We have been asked by several people whether S&P will be “just an electronic journal”. The question has two answers: “No” and “No”.
- While we have not made any final decision on this, we plan to offer printed versions of the journal — either just an annual volume, or also quarterly issues and even single article offprints. This will be done via a print-on-demand service such as Lulu — although we are not committed to a particular vendor yet. We might even offer subscriptions to these print versions. We anticipate that we will price these print versions at a (slight?) premium as an additional revenue source to support typesetting and copy-editing services.
- The primary identity of S&P is not that of an electronic journal. Our fundamental aim is to publish a high-quality, peer-reviewed journal on a par with the established journals. The electronic platform is secondary but gives us two very significant advantages:
- fast turn-around from submission to publication, facilitated by the all-electronic journal management software plus the fact that publication will be online-first and each article will be published as soon as it is ready (without waiting for an “issue” to be complete);
- open, immediate, and free access to anyone with an internet connection.
So, S&P will be a traditional high-quality peer-reviewed journal with printed issues available, but with crucial advantages opened up by modern technologies.
