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Introduction
The changes in scholarly communication have been well documented in numerous reports and
articles over the last decade. Today most scholarly journals and a growing number of monographs
are distributed in digital format over the Internet. In the near future, it will be common for
scholarly publications to be “enhanced with embedded graphics, audio and video materials, all
linked with datasets and applications needed to manipulate data, etc” 1 . Moreover, user
expectations in the digital world often involve easy, immediate, and free access to content. In
addition, the rates of technological change are not expected to wane anytime soon, but rather
accelerate.
This report presents the result of an environmental scan of the Canadian academic publishing
landscape undertaken in January-February 2010 on behalf of the University of British Columbia
Library. The purpose of the scan was to identify new models of peer-review scholarly publishing
in Canada, with a particular focus on open access and library-publisher collaborations. The
methodology involved a review of the literature and interviews with stakeholders in the Canadian
academic publishing community.
In Canada, most scholarly publications are still produced by traditional publishers (scholarly
societies, commercial publishers, and academic presses), and are made available via subscription
or purchase. Many are in the social sciences and humanities. However, scholarly publishing in
Canada, as elsewhere, is in a state of flux. Traditional roles are becoming blurred and new models
are emerging. The review found three important factors that are contributing to the deployment of
these new models:
1. New technologies, in particular the Internet and publishing management software, are
having a huge impact on academic publishing and distribution in Canada. Open Journal
Systems (OJS) developed by the Public Knowledge Project, for instance, is an open source
software system for managing journal publishing processes. It is currently being used by
approximately 5,000 journals around the world. OJS, and other similar platforms, manage
the journal’s workflow from manuscript submission to publication making it significantly
easier to publish and also reduce the costs associated with publishing. These new
technologies are enabling libraries, scholars, and student groups to become more active
players in scholarly publishing.
2. Synergies Canada is a collaborative initiative of twenty-one Canadian universities. Led
by the Université de Montréal (with the Consortium Érudit), the project has four additional
regional partners: Simon Fraser University, University of New Brunswick, University of
1 Brown et al. pg. 14
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