage will also be archived in ISU ReD and on the Robinson Jeffers Association website, which will feature scholars revisiting and reviewing major books on Jeffers.
Journal hosting on ISU ReD is a service freely available to the Illinois State University community, providing a stable platform for open access journals, software that supports editorial workflows, enhanced discoverability, and DOI registration. For more information about journal hosting or ISU ReD, contact the Scholarly Communication Team.
