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
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 features empower students to do their work more efficiently and effectively
The latest from JSTOR
Colgate University builds on JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services partnership by joining charter program
Colgate joins JSTOR Stewardship’s Tier 3 charter program, migrating from Islandora to an integrated platform for preservation, discovery, and AI-assisted collections processing with JSTOR Seeklight.
The University of the South (Sewanee) joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services Tier 3 charter program
Sewanee joins JSTOR Stewardship’s Tier 3 charter program, adopting JSTOR Seeklight and migrating digital collections from DSpace to an integrated platform for preservation, management, and discovery.
JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services training: Project administration
Training for Stewardship participants (Tiers 2-3): create/edit projects, map publishing targets, manage users, and access preservation. One of three sessions in a monthly Stewardship training series.
Collaborating across research and practice to shape AI interfaces
At CHI 2026, researchers and practitioners explored what it means to design AI interfaces responsibly, from supporting scholarly judgment to creating more transparent and human-centered research tools.
How JSTOR supports smarter research workflows
JSTOR helps teaching librarians, faculty, students, and new researchers move from early search to stronger synthesis by bringing together scholarly content, primary sources, images, collections, Workspace, citation tools, and AI-enabled features in one research and teaching platform.
Visual Resources Association
A virtual conference dedicated to the management and use of visual materials, with a focus on digital access, rights, and metadata practices.
Charleston Library Conference
A highly influential event known for candid, cross-sector dialogue on acquisitions, collection strategy, and the evolving scholarly publishing landscape.
PLANNER
An international conference emphasizing strategic approaches to library development, networking, and technology-driven information services.
International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums
A distinctive gathering centered on Indigenous knowledge systems, highlighting community-driven approaches to cultural stewardship and preservation.
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