Community is at the heart of scholarly communications

October 21-27, 2024 marks International Open Access Week, an event that celebrates and promotes the principles of open access (OA). The theme of this year’s OA week is “Community over Commercialization”. If that theme sounds familiar, it’s because it was also the theme for 2023! The unprecedented decision to build on the same theme for a second year stems from the critical discussion and many questions that arose during the initial conversation around the role of community in scholarly communications. For 2024, the objective is to “prioritize approaches to open scholarship that serve the best interests of the public and the academic community”. 

Scholarly journal communities are comprised of knowledge creators and users (including authors, reviewers, editors, and readers), libraries and institutions that promote scholarly communications and enable access and discovery of journal content, funders who financially support research, journals and publishers who publish and disseminate research and make it discoverable, and academic societies who are home to scholarly communities. Scholarly communities are an essential aspect of scholarly communications and, in this post, we examine how journals and societies work together to support these communities and vice versa.

The value of society partnerships with journals 

Journals are essential avenues through which researchers communicate with each other, share their findings, and create community. At Canadian Science Publishing, we view ourselves as partners with societies, helping their members to contribute to the growing body of knowledge in their disciplines. We also provide opportunities for scholarly service—both experienced and novice researchers can develop critical thinking by reviewing manuscripts or serving as associate editors and editors-in-chief. In addition, we work with societies to match the right editor with the right journal.  

Journals have always been a platform for readers to learn about innovations in their disciplines and gain insights from key opinion leaders in the field via editorials, perspectives, and commentaries. Our journals also offer a forum for readers to interact with authors via our discussion and replies section, fostering meaningful conversation and documenting scholarly exchange.  

Journals also have the power to change the world. Ambitious? Yes! Peer-reviewed journals contribute to the greater good by answering some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The role of journals during COVID-19 is a prime example. Even in less dramatic—but still important—cases, journals have documented changes in practice in the health sector and policy.

Key examples of how society partnerships work and support the journal community 

Societies want to add value for their members. A partnership with a journal allows them to tap into a built-in model for delivering benefits. To elevate their discipline and provide educational opportunities for their members, societies organize conferences, and publishers can provide sponsorship for these events, workshops for attendees, and opportunities for publishing collections based on topics presented at the conference. Publishers can also sponsor awards and give societies a larger platform to showcase up-and-coming researchers. At Canadian Science Publishing, we offer additional platforms for engagement: societies can reach a greater audience via our newsletter and blog.  

Journal publishers do not exist in a vacuum—they operate within a greater scholarly ecosystem. We work with our communities to ensure their research makes an impact. 

Through their role as a medium for scholarly discussion, and through statements such as author guidelines and position statements, journals help build a community of practice, fostering shared standards and best practices. Through their outputs, journals work to influence policy decisions, drive innovation, and support evidence-based decision-making.

Our north star in this work is building meaningful relationships with our research communities. This focus moves us beyond basic transactional connections. Community is all about people and we take this to heart! 

Mutual support between academic societies and journals is key to fostering collaboration and advancing research. This is particularly well illustrated in the case of open access, where it is critical for societies and journals align their values. As Melissa Hagemann from the Barcelona Open Access Initiative states, “open access is not an end in itself, but a means to further ends, above all, to the equity, quality, sustainability, and usability of research.”  

There is a valuable opportunity for the community to come together and to continue to strive towards these goals to achieve a brighter future for scholarly research and communications.

In the spirit of the Open Access Week theme of “community over commercialization”, we invite you to join Canadian Science Publishing, a not-for-profit, community publisher run by researchers for researchers, in celebrating the importance of community in scholarly communications and open access.  

About the authors

Michael Donaldson is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Canadian Science Publishing (CSP). In this role, he is helping to shape CSP’s strategies for transitioning to an open future. Prior to joining CSP, Michael’s research career focused on aquatic ecology and conservation science.

Josephine Sciortino is Editorial Director at Canadian Science Publishing and she works with Editors, Societies, and Journal Development Specialists to grow CSP’s journals portfolio. She has spent over 20 years working with scholarly societies in their publishing programs. Her experience and research focus on training the next generation of publishing professionals.