Exploring state and institutional support for sustainable scholarly journal publishing

Zhenchenko, M., & Dunaievska, O. (2025). Exploring state and institutional support for sustainable scholarly journal publishing. Journal of International Studies, 18(3), 144-162. doi:10.14254/2071-8330.2025/18-3/8

The study aims to identify global practices of financial and non-monetary support for scholarly journals, funding criteria, and associated outcomes. An exploratory review retrieved 438 documents from Scopus, Web of Science, and Research4Life, 28 of which were selected for thematic content analysis. Data were categorized into eight micro-themes, including funding schemes, infrastructure, and journal evaluation criteria. The findings reveal six key models of support: (1) public grants at the state level, (2) program-based funding at the state level, (3) national infrastructure/platform support, (4) consortia-based funding, (5) direct institutional funding from publishers or parent organizations, and (6) institutional non-monetary or in-kind support. These models vary across regions and are often combined. Countries with stable national funding and infrastructure (e.g., Finland, Poland, Canada) show higher journal sustainability and indexing success. In contrast, journals in resource-limited settings often rely on volunteer work and institutional goodwill. A noteworthy trend is thematic and language-based targeting. For example, Taiwan prioritizes technology journals, Canada’s SSHRC supports social science journals, and Quebec programs only support French-language journals. Academic libraries contribute to sustainability through infrastructure, metadata services, and policy support.