Promoting Electronic Scholarly Publishing in Canada: Initiatives at Industry Canada

David Beattie (Industry Canada)

David McCallum (Industry Canada)

Abstract: As part of its internationally acclaimed SchoolNet project, Industry Canada is supporting major initiatives in the area of electronic scholarly publishing. This paper provides a brief introduction to Industry Canada's activities related to universities, academics, and students, and describes SchoolNet's efforts to promote electronic publishing of scholarly information in Canada.

Résumé: Avec son projet SchoolNet acclamé autour du monde, Industrie Canada est en train d'appuyer des initiatives majeures dans le domaine de l'édition savante électronique. Cet article donne une brève introduction aux activités d'Industrie Canada se rapportant aux universités, aux académiques et aux étudiants, et décrit les efforts du SchoolNet à promouvoir l'édition électronique de recherches savantes au Canada.

Industry Canada initiatives of interest to the
Canadian academic community

Industry Canada's (URL: http: // info.gc.ca / ic-data / ic-eng.html) principal objective is to help make Canada more competitive by fostering the growth of Canadian business; by promoting a fair, efficient marketplace; and by encouraging scientific research and technology diffusion. A major policy document, Building a More Innovative Economy (1994) recognized the emerging knowledge-based global economy and emphasized the advancement of education and research as essential means of strengthening Canada's competitive position.

The policy also recognized the rapid evolution of the "information highway," as well as the need to take full advantage of its potential as an educational tool. This thrust was reinforced in Science and Technology for the New Century (1996), which called for making full use of networking technology to connect Canadian communities, including schools, universities, and colleges.

SchoolNet (URL: http: //www.schoolnet.ca) is one of several Industry Canada programs aimed at helping students build skills that will allow them to be more marketable, to transfer from their studies to employment as quickly as possible, and to be well positioned as entrepreneurs in the new global economy. A multifaceted World Wide Web site, SchoolNet is composed of vetted content for use by the Canadian educational community.

The mandate of SchoolNet is to facilitate the linkage of the 16,000 schools and 3,400 libraries in Canada as well as the 447 Native communities that fall under the federal government's jurisdiction. Access to SchoolNet is completely free of charge to students, teachers, and the general public.

Although most SchoolNet applications are oriented to the Kindergarten-to-Grade-12 levels, some are aimed squarely at the post-secondary sector. One example is the recently launched National Graduate Register (NGR) (URL: http: //www.schoolnet.ca /ngr). A companion service to the Electronic Labour Exchange (ELE) (URL: http: //ele.ingenia.com) of Human Resource Development Canada, the NGR allows students at Canadian universities and colleges to place their resumes on-line and to have them accessed by employers within and outside the country. This will effectively create an electronically searchable national labour pool, thereby allowing firms, even small ones, to do on-line campus recruiting across Canada.

Electronic scholarly publishing initiatives

Dissemination of new knowledge is an essential aspect of the research process. In a knowledge-driven economy, cost-effective methods for the distribution of scholarly information are vital, particularly in a time of reduced financial support for universities and their libraries.

To date, SchoolNet's work in the area of electronic scholarly publishing can be grouped under three headings: studies; demonstration projects; and active promotion. The program is currently exploring the establishment of a virtual centre for on-line scholarly publishing to facilitate large-scale conversion of paper-based journals to on-line publication.

Studies

In order to explore the viability of electronic publications, in 1995 SchoolNet contracted for two studies concerning the economics of scholarly publishing: The Cost and Revenue Structure of Academic Journals: Paper-based Versus E-Journals by Vijay Jog (1995) and Funding Electronic Journals on the Internet (Phoenix Systems Synectics, 1995).

Jog's study identified savings as high as 50% in the costs of on-line publication compared with paper-based publication; the savings rose to 90% if publication could be undertaken and managed centrally. The Phoenix study showed the technical feasibility of charging usage fees on-line, and described methods by which journals could charge for access to their publications.

Demonstration projects

To develop practical data on the operational aspects of electronic scholarly publishing, SchoolNet assisted the electronic publication of three journals, chosen by means of a formal competition. One was an upgrade of an existing electronic journal; two were conversions of existing paper-based journals, one of which continues to publish in its original form. Although support for these projects by SchoolNet has come to an end, all three journals continue to be published on-line.

SchoolNet provided support for the multilingual on-line journal, Surfaces (1997), Canada's oldest and most respected on-line journal, now in its fifth year of publication. Activities include the systematization of the production process, standardizing on-line pagination techniques, and conversion to standard generalized markup language (SGML), all of which have the objective of upgrading the technical platform of the journal to the highest common denominator in electronic scholarly publishing. Surfaces will shortly become the first on-line journal to be published by a Canadian university press, Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal.

