ISA Green Efforts: Online Journal Access

On this Earth Day, ISA announces a major policy change. At our Annual Convention last month in Montreal, in response to a proposed change in our contract with Wiley Publishers, ISA’s Governing Council decided that ISA members’ access to our six journals will be online only.  All ISA members will now have instant online access to all ISA journals through our MyISA website.

We hope that reducing unnecessary printing and shipping will contribute to a greener world and a significantly reduced carbon footprint, as well as help facilitate better services for ISA members. We will continue to try to improve our environmental profile in many other ways as well, including actions to further green our Annual Convention practices.

The Governing Council came to this decision after an analysis of the survey responses of our members’ preferences.   A clear majority preferred not to receive hard copies of all ISA journals.  Reasons included the environmental impact of printing and shipping 20 issues to each and every member (more than 80,000 volumes shipped around the world annually); a shortage of office shelf space; and the easy access to journals online through MyISA.

These actions reflect a larger trend where journal publications everywhere are rapidly moving toward electronic-only distribution.  In light of these trends, ISA’s Governing Council recognized that this change was inevitable.  To effect the change-over now rather than at the end of our current contract in 2015, Wiley Publishers offered significantly more financial support to our hard-working editorial teams, and has also significantly increased royalties to the Association.  As a result, the Governing Council has made the commitment that ISA will not increase our membership dues through 2015 and it will consider proposals to increase services to our members.

Please note that for members who strongly prefer hard copies of their journals, they can still be ordered for $15 per subscription for postal delivery.

Happy Earth Day!