AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
EDITOR’S CHOICE Thriving Among Giants: Self-Publishing in the Digital Age Over the last 25 years, innovation and vision have been necessary survival tools for scholarly journal publishers. In the 1990s, when Web browsers and Web crawlers made the Internet publicly accessible, user expectations began to shift and content providers began seeking methods to better showcase content. Scholarly publishers were challenged! Initially, small societies and associations relied on the strength of their missions, tradition, and history to remain viable and built Web sites only to display their content. Commercial publishers, meanwhile, were quick to realize that size and access were keys in this new economy. They built platforms to showcase their multiple products—which cut across disciplines—and then sold platform licenses to libraries. They also bundled their low-interest journals with their high-interest publications as a package to ensure subscriptions to all of their publications. Individual subscribers soon found that they could gain access through their institutions’ subscriptions, and the economy shifted. Smaller self-publishers saw their market share shrink as individuals dropped their subscriptions and librarians sought better ways to maximize their purchases. To remain viable and secure revenues, some smaller publishers stopped selfpublishing their journals and sought either alliances or partnerships with university or commercial presses. The American Public Health Association is a smaller association that has managed to remain a self-publisher during this period. The mission of the Association is to improve the health of the public and achieve equity in health status. The American Journal of Public Health strives to achieve this mission by advancing public health research, policy, practice, and education, which has helped keep the Journal ranked among the most important publications in public health. In addition, we have secured partnerships to digitize our content and make it searchable online, enhance discoverability and usage tracking, convert and display content in new ways, and adopt new and emerging access models. We have also entered strategic publication partnerships to diversify our content
1956 | Editor's Choice
offerings. We publish in print and online, and provide online-only exclusive material, open access material, and mobile-enhanced interactivity. With Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), we now produce and publish the MMWR in Brief; with Frontiers in PHSSR (Public Health Services and Systems Research), we republish abstracts to better support public health practitioners; and with the Pan American Health Organization, we translate research articles that are especially important and relevant to Hispanics and Latinos/as into Spanish and publish that research on both Web platforms. Our goal is not simply to survive, but to thrive as a leading journal of public health while providing public health actors with the evidence and the methods they need to make the world a healthier place. We strive to identify emerging trends and install the necessary infrastructure to capitalize on those trends when they become industry fixtures. We are steadily approaching a period in which young adults will almost have exclusively used computers, tablets, smart phones, or other handheld devices to access information and communicate. For these digital natives, information has been free, easily and immediately accessible, commented on and shared through social networks, and quickly stored for later reuse. To meet their needs and expectations, we have developed e-Reader versions of Journal issues, created enhanced collection pages, increased our social media presence and outputs, integrated podcasts and video abstracts into our online issues, and generated infographics for easy distribution and sharing. Each year we invest in technological improvements, more flexible infrastructures, and greater methods of communication. These initiatives will add greater interactivity and value to our publication, enabling us to continue thriving among giants. j Brian Selzer Assistant Director of Publications American Public Health Association
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD SENIOR DEPUTY EDITOR Michael C. Costanza, PhD DEPUTY EDITOR Farzana Kapadia, PhD IMAGE EDITOR Aleisha Kropf FEATURE EDITOR Gabriel N. Stover, MPA, MSPH ASSISTANT EDITOR Olufunmilayo K. Makinde ASSOCIATE EDITORS Hortensia Amaro, PhD Eric R. Buhi, PhD, MPH Kenneth Rochel de Camargo Jr, MD, PhD Paul C. Erwin, MD, DrPH Michael R. Greenberg, PhD Sofia Gruskin, JD, MIA Said Ibrahim, MD, MPH Robert J. Kim-Farley, MD, MPH Stewart J. Landers, JD, MCP Daniel Tarantola, MD REGIONAL EDITOR Stella M. Yu, ScD, MPH DEPARTMENT EDITORS Theodore M. Brown, PhD Elizabeth Fee, PhD Roy Grant, MA Deborah Holtzman, PhD, MSW Kenneth R. McLeroy, PhD Mark A. Rothstein, JD Roger Vaughan, DrPH, MS FORMER EDITORS-IN-CHIEF (listed chronologically) Mary E. Northridge (Editor Emerita) Mervyn Susser Michel Ibrahim Alfred Yankauer George Rosen Abel Wolman Charles-Edward A. Winslow Harry S. Mustard Mazy¨ck Ravenel EDITORIAL BOARD Jeffrey R. Wilson, PhD, MS (2015), Chair Chinua Akukwe, MD, MPH (2015) Jermane Bond, PHD (2017) Gwen Chodur (2015) Keith Elder, PhD, MPH (2016) Thomas Greenfield, PhD (2015) Dio Kavalieratos, PhD (2016) Denys T. Lau, PhD (2017) Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH (2015) Justin B. Moore, PhD (2016) Samuel L. Posner, PhD (2015) F. Douglas Scutchfield, MD (2017) Ruth Zambrana, PhD (2016) STAFF Georges C. Benjamin, MD Executive Director/Publisher Ashell Alston, Publications Director Brian Selzer, Deputy Publications Director Morgan Richardson, Production Coordinator Michael Henry, Associate Production Editor (Sr) Aisha Jamil, Associate Production Editor (Jr) Phat Nguyen, Digital Publications Specialist Vivian Tinsley, Subscriptions Manager FREELANCE STAFF Kelly Burch, Greg Edmondson, Gary Norton, Michelle Quirk, Alisa Riccardi, Trish Weisman, Eileen Wolfberg, Copyeditors Nestor Ashbery, Sarah Cook, Marci McGrath, Chris Smith, Proofreaders Vanessa Sifford, Graphic Designer
doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302859
American Journal of Public Health | October 2015, Vol 105, No. 10