A parallel publishing project (paper and on-line) with the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Sciences (CJBS) (1997) is another of SchoolNet's initiatives. This assessed the impact of parallel publishing on readership of the journal, on subscriptions to it, and on issues such as copyright. According to the Canadian Psychological Association (personal communication, 1996), reaction from authors and readers has been positive to date; in fact, paid subscriptions to the paper-based journal actually increased following its availability on-line.

Finally, SchoolNet supported the total conversion of a journal from paper to on-line publication with the library-reviewing journal, Canadian Review of Materials (CM) (1997). Published by the Manitoba Library Association, CM ceased paper publication late in 1994 and is now only accessible on-line. The journal experimented with various methods of maintaining revenue and has now determined that its principal source of revenue will come from advertising.

The demonstration projects with Surfaces and CJBS have yielded a great deal of information on the management, policy, and technical issues concerning the publication of an on-line scholarly journal. Both journals have written up their experience to date (Guédon, 1996; Hickox, 1996). This information will be an invaluable record of experience for those considering electronic publishing.

Promotional activities

To help break down barriers to the acceptance of electronic publishing of scholarly information, in the spring of 1996, SchoolNet contracted with David L. McCallum (URL: http: //www.schoolnet.ca /vp /cesn /mccallum.htm), on sabbatical from his position as executive director of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, to head up the Electronic Publishing Promotion Project (EPPP).

EPPP has the following objectives:

  • To raise awareness in the Canadian academic community of the soaring costs of traditional scholarly communication methods and the potential for electronic publishing to address them. Key messages being communicated include:
    (a)
    The Internet has become a bona fide medium for academic information exchange and publishing.
    (b)
    Electronic communication of research information allows many advantages over print publishing, including ease of searching, multimedia functionality, and global accessibility.
    (c)
    It is not difficult for Canadian academics to become Internet users.
  • To seek endorsements from Canadian academic associations and related organizations of peer-reviewed electronic publications as valid outlets for scholarly material.
  • To encourage both the transition of existing Canadian scholarly publications from paper to electronic format and the creation of entirely new electronic scholarly products.
  • Objectives 2 and 3 relate directly to recommendations 21, 22, and 23 of the final report of the AUCC-CARL / ABRC Task Force on Academic Libraries and Scholarly Communication (AUCC-CARL / ABRC, 1996, p. 10).

Outreach activities

Initial presentations on the EPPP were made at the Canadian Learned Societies Conference, June 1996, at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. In the fall of 1996, full information packages were prepared and distributed to Canadian academic organizations. The packages contained a detailed description of the project; excerpts from the project Web site, the Canadian Electronic Scholarly Network (CESN) (URL: http: //www.schoolnet.ca /vp /cesn); information on how academics could become computer literate and go on-line; and a request for the organizations to endorse electronic scholarly publishing in principle.

Feedback on these mail-outs has been most encouraging. The project is being publicized in the newsletters of various associations, and in response to numerous requests, presentations on the project are being made to associations, government organizations, and universities across the country.

Endorsements of electronic scholarly publishing

Recognizing that Canadian academics will be hesitant to publish electronically unless their publications are officially recognized both by their peers and academic institutions, Canadian scholarly associations and related organizations have been approached to consider formally adopting the following statement: "This organization recognizes the legitimacy of scholarly material published in electronic form when such information conforms to broadly accepted standards of peer review."

The proposed resolution is based on a similar resolution passed in 1994 by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE, 1996) (URL: http: //www.hefce.ac.uk): "In the light of the recommendations of the Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review Group Report, refereed journal articles published through electronic means will be treated on the same basis as those appearing in printed journals" (Joint Funding Council, 1993).

The statement of endorsement, or a close variant, has been adopted by the Humanities and Social Science Federation of Canada (HSSFC) (URL: http: //www.hssfc.ca); an umbrella group composed of over 50 scholarly societies; by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) (URL: http: //www.caut.ca); and by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) (URL: http: //aixl.uottawa.ca / library /carl). It is expected that other organizations, including the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) (URL: http: //www.aucc.ca), will follow suit in due course.

The director general of Industry Canada's Science Promotion and Academic Affairs Branch has written to the presidents of the three Canadian granting councils (the Medical Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) requesting that they develop equivalent policy statements. Initial reaction has been positive; in fact, the Medical Research Council has officially adopted this policy.

Canadian Electronic Scholarly Network (CESN)

CESN is a Web site on SchoolNet (URL: http: //www.schoolnet.ca /vp /cesn) that groups all EPPP information in one place. It also identifies and allows access to full-text, peer-reviewed Canadian electronic scholarly publications, links to related activities throughout the world, and provides information on the Forum for Electronic Scholarly Publishing in Canada (FESPIC) discussion group.

