Academic journals are foundational infrastructure for emerging scholarly fields, yet launching and sustaining one within a library publishing context presents unique operational, staffing, and governance challenges. This session presents a detailed case study of the Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education (JOERHE), tracing its evolution from a three-person passion project to a structured, values-guided publishing initiative with a robust editorial and production ecosystem. In this session, we outline the processes and scaffolding that have supported JOERHE’s growth, including: establishing governance roles and workflows; recruiting and training editorial and production staff; defining quality assurance checkpoints; implementing publication platforms and tooling; and crafting documentation for consistency and onboarding. We’ll share practical metrics and milestones, such as editorial turnaround times, role definitions, and staffing transitions, to illustrate how operational choices impact sustainability. Attendees will gain insights into balancing volunteer contributions with structured responsibilities, aligning journal values with operational practices, and leveraging library publishing resources to support emerging scholars. We’ll also discuss how we manage cross-institutional collaboration, inclusive recruitment practices, and capacity building for early-career contributors interested in editorial participation. By focusing on what it takes to manage and grow a library-supported journal, this session offers actionable guidance for academic libraries, library publishing programs, and collaborative publishing initiatives seeking to launch, refine, or scale their own journals. Participants will leave with concrete strategies and templates to help them operationalize editorial standards, build resilient workflows, and support community participation in scholarly publishing.
