Copyright 1998, John B. McHugh Scholarly and scientific journals are an integral part of most nonprofit publishing programs. Journals are a proven way to disseminate research and other vital knowledge to members while earning profits.
Journals enhance the prestige and visibility of the sponsoring organizations.
Starting a new journal is trickier than you might think because much of editorial administration is with an editor outside the office of the sponsoring organization. For many of the key actors, particularly the editor and the editorial board members, working on a journal is a part-time, and generally unpaid, activity. As a staff publishing manager, you will work with inexperienced volunteers and members not used to the rigors and discipline demanded by the schedule requirements of journal publishing. Guaranteed turn-over in key volunteer leaders is institutionalized in the very nature of nonprofit publishing. Deal constructively with this turnover in order to maintain publishing continuity of the journal.