Article

Dato Haji Mubin Sheppard. With a note P. Kratoska

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Dato Haji Mubin Sheppard. With a note P. Kratoska

Tan Sri Dato Haji Mubin Sheppard (1905–94), a former editor of the journal, presented a paper in 1985 on the history and operational challenges of the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; Paul H. Kratoska, who assumed the editorship in 2015, has edited and updated Sheppard’s account to reflect three decades of transformation in scholarly publishing (p. 95). The article traces the journal’s institutional history from its 1877 founding in Singapore through its colonial and post-colonial phases, and contrasts the print-era workflows Sheppard described with the digital infrastructure now sustaining the journal’s reach.

Summary

The article is structured as a dialogue across time: Sheppard’s 1985 paper, lightly edited to remove obsolete details, provides the historical foundation, while Kratoska’s update addresses the technological and institutional shifts that have since reshaped the journal’s production, distribution, and preservation. Sheppard’s section covers the Society’s founding at a meeting in Raffles Library on 4 November 1877, its successive name changes (Straits Branch, Malayan Branch, Malaysian Branch), the printers who produced the journal across its history, and the distribution networks—Trubner in London, Nabrink in Amsterdam, International Booksellers in Petaling Jaya—that carried its publications to overseas readers (pp. 96–99). He also documents the persistent problem of back issues falling out of print, a concern shared by his predecessor Carl Gibson-Hill, who warned that unbound loose parts were “much more liable to disappear from libraries” than bound volumes (p. 96).

Kratoska’s update focuses on the digital transition: the shift from linotype typesetting to word processing and PDF-based layout, the move from postal correspondence to email, and the adoption of Project MUSE for current-issue distribution and JSTOR for back-issue access. He notes that the JSTOR collection, spanning from 1878, recorded over 91,000 downloads in 2021 from 175 countries, demonstrating that digitization has solved the accessibility problem that preoccupied both Sheppard and Gibson-Hill (pp. 99–101). The article also addresses the journal’s move to peer review as a requirement for Scopus indexing, the revival of monograph and reprint series in both print and ebook formats, and the Society’s ongoing challenge of maintaining relevance for younger generations who no longer join learned societies primarily to receive a physical journal (pp. 101–103).

Key Findings

  • The Society was founded on 4 November 1877 at Raffles Library, Singapore, with approximately 150 founder members enrolled in the first six months, including Hoo Ah Kay, Syed Mohamed bin Ahmed Alsagoff, and Tan Kim Ching (p. 96).
  • The name changed from Straits Branch (1878–1922) to Malayan Branch (1923–1963) to Malaysian Branch (1964–present); the last pre-war issue was volume 19, part 3, December 1941, and the first post-war issue was volume 20, part 1, June 1947 (p. 97).
  • In 1963, the complete set of 82 Straits Branch Journals was reprinted by Kraus Reprints in Germany, a run that has since been exhausted (p. 98).
  • The JSTOR digital collection of JSBRAS and JMBRAS back issues, available from 1878, recorded more than 91,000 downloads in 2021 from 175 countries (p. 100).
  • JMBRAS is indexed by Scopus, a requirement that necessitated the adoption of external peer review for all research articles—a practice that was not standard in the journal’s earlier decades (p. 102).
  • The Society’s move from Singapore to Petaling Jaya, prompted by the Director of Museums reclaiming the Raffles Museum office space, was executed by Sheppard himself, who “more or less single handedly hired a lorry” to transfer the publication stock (p. 98, n. 2).

Conclusion

Kratoska’s overarching takeaway is that the digital transition has resolved the two problems that defined the journal’s operational history—preservation of back issues and overseas accessibility—while introducing new challenges around platform costs, the loss of the physical journal as a membership incentive, and the need to attract readers in an environment of abundant free information. The Society’s current model, relying on low subscription fees and article downloads rather than Open Access publication charges, is presented as best suited to its circumstances as a small learned society in Southeast Asia (pp. 102–103).

Context

  • The article draws on the Society’s own institutional records and the published conference proceedings of Gopinathan (1986), with supplementary archival material from the Gibson-Hill correspondence cited in Luyt (2022).
  • The piece functions as both a historical record of the journal’s first 145 years and a statement of its current editorial and distribution strategy, making it a useful institutional document for the Society’s own archives as much as a scholarly contribution.

References