New White Paper: Canadian Universities and Sustainable Publishing

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has issued a new white paper, Canadian Universities and Sustainable Publishing, authored by Martha Whitehead and Brian Owen. The paper is best described by its introduction:

The scholarly communications landscape in Canada is on the cusp of transformative change. Many factors are converging: the continuing impact of digital technology on teaching and research, the growing expertise of academic libraries in utilizing and supporting technology-based initiatives, the move towards policies of open access, the oligopoly of international academic publishers and the financial constraints of university budgets.

In Canada and worldwide, universities need to decide how best to invest in scholarly communications to support research today. The purpose of this paper is to outline the issues and potential paths forward, for discussion and planning with researchers and administrators of Canadian universities, in the international context. Our common goal is to enable research results to be as widely distributed and accessible as possible, internationally, in high quality publishing venues at the lowest possible costs.

The white paper summarizes the national activities and developments of the past twenty years to support and improve scholarly communications in Canada.  It also describes the current issues and most importantly advocates for an activist approach to these challenges:  “The time is right to repatriate scholarly publishing to the academy and disrupt centuries-old print paradigms.  We want scholarly publishing that is not only sustainable: we want it to thrive.”  The paper questions the ascendency of article processing charges and argues that alternative sustainability models such as open access publishing cooperatives should be considered.

CARL represents the largest 29 university libraries in Canada.  It’s strategic priorities include fostering new knowledge creation and sustainable scholarly communication, including open access, and encouraging the role of the library in publishing, as well as facilitating collaborations to create, acquire, share, and preserve Canada’s research resources. Many CARL members are longstanding PKP sponsors and development partners and have implemented OJS, OMP, and OCS to support scholarly publishing at their institutions.  As part of the MacArthur funded OA Publishing Cooperative study, PKP is exploring a national option and recently completed an inventory of over 430 scholarly journals currently hosted by CARL members and other Canadian academic libraries.