Journal Collections Agreement

Highlights of the Project MUSE Journal Collections Agreement

The license agreement does not affect the publisher’s present rights to its content but allows Project MUSE to sell the content in its Journal Collections. Project MUSE retains rights to the database format and any features added. A summary of the additional terms of the license agreement follows.

Royalties

Generally, there are no costs to publishers for inclusion of a title in Project MUSE. Instead, MUSE pays publishers royalties on a calendar-year basis. MUSE currently pays out to publishers approximately 75% of revenues as royalties based on each journal’s proportionate share of usage, proportionate share of online content, and a score based on each journal’s quality, longevity, and degree of online availability.

Once online in Project MUSE, journal content is a permanent part of the collection; should a publisher decide to end its relationship with MUSE, the content already online remains in MUSE and continues to earn royalties.

LOCKSS and Portico

Project MUSE participates in two archiving and preservation programs, the Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe (LOCKSS) program and Portico.

Annual Publisher's Meeting

At a meeting hosted for all participating publishers every year, Project MUSE provides updates and reports on future plans, and other information of interest to publishers.

Advisory Board and Journal Publisher Working Group

Project MUSE has created two bodies to provide guidance to ensure that it provides the best services for MUSE publishers, subscribers, and users. The Project MUSE Advisory Board, made up of leaders from the publishing, library, and the user communities, advises Project MUSE management on strategic direction. The Project MUSE Journal Publisher Group, comprised of all different kinds of MUSE journal publishers, has input on changes and developments related to the Project MUSE Journals Program.

Responsibilities

Project MUSE is responsible for making MUSE journals available online, handling all sales and marketing of MUSE collections worldwide, providing publishers with access to usage statistics for their titles, providing access for individual subscribers when applicable, and providing publishers with the ability to update the general informational pages about their journals.

The journal publisher’s major responsibilities are to provide final electronic files according to current specification and to obtain authors’ agreements and necessary permissions for including their materials in MUSE.

Term

The initial contract term is three years and automatically renews for successive one-year terms. However, either party can terminate the contract with six months’ notice, effective at the end of a journal’s volume year.