Scholastica Blog — Finding a Niche as a New Open Access Journal: An Interview with Jesper Sørensen

"There is an abundance of information about the benefits of open access publishing, but what about guidance on how to launch and operate a successful open access journal? Finding advice on launching a journal that is able to stand out in the crowd and flourish in its respective field over time can prove challenging, as the open access landscape continues to take shape. I reached out to Jesper Sørensen, professor of organizational behavior and sociology at Stanford Business School, to gain some insight into what it takes to publish an open access journal based on his experience as an editor and founder of the new and thriving OA journal Sociological Science. According to Sørensen, one of the top challenges and simultaneous best opportunities for new open access journals to develop a following is to find a unique niche in the marketplace. For Sociological Science, which was founded in September 2013, that niche came in the form of the founding editors’ shared desire to get articles to publication sooner, in order to prevent the stagnation of scholarly work on novel research concepts. In our interview, Sørensen walked me through the steps that Sociological Science has taken to achieve and promote this goal ..."