Canadian Science Publishing stands on guard for academic freedom

Scientific publishing has progressed a long way from the handwritten letters scientists wrote to each other to discuss their findings. Today it is a global industry with both commercial and non-commercial players, including universities, learned societies, and for-profit publishers. It faces many challenges and opportunities including open-access publishing, online platforms for accessing data and disseminating research, fraud, the high costs of subscriptions and article publishing charges, and the rapid growth in volume of scientific papers. All of these impact the primary goal of science: the pursuit of reliable and verifiable knowledge in an academically free environment.  

At Canadian Science Publishing (CSP), we believe that academic freedom (the right of academics to pursue truth in research and teaching and express their views without interference from external sources or pressures of censorship) is essential to the integrity of scholarly work. Publishing research is a key part of scholarly work, so academic freedom is fundamental to our mission.   

As a not-for-profit, independent scientific publisher, CSP’s mission is to serve the academic community in Canada and globally by disseminating high-quality research that advances knowledge and upholds scholarly integrity, editorial independence, and academic freedom. 

The following points are the various ways that CSP both supports, and depends on, academic freedom.

Governance structure

CSP is a not-for-profit membership organization. Our members are CSP Journal Editors, representatives of affiliated societies, and other Canadian organizations and institutions with an interest in scientific scholarly communications. 

The 11 Directors of our Board, appointed by the members, are dedicated volunteers from across the scholarly communications ecosystem who volunteer their expertise to CSP because they care deeply about our mission.  

Both of us (Robert and Elaine) report to the Board of Directors.

Editorial independence 

It was common for a single individual to impose editorial control over the contents of early scientific journals, though some journals employed a group decision-making process to determine what would get published. While this latter approach eventually developed into the peer review process of today, there is increasing concern today of editorial over-control that might hinder knowledge dissemination or prioritize commercial interests. On another spectrum, other models aim to remove the problem of editorial overcontrol by removing the publish or reject decision entirely.

At CSP we believe in a healthy balance of editorial oversight with peer assessment. Publication decisions are made solely by Journal Editors, based on the feedback of peer reviewers. Academic freedom is essential to ensuring impartial decision making. We believe that article submissions should be evaluated solely on their scholarly merit.

As an independent organization, CSP can shield peer review and editorial processes from commercial influence. We ensure that Editors are not involved in any of the commercial aspects of the journals. We do not ask Editors to lower their standards and accept more open-access articles for publication to increase income. Nor do we pressure Editors to accept articles in sponsored special issues or paid conference collections. All articles are subject to the same editorial decision-making process.

Peer review integrity

We believe that peer review is the best method to assess scientific quality  free from bias or censorship, and all submitted research to our journals undergoes rigorous peer review. However, the growing volume of research, potential biases, limited resources, and increasingly sophisticated forms of scientific fraud are creating significant challenges for peer review. 

At CSP we actively address these challenges (Cooke 2024). We adapt the method of peer review (single anonymous, double anonymous, transparent, or open) to match the needs of each subject area. Our peer review team carefully scrutinizes all accepted papers for fraud or bias that reviewers and editors may have overlooked and works with our Executive Editor-in-Chief to ensure the highest quality of scientific output. 

Our journals strive to provide the best and fairest peer review for articles covering controversial or unconventional ideas, which leads to the publication of diverse or innovative perspectives.

Commitment to open discourse

CSP appoints Editors-in-Chief who are willing to publish work that challenges established paradigms or tackles politically sensitive subjects. This protects academic freedom by enabling intellectual diversity and supporting freedom of thought. Our editors resist the pressure to conform to “safe science” or mainstream narratives, enabling CSP journals to publish exciting ideas about critical issues.

Alignment with publishing standards

CSP is a dedicated and proactive member of the global scholarly publishing community, committed to upholding the highest standards of research integrity. CSP’s participation in leading industry organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC), and United2Act underscores this. These collaborative initiatives keep us at the forefront of evolving best practices to safeguard the integrity of published science against challenges that include paper mills, research misconduct, and political interference.

Protection from commercial pressures

 Research journal publishing has grown to a $11 billion USD industry, with profit margins as high as nearly 40 per cent in the largest companies. Tech giant Google’s profit margin, