because it was the topic of heated discussions earlier this year, including quite a few comments about the integrity, openness, and profit/not-for-profit status of JSTOR, I am pleased to note that--as both Richard Jensen and I suggested would be quite possible if a straightforward and thoughtful request were put to them directly--JSTOR has now created a pilot program to provide access to the most active Wikipedia editors to what appears to be the entirety of the JSTOR database. This looks to be the result of laudable efforts by some members of the Wikimedia Foundation and of JSTOR (in particular, Steven Walling of Wikimedia and Kristen Garlock of JSTOR), all of whom deserve major credit for this welcome development.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/19/jstor-provides-free-access-to-wikipedia-editors/
I also note that this is part of a general outreach effort on part of JSTOR to provide access to unaffiliated individuals who need or even want it:
Wikipedia contributors beyond the pilot group can also take advantage of
growing access, as can readers. JSTOR provides free access to Early
Journal Content and recently introduced Register & Read, an
experimental program to offer free, read-online access to individual
scholars and researchers who register for a MyJSTOR account. More
information may be found at about.jstor.org/individuals.
I have long felt JSTOR in particular was being unreasonably tarnished in many online communities, including to some extent this one, and I would suggest that this very welcome development reveals that JSTOR is quite willing to work with many different kinds of groups who for various reasons can't afford access to the archive.
I think this also shows that a balanced approach to the open access issue can potentially be successful, without prohibiting nonprofits like JSTOR from charging a reasonable fee for its significant services to institutions that have long been accustomed to paying for scholarly work product of many kinds. I very much hope this effort is successful for all the parties concerned.
David
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David Golumbia
dgolumbia@gmail.com