EDITOR’S CHOICE Thriving Among Giants: Self-Publishing in the Digital Age Over the last 25 years, innovation and vision have been necessary survival tools for scholarly journal publishers. In the 1990s, when Web browsers and Web crawlers made the Internet publicly accessible, user expectations began to shift and content providers began seeking methods to better showcase content. Scholarly publishers were challenged! Initially, small societies and associations relied on the strength of their missions, tradition, and history to remain viable and built Web sites only to display their content. Commercial publishers, meanwhile, were quick to realize that size and access were keys in this new economy. They built platforms to showcase their multiple products—which cut across disciplines—and then sold platform licenses to libraries. They also bundled their low-interest journals with their high-interest publications as a package to ensure subscriptions to all of their publications. Individual subscribers soon found that they could gain access through their institutions’ subscriptions, and the economy shifted. Smaller self-publishers saw their market share shrink as individuals dropped their subscriptions and librarians sought better ways to maximize their purchases. To remain viable and secure revenues, some smaller publishers stopped selfpublishing their journals and sought either alliances or partnerships with university or commercial presses. The American Public Health Association is a smaller association that has managed to remain a self-publisher during this period. The mission of the Association is to improve the health of the public and achieve equity in health status. The American Journal of Public Health strives to achieve this mission by advancing public health research, policy, practice, and education, which has helped keep the Journal ranked among the most important publications in public health. In addition, we have secured partnerships to digitize our content and make it searchable online, enhance discoverability and usage tracking, convert and display content in new ways, and adopt new and emerging access models. We have also entered strategic publication partnerships to diversify our content
1956 | Editor's Choice
offerings. We publish in print and online, and provide online-only exclusive material, open access material, and mobile-enhanced interactivity. With Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), we now produce and publish the MMWR in Brief; with Frontiers in PHSSR (Public Health Services and Systems Research), we republish abstracts to better support public health practitioners; and with the Pan American Health Organization, we translate research articles that are especially important and relevant to Hispanics and Latinos/as into Spanish and publish that research on both Web platforms. Our goal is not simply to survive, but to thrive as a leading journal of public health while providing public health actors with the evidence and the methods they need to make the world a healthier place. We strive to identify emerging trends and install the necessary infrastructure to capitalize on those trends when they become industry fixtures. We are steadily approaching a period in which young adults will almost have exclusively used computers, tablets, smart phones, or other handheld devices to access information and communicate. For these digital natives, information has been free, easily and immediately accessible, commented on and shared through social networks, and quickly stored for later reuse. To meet their needs and expectations, we have developed e-Reader versions of Journal issues, created enhanced collection pages, increased our social media presence and outputs, integrated podcasts and video abstracts into our online issues, and generated infographics for easy distribution and sharing. Each year we invest in technological improvements, more flexible infrastructures, and greater methods of communication. These initiatives will add greater interactivity and value to our publication, enabling us to continue thriving among giants. j Brian Selzer Assistant Director of Publications American Public Health Association
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD SENIOR DEPUTY EDITOR Michael C. Costanza, PhD DEPUTY EDITOR Farzana Kapadia, PhD IMAGE EDITOR Aleisha Kropf FEATURE EDITOR Gabriel N. Stover, MPA, MSPH ASSISTANT EDITOR Olufunmilayo K. Makinde ASSOCIATE EDITORS Hortensia Amaro, PhD Eric R. Buhi, PhD, MPH Kenneth Rochel de Camargo Jr, MD, PhD Paul C. Erwin, MD, DrPH Michael R. Greenberg, PhD Sofia Gruskin, JD, MIA Said Ibrahim, MD, MPH Robert J. Kim-Farley, MD, MPH Stewart J. Landers, JD, MCP Daniel Tarantola, MD REGIONAL EDITOR Stella M. Yu, ScD, MPH DEPARTMENT EDITORS Theodore M. Brown, PhD Elizabeth Fee, PhD Roy Grant, MA Deborah Holtzman, PhD, MSW Kenneth R. McLeroy, PhD Mark A. Rothstein, JD Roger Vaughan, DrPH, MS FORMER EDITORS-IN-CHIEF (listed chronologically) Mary E. Northridge (Editor Emerita) Mervyn Susser Michel Ibrahim Alfred Yankauer George Rosen Abel Wolman Charles-Edward A. Winslow Harry S. Mustard Mazy¨ck Ravenel EDITORIAL BOARD Jeffrey R. Wilson, PhD, MS (2015), Chair Chinua Akukwe, MD, MPH (2015) Jermane Bond, PHD (2017) Gwen Chodur (2015) Keith Elder, PhD, MPH (2016) Thomas Greenfield, PhD (2015) Dio Kavalieratos, PhD (2016) Denys T. Lau, PhD (2017) Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH (2015) Justin B. Moore, PhD (2016) Samuel L. Posner, PhD (2015) F. Douglas Scutchfield, MD (2017) Ruth Zambrana, PhD (2016) STAFF Georges C. Benjamin, MD Executive Director/Publisher Ashell Alston, Publications Director Brian Selzer, Deputy Publications Director Morgan Richardson, Production Coordinator Michael Henry, Associate Production Editor (Sr) Aisha Jamil, Associate Production Editor (Jr) Phat Nguyen, Digital Publications Specialist Vivian Tinsley, Subscriptions Manager FREELANCE STAFF Kelly Burch, Greg Edmondson, Gary Norton, Michelle Quirk, Alisa Riccardi, Trish Weisman, Eileen Wolfberg, Copyeditors Nestor Ashbery, Sarah Cook, Marci McGrath, Chris Smith, Proofreaders Vanessa Sifford, Graphic Designer
doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302859
American Journal of Public Health | October 2015, Vol 105, No. 10
