An ethical issue arises in terms of who has access to this page. Access to it is restricted to subscribing institutions in the United States and Great Britain which pay a sizeable initial fee and a subsequent annual fee. The JSTOR organization explains its fee structure on its web page in the statement between the dotted lines below:
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JSTOR's focus is on becoming a trusted archive. We do not publish current issues of the journals. Current issues represent journal publishers' main, if not only, revenue stream, and it is not the purpose of JSTOR to put that revenue at risk. We believe it is possible to work with publishers in a complementary way that will be to everyone's benefit. In our agreements with publishers we have established a lag period, which we call the "moving wall", that defines the point at which the JSTOR archive stops, and "current" issues start. In some cases, the moving wall is three years (meaning the last issue available in the JSTOR archive would be one published three years ago); in other cases it is five years. In any event, as each year passes, another year is added to the archive, thus guaranteeing that the archive is being constantly updated and refreshed.
For publishers that are beginning to publish current issues in electronic formats, we are working to establish technological linkages that will make it possible for users to search from the current issue right back through the first issue in the JSTOR archive.
All academic institutions are offered site licenses permitting access to the Phase I archive to faculty, staff and students registered with the institution. These licenses vary in cost based on the size, nature and scale of the participating library/institution.
There are two types of payment: 1) a one-time Database Development Fee (DDF), for permanent access rights to information in the Phase I archive; and 2) an Annual Access Fee (AAF), to help cover the recurring costs of updating and maintaining the archive.
Fees
[Size of Institution]
Very Large Large Medium Small Very Small
DDF $45,000 $35,000 $25,000 $20,000 $10,000
AAF $5,000 $5,000 $4,000 $3,000 $2,000
Very Large is a new JSTOR class. For institutions in this class the DDF has been increased from $40,000 to $45,000. To give institutions an opportunity to participate at the lower rate, the new fee will become effective January 1, 1999.
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Questions which arise are: 1) Is it ethical for JSTOR to limit access only to those academic institutions which can afford this service (even given the payment-by-size scale mentioned above) ? 2) Is it ethical for JSTOR to limit access only to institutions in the United States and Great Britain?