Frequently Asked Questions
Below are some frequently asked questions about JSTOR participation. If you have additional questions, please contact JSTOR Outreach & Participation Services at participation@jstor.org.
About Books at JSTOR
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Books at JSTOR is a program that offers ebooks from leading scholarly publishers for sale to institutions. As a nonprofit with a mission to serve the academic community, JSTOR worked closely with partner publishers, libraries, and scholars to develop this offering.
We focus on delivering great content and experiences to researchers. Books are integrated with the millions of journal articles and primary sources on JSTOR’s platform, providing an online research experience that is easy and effective.
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Our partners include top academic publishers from around the world. Click here for an up-to-date list of our publisher partners.
Purchasing models
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All of our ebooks are offered in a perpetual access model; once you buy the ebook, it is owned by your library and may be accessed in perpetuity.
We do not offer a subscription model at this time.
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Unlimited-user books
- Available for most titles in Books at JSTOR
- Unlimited concurrent use
- Unlimited DRM-free chapter downloads
- Downloads are standard PDF files that never expire
- Copy/paste allowed
- Works just like journal content on JSTOR
Single-user books
- Available for all titles in Books at JSTOR
- One user at a time can view the book
- 30 chapter downloads per year are included with purchase
- PDF downloads never expire
- Free MyJSTOR registration and free FileOpen app are required for downloads
- No printing or copy/paste allowed
Note that if you buy a title under the single-user model but find your patrons need additional access, you can purchase additional chapter downloads or upgrade to the unlimited-user model (if it’s available for that title).
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In the Demand-Driven Acquisition model, purchases are driven by patron usage. You can make a large corpus of ebooks available for use at your institution, but you only pay for a title once usage reaches a certain threshold. Any usage below that level is free.
You can make all of the Books at JSTOR titles available in your institution’s corpus, or build a profile of the titles you’d like to include. Titles in your DDA corpus will appear as licensed content to your users and will appear in search results. The books function in accordance with the model they would be purchased under if triggered; for example, if a library specifies that titles will be purchased under the unlimited-user model, books in the DDA corpus will support an unlimited number of simultaneous viewers, with no restrictions on downloading or printing.
Contact participation@jstor.org for more information on setting up a DDA account.
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Yes, all the titles are available for individual purchase. We also offer subject collections, which can be customized to fit the needs of your institution.
Accessing and using ebooks
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The Table of Contents, which includes 100-word extracts of each chapter, will be viewable even if the book has not been purchased.
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The ebooks can be accessed from your institution or remotely 24/7. Users are authenticated to access ebooks the same way they are for journals. The most common method is through your institution’s IP address. Users can access licensed content remotely through a proxy server, EZProxy, Athens, Shibboleth, or shared activation links. Click here for more information.
Books at JSTOR supports OpenURL to ensure users can find content available to them through their institutions.
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Yes, users can cross-search the full text of books, journals, and primary sources.
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Yes, Books at JSTOR offers free, high-quality MARC records from OCLC. The MARC records are available to all participating institutions, regardless of whether they are OCLC affiliates.
More information about the OCLC MARC records is available in this FAQ. You can download sample MARC records here (in .mrc format).
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Yes, our Terms & Conditions include a provision for ILL of book chapters.
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Book chapters can be viewed online in a Flash-based viewer or downloaded as PDF files. For books in the unlimited-user model, the PDFs are DRM-free and can be printed. For books in the single-user model, the PDFs employ FileOpen software and cannot be printed.
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The minimum requirements for using JSTOR also apply to Books at JSTOR.
There are two additional requirements for using Books at JSTOR:
- For both the single- and unlimited-user models, Adobe Flash Player is required to view the chapters online. Note that if a user doesn’t have Flash installed, they won’t be able to view the chapters in their browser, but they can still download the PDF.
- For the single-user model only, the user will be prompted to install free software in order to view the PDF downloads. The software is either the FileOpen Plugin (for users running Windows, Macintosh OSX, or Linux) or the FileOpen App (for users running iOS).
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Yes, the ebooks are preserved in Portico, ensuring that they will be available to your institution in perpetuity.
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By default, when an authenticated user performs a search on JSTOR, only licensed content is returned. Users have the ability to change this setting to search all available content.
Browsing (via the Browse by Publisher, Title and Discipline links) will display all content, licensed and unlicensed.
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Yes, there are stable URLs at the book and chapter level. You will see the stable URL listed on the website for each title and chapter. This is a URL that will never change, so it is the one to use when bookmarking the page or adding it to a syllabus or course website.
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Yes, citations may be exported in EndNote, ProCite, or Reference Manager formats. Researchers may also save, email, or track citations using a free MyJSTOR account.
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Usage reports are available through your MyJSTOR administrator account. You may set up the reports to be emailed to you daily, weekly, or monthly. Available reports include:
- COUNTER’s Book Report 2 (number of successful section requests by month and title)
- COUNTER’s Book Report 4 (turnaways for single-user books)
- A non-COUNTER Books Detailed Usage Report
- A Books Download Balance Report, which monitors remaining chapter downloads (for books in the single-user model only)
Ordering
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If you have technical questions, please contact support@jstor.org. If you have questions about the platform, ordering, or anything else, please contact participation@jstor.org. We’d love to hear from you!
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We have posters, tabletop signs, and bookmarks that you can use to promote Books at JSTOR to library users. Please contact participation@jstor.org to request materials.
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No. At this time, Books at JSTOR does not sell ebooks to individuals.
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Yes, we do. Please contact participation@jstor.org to learn more.
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We can work with you to run holdings comparisons. Please contact participation@jstor.org to learn more.
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Yes, there is an annual fee. The fee may be reduced or waived depending on the institution’s size and participation in JSTOR archive journal collections. Please contact participation@jstor.org for more information.
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Yes. Savings are based on your institution’s size and participation in archive journal collections. Please contact participation@jstor.org to learn more.
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Please contact us at participation@jstor.org. We can work with you to run holdings comparisons, recommend collections, and provide information on the savings available.
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Yes, a free preview of the platform is available to institutions. The preview includes a sample set of titles so that you can test the platform’s functionality and see how easy it is to use. To sign up, email participation@jstor.org.