An Ecosystem of Communities: Exploring Non-Commercial Journal Publishing in Canada

Wednesday October 05, 2022

From 11:45am to 12:45pm

Understanding the complexities and nuances of Canada’s non-commercial journal publishing ecosystem is critical if we are to establish a sustainable and open path forward. An ecosystem is, by definition, a community of organisms together with their physical environment. In biology, we consider that “ecosystems with higher biodiversity tend to be more stable with greater resistance and resilience in the face of disturbances, or disruptive events.” Recent research has demonstrated a near absence of commercial publishers in the Canadian context. Rather, journals in Canada look much like a biological ecosystem, and rely on a complex and interrelated community of support, including organizations such as universities, scholarly associations, not-for-profit presses, and academic libraries.

Understanding the complexities and nuances of Canada’s non-commercial journal publishing ecosystem is critical if we are to establish a sustainable and open path forward. An ecosystem is, by definition, a community of organisms together with their physical environment. In biology, we consider that “ecosystems with higher biodiversity tend to be more stable with greater resistance and resilience in the face of disturbances, or disruptive events.” Recent research has demonstrated a near absence of commercial publishers in the Canadian context. Rather, journals in Canada look much like a biological ecosystem, and rely on a complex and interrelated community of support, including organizations such as universities, scholarly associations, not-for-profit presses, and academic libraries.

This presentation will explore some of the relationships, characteristics, and outcomes of this ecosystem. The first section will provide three presentations from separate speakers:

an overview of the nature of Canada's independent scholarly journals, addressing how journal editorial teams operate, and what some of their challenges are;
an examination of libraries' role in this space as publishers and publishing service providers; and
an exploration of diamond open access scholarly journals (globally and within Canada) and their financial structures, and how we can understand them as communities and essential research infrastructure.

The panel will conclude with a brief thematic discussion following the presentations, allowing time for audience engagement, and an opportunity to dive deeper into concepts raised by panelists.