Our commitment as a nonprofit
As a trusted, nonprofit organization, JSTOR has made a commitment across our products and services to provide equitable, sustainable models to maximize access to knowledge.
Being an independent nonprofit uniquely allows us to operate between libraries and publishers and users, balancing their needs and interests—with the ultimate goal of providing equitable access to knowledge today and in the future.
Our priorities and approach
01
Provide affordable access for everyone
- We actively choose to keep fees low to reach more people, whether it’s our comprehensive model for journals and primary sources, or our diverse ebook models. We lead with our mission, one decision at a time
- Through the JSTOR Access Initiative, we provide free or very low-cost access to more than 1,500 institutions around the world
- With the JSTOR Access in Prison initiative, we provide JSTOR access to learners in jails and prisons
- Our free reading program makes scholarly journals accessible to everyone anywhere in the world, regardless of their ability to pay
02
Support sustainable open access content
Our partnerships with libraries and publishers help us grow open access through content and community initiatives that make more content discoverable and freely accessible worldwide, including:
- Reveal Digital, a collaboration with libraries to fund, source, digitize, and publish open access primary source collections from under-represented voices
- Path to Open, which offers a sustainable open access solution for libraries, supports the nonprofit university press community, and invests in authors, by making books in the program open access three years after publication
- JSTOR Daily, which makes scholarship more accessible through engaging articles and free teaching resources that enrich learning in the humanities, arts, and social sciences—each linking to open and freely available content on JSTOR
03
Lead the preservation of scholarship
- We have secured the needed rights to ensure content on JSTOR is accessible to libraries for the long-term, providing a trusted alternative to hard copies on shelves
- Our digital content can be readily converted to newer formats as they are developed in the future
- Digital files for the entire archive are preserved using the approach and infrastructure developed by Portico
- Our archives can be transferred to a third-party steward in the extremely unlikely event that JSTOR should ever cease operations
04
Advance scholarship and teaching practices
- Our faculty resource library provides comprehensive support for teaching and learning
- JSTOR Workspace simplifies research organization and citation
- JSTOR’s AI-enabled explorations help people discover, evaluate, and engage with knowledge
The latest from JSTOR
Coastal Carolina University joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services charter community
CCU joins JSTOR Stewardship’s charter program to build durable digital collections infrastructure, expand access, and explore AI-assisted processing with JSTOR Seeklight.
Boston Architectural College joins Tier 3 charter program of JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services
Boston Architectural College joins JSTOR Stewardship’s Tier 3 charter program, adding JSTOR Seeklight and helping shape responsible, AI-assisted approaches to stewardship.
Real research impact: What we’re learning about distinctive collections shared on JSTOR
New research reveals how distinctive collections shared on JSTOR are being discovered and used across research, teaching, and learning.
JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services training: Project administration
Training for Stewardship participants (Tiers 2-3): create/edit projects, map publishing targets, manage users, access preservation, and create new projects from existing content. One of three sessions in a monthly Stewardship training series.
“Go read the article, then we’ll talk”
From a Colorado prison, Janos Toevs used JSTOR to connect with scholar Shawn Bushway, turning years of independent research into an ongoing collaboration.
SUNY Morrisville joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services charter program
SUNY Morrisville joins the JSTOR Stewardship charter program to expand access to distinctive collections, advance digitization, and explore AI-assisted collections processing with JSTOR Seeklight.
Publisher Collections on JSTOR expands significantly for 2027, growing from 22 to 36 participating publishers
Publisher Collections on JSTOR will expand to 36 participating publishers in 2027, building on growing library participation and increased use of scholarly ebooks.
Expanding scholarly conversations: Introducing citations to JSTOR Access in Prison
A new citation tool helps learners using JSTOR Access in Prison format sources and retrieve articles more easily.
What’s new in JSTOR Stewardship: August 2026
See what’s new across the JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services community, including new participants, distinctive collections, AI-assisted description, accessibility work, and lessons from institutions expanding access to their digital materials.
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