Intern, Publisher Relations

ITHAKA’s mission is to expand access to knowledge and education around the world. Our services — JSTOR, Portico, and Ithaka S+R — enable people everywhere to learn, to grow, and to overcome barriers to education. In carrying out our mission, as employees we feel a deep responsibility to members of our community and to each other, and we are committed to building and sustaining a culture where everyone can thrive.

The Role

ITHAKA is the parent organization of JSTOR, an online platform that provides access to academic journals, books, images, and primary sources to millions of users at colleges, universities, libraries, and NGOs in 170 countries. We are seeking a dynamic and resourceful Publisher Relations intern to work closely with our Content Strategy and Relationships Team, which manages the publisher partners that disseminate their publications on JSTOR.

This role provides an opportunity to gain practical experience in managing relationships with publishers of electronic academic journals, learn about the scholarly publishing of licensed and open access journals, and work with individuals focusing on the nuances of content curation. You will have the opportunity to learn project management and to help identify important journals to support academic scholarship on JSTOR. You will assist the Content Strategy team in identifying journals that can be published as open access on JSTOR, increasing the discoverability and usage of these journals to individuals around the world.This position will report to the Senior Publisher Relations Manager.

This is a full-time internship, the intern is expected to work 40 hours per week. The internship spans a period of 12 weeks, beginning on June 1, 2026.

Responsibilities

The intern will support one or more projects during their term. Specific project components, tasks required to complete them, and expected project deliverables will be defined in collaboration with the intern’s supervisor and additional team members. Potential project components may include:

Investigating New Content Resources

• Conduct market research to help identify emerging trends in the academic market and support the inclusion of new, sought-after content on JSTOR.

• Explore potential partnerships with new-to-JSTOR academic publishers, including developing tailored outreach strategies to attract new OA content providers.

• Expand the pipeline of new-to-JSTOR open access content across content types.

• Collaborate with internal teams to streamline workflows and processes for onboarding new OA content, and support these onboarding processes on an ongoing basis.

• Provide regular updates and reports to the CSR team on OA pipeline growth, content acquisition metrics, and project status for any ongoing initiatives.

Supporting New Content Acquisition for LLM Revenue Opportunities

• Support the CSR team’s efforts to partner with internal and external stakeholders to identify in-demand content for Large Language Models (LLMs) and other AI initiatives.

• Assist the CSR team in building a pipeline of content providers interested in licensing their content for use by AI tools and securing permissions to license this content.

Supporting the Conversion of Licensed Journals to Open Access

• Conduct additional research and analysis as needed to confirm the CSR team’s initial determination of a journal’s Open Access status.

• Assist in identifying licensed titles that could be added to the JSTOR platform as substitutes for titles that have converted to full-run OA on JSTOR.

• Support the onboarding process for existing licensed titles that convert to OA on JSTOR.

Learning Opportunities:

• Gain practical experience in managing relationships with academic publishers.

• Understand the nuances of content curation and organization.

• Participate in content strategy development in a digital platform context.

• Contribute to the expansion and enhancement of JSTOR's content offerings.

• Develop skills in data analysis and research methodologies related to academic content.

Requirements and skills

• Current graduate student or upper-level undergraduate student enrolled in a field related to publishing, library sciences, or information management.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Comfortable working with data and conducting research.

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (especially Excel and PowerPoint) and Google Suite.

• Ability to work independently and in a team environment.

• Passion for learning and contributing to the dissemination of academic knowledge.

Work Authorization and Sponsorship

ITHAKA is not currently considering candidates who require any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States.

Compensation

At ITHAKA we believe in openness and equity. Part of living those values is our commitment to clarity about salary ranges, so candidates know what to expect. The starting salary for this position is $25.00 hourly.

Work for ITHAKA

We are committed to our organizational values of belonging, evidence, speed, teamwork, and trust. We take seriously the need for everyone to feel welcome. Belonging is one of our core values, and it shows in our vibrant culture. People from a wide range of backgrounds work at ITHAKA, and we believe that unique perspectives help us realize new insights and build better solutions.

We want to work with people who are passionate about ideas like these and who wish to contribute their perspectives and talents to ITHAKA’s mission. We enthusiastically welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and credentials. We want to hear your story and include your perspective in the transformative work we aim to do.

Learn more about Working at ITHAKA.

Apply Now

Although ITHAKA has physical offices in New York and Ann Arbor, Michigan, our employees are distributed across the continental United States. At this time, we’re not considering candidates who are unable to work and reside in the continental U.S.

Candidates may apply by submitting an application online through our career site, if you have any questions about your application, please contact us at [email protected]. ITHAKA is committed to providing reasonable accommodations, if there’s anything we can do to accommodate any portion of the application or hiring process, please contact us at [email protected].

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to identity or other status protected by law. We invite you to read our Equal Employment Opportunity Statement. ITHAKA cares about your privacy, learn more about our Applicant Privacy Notice.