Understanding the Ecosystem of Canadian Scholarly Journals in Social Sciences and Humanities

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and The Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC) are financing a study on Canadian scholarly journals led by Vincent Larivière, Research Chair in the Transformations of Scholarly Communication, and scientific director of the Érudit journal platform.

The study aims to provide an overview of the general, operational and financial situation of funded and recommended for funding Canadian scholarly journals. Financial data will be collected by an independent consultant and remain strictly confidential and anonymous. (section 3).

This is a three-part study:

  1. Canadian scholarly journals

Ulrich’s Web periodical directory provides information about one thousand Canadian scholarly journals in all disciplines. The first part of the study will apply a quantitative and comparative approach to analyze the overall situation of these journals.

  1. Funded Canadian scholarly journals

Two public organizations fund Canadian scholarly journals in social sciences, humanities, and fine arts:  The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and The Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC). The second part of the study will provide a summary description of journals funded by the SSHRC since 1998 and by the FQRSC since 2008. The description will take into account the five criteria selected by the scientific head of the study: language, disciplinary field, access mode, dissemination method, and medium.

  1. Financial situation of Canadian scholarly journals

It has been established that the income of Canadian scholarly journals in social sciences, humanities, and fine arts varies widely. The third part of the study aims to describe this heterogeneity via a qualitative study of selected typical cases. It will focus on the financial stability of journals, taking into account their income, their expenses and the unpaid labour that is indispensable to their ability to operate(“service”). The journals selected for this part meet the five criteria listed in section 2.

 

For more information, please communicate with Vincent Larivière, director of the study : vincent.lariviere@umontreal.ca  

This content has been updated on March 11 2020 at 10 h 25 min.