Editing JSTOR (section)

==History==
[[William G. Bowen]], president of [[Princeton University]] from 1972 to 1988,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Leitch |first=Alexander |date=1978 |title=Bowen, William Gordon |url=http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/bowen_william_gordon.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011224203/http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/bowen_william_gordon.html |archive-date=11 October 2017 |website=A Princeton Companion}}</ref> founded JSTOR in 1994. JSTOR was originally conceived as a solution to one of the problems faced by libraries, especially [[Research library|research and university libraries]], due to the increasing number of academic journals in existence. Most libraries found it prohibitively expensive in terms of cost and space to maintain a comprehensive collection of journals. By digitizing many journal titles, JSTOR allowed libraries to outsource the storage of journals with the confidence that they would remain available long-term. Online access and full-text searchability improved access dramatically.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About: Mission and history |url=https://about.jstor.org/mission-history/ |access-date=2023-12-12 |publisher=JSTOR |language=en}}</ref>

Bowen initially considered using CD-ROMs for distribution.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schonfeld |first=Roger C. |url=https://archive.org/details/jstorhistory00scho |title=JSTOR: A History |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-691-11531-3 |location=Princeton, NJ |jstor=j.ctt7s6z3 |url-access=registration}}</ref> However, [[Ira Fuchs]], Princeton University's vice president for Computing and Information Technology, convinced Bowen that CD-ROM was becoming an increasingly outdated technology and that network distribution could eliminate redundancy and increase accessibility (for example, all Princeton's administrative and academic buildings were networked by 1989; the student dormitory network was completed in 1994; and campus networks like the one at Princeton were, in turn, linked to larger networks such as [[BITNET]] and the [[Internet]]). JSTOR was initiated in 1995 at seven different library sites, and originally encompassed ten economics and history journals. JSTOR access improved based on feedback from its initial sites, and it became a fully searchable index accessible from any ordinary [[web browser]]. Special software was put in place to make pictures and graphs clear and readable.<ref name="Taylor"/>

With the success of this limited project, Bowen, Fuchs, and Kevin Guthrie, the then-president of JSTOR, wanted to expand the number of participating journals. They met with representatives of the [[Royal Society|Royal Society of London]] and an agreement was made to digitize the ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]]'' dating from its beginning in 1665. The work of adding these volumes to JSTOR was completed by December 2000.<ref name = "Taylor" /> In 1999 JSTOR started a partnership with [[Jisc|Joint Information Systems Committee]] and created a mirror website at the [[University of Manchester]] to make the JSTOR database available to over 20 higher education institutions in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Guthrie |first1=Kevin M. |year=1999 |title=JSTOR: Large Scale Digitization of Journals in the United States |url=https://liberquarterly.eu/article/view/10146/10595 |format=pdf |journal=LIBER Quarterly |volume=9 |issue=3 |page=291 |doi=10.18352/lq.7546 |issn=1435-5205 |via= |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The [[Andrew W. Mellon Foundation]] funded JSTOR initially. Until January 2009, JSTOR operated as an independent, self-sustaining [[nonprofit organization]] with offices in [[New York City]] and in [[Ann Arbor, Michigan]]. Then JSTOR merged with the nonprofit [[Ithaka Harbors, Inc.]]<ref name="history">{{cite web |title=About: Mission and history |url= https://about.jstor.org/mission-history/ |publisher=JSTOR |access-date= 29 December 2022 |archive-date= December 29, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221229223421/https://about.jstor.org/mission-history/ |url-status= live }}</ref>—a nonprofit organization founded in 2003 and "dedicated to helping the [[academic community]] take full advantage of rapidly advancing information and networking technologies".<ref name = "About Ithaka" />

In 2019, JSTOR's revenue was $79 million.<ref name=NonProfitExplorer>{{Cite web|url=https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/133857105/03_2021_prefixes_11-16%2F133857105_201912_990_2021030217777098|title=Form 990 for period ending December 2019|department=Nonprofit Explorer |publisher=[[ProPublica]]|format=pdf}}</ref>