The publication of research results in peer-reviewed journals is an established way of spreading scholarly output. While many journals are nowadays edited by large, for-profit publishers, there remains a significant number of independent journals, several of which are being edited by learned societies or similar organizations based at Quebec universities. Such independant journals, and in particular those in so-called “diamond” open-access (operated at no costs to both authors and readers) play a particularly important role in the wide diffusion of knowledge.
Aware of the importance of independant journals, university libraries in Quebec have developed hosting and support services dedicated to this ecosystem of open and mostly francophone publications, centered around the Open Journal Systems (OJS) software.
I was mandated by the Partenariat des Bibliothèques Universitaires du Québec to conduct a busines analysis of current journal support services as well as scenarios for their development and consortial operation opportunities on the provincial scale.
