Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the Nonprofit Journals Group?
A: A collective of 41 journals from 18 nonprofit societies and associations whose members are from the food, agriculture, and bioscience disciplines.

Q: Why did these particular nonprofit societies form an alliance?
A: Nonprofit publishers have led the way in providing value-priced peer-reviewed scientific research for more than 100 years. As individual nonprofit organizations with fewer than three journals each, we find it too expensive to promote the high value of our journals to the thousands of librarians who cover our disciplines. As a group with a mutual research focus, we can share these costs and provide Collection Development Librarians and their patrons with a resource to evaluate our journals.

Q: What is the advance pricing feature of the web site?
A: As society publishers, we know that libraries are interested in learning the pricing for the next volume year as early as possible. Pricing will begin to be posted to our web site early each fall.

Q: Is the nonprofit journals group offering aggregate pricing like the large commercial publishers do?
A: Not at this time. But as many librarians already know, the nonprofit publishers in our group are already priced significantly lower than the commercial publishers. A majority of the members of the boards of directors of our nonprofit societies are employed by the same institutions as our library partners. They understand the financial issues facing libraries and are eager to help by pricing their journals reasonably.

Q: Are these nonprofit journals available electronically?
A: Yes, most of them are available online to libraries for direct access by their patrons. Each journal in this online directory has a link to specific subscription details and many offer access to electronic sample issues.

Q: How can I contact the Nonprofit Journals Group?
A: Send an e-mail to the web master. Your message will be forwarded to the members of the Nonprofit Journals Group, which is comprised of representatives of each of the participating societies. These representatives meet regularly to discuss journal matters that relate to libraries.