Electronic scholarly publishing principles

Electronic publishing is still too new to have established generally recognized standards. Development of, and adherence to, such standards should accelerate the acceptance of electronic publishing within academia. At the same time, electronic availability is no guarantee that a publication will be equitably priced; reasonable pricing policies are also essential.

A draft set of principles intended to describe the characteristics of high-quality electronic scholarly publishing projects was developed by David L. McCallum (1997) and will shortly be issued to a variety of electronic publishing and related Internet discussion groups. The principles cover archival, bibliographic, economic, legal, and technical aspects, and reflect an academic library perspective.

The concept of the principles has been well received, and audience members at presentations have submitted helpful feedback in the form of suggestions and e-mails.

A virtual centre for on-line scholarly publishing

A fleeting comment in the study by Jog (1995) opened the door to an exciting new development. Basing his conclusions on work performed at Virginia Tech, Jog noted that significant benefits should be realized by clustering production and proficiency around a common electronic publishing centre. These benefits can be made possible through:

  • Greater savings from efficiencies in publication markup and preparation;
  • A critical mass of expertise in such management issues as copyright, digital integrity, maintenance of subscription revenues, and journal operations;
  • A co-ordinated capacity to locate or develop, then to apply, the latest technologies.

Efforts are under way by Industry Canada / SchoolNet to establish a self-sustaining virtual centre for the on-line publication of scholarly journals, to be formed through a partnership between university presses and journals, with the goal of creating a national network of on-line publishing resources for peer-reviewed, non-profit scholarly journals.

Over the initial period of this project, the partners will publish 20 or more journals on-line, and will promote on-line publishing within the journals community. The intention is to expand the number of presses participating as the project develops and new partners are found. New technologies developed will be freely accessible to the partners and ultimately to the Canadian scholarly community. Progress and results from the project will be published on the CESN Web site.

Industry Canada / SchoolNet estimates that the overall cost of the project over three years will be about $1 million. SchoolNet is seeking financial participation from other federal programs, provincial governments, and educational institutions, and possibly the sponsorship of private-sector organizations.

Results from this project will support several government objectives:

  • employment in new technologies;
  • retention of highly qualified personnel within Canada.
  • lower costs to government and universities (especially libraries), as journal costs decline;
  • construction of research infrastructure; and
  • creation of commercial opportunities for exploitation of technologies and expertise developed.

Next steps

EPPP's founding partners hope that financing for the Virtual Centre will be in place shortly so that activities can begin no later than late 1997 or early 1998. Over time, they anticipate expansion in the number of university presses participating in the project. The CESN Web site will report the results of their work on a regular basis.

The Electronic Publishing Promotion Project has the potential to significantly change the face of scholarly communication in Canada, creating what we hope will be an affordable publishing environment that takes full advantage of new technological capabilities, while at the same time respecting the values of the traditional system.

References

AUCC-CARL / ABRC Task Force on Academic Libraries and Scholarly Communication. (1996). The changing world of scholarly communication: Challenges and choices for Canada. Ottawa: Author.

Building a more innovative economy. (1994). Ottawa: Industry Canada. URL: http: //xinfo.ic.gc.ca / ic-data /economy / BAMIE /summary-e.html

Canadian Journal of Behavioural Sciences (CJBS). (1997). URL: http: //www.cycor.ca / Psych /ac-main.html

Canadian Review of Materials (CM). (1997). URL: http: //www.mbnet.mb.ca /cm /

Guédon, Jean-Claude. (1996). Meta-surfaces or ends and means to grow a viable electronic journal. URL: http: //tornade.ere.umontreal.ca /~guedon /

HEFCE. (1996). Research assessment exercise. URL: http: //www.gold.ac.uk / history /hyperjournal /rae.htm

Hickox, Stuart. (1996). Guidelines for the conversion of scholarly journals to electronic form. URL: http: //www.cpa.ca /project /guide.html

Jog, Vijay. (1995). Cost and revenue structure of academic journals: Paper-based versus e-journals. Ottawa: Industry Canada. URL: http: //www.schoolnet.ca /biz /economics /vijayjog.html

Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review Group. (1993). Report. Bristol: Higher Education Funding Council for England. URL: http: //ukoln.bath.ac.uk /follett /follett_report.html

McCallum, David L. (1997). Principles of electronic scholarly publishing [Draft]. URL: http: //www.schoolnet.ca /vp /cesn /princips.htm

Phoenix Systems Synectics. (1995). Funding electronic journals on the Internet. Ottawa: Industry Canada. URL: http: //www.schoolnet.ca /biz /economics /phoenix / index.html

Science and technology for the new century. (1996). Ottawa: Industry Canada. URL: http: //canada.gc.ca /depts /science /english /strat-e.html

Surfaces. (1997). URL: http: //tornade.ere.umontreal.ca /~guedon / Surfaces / index-a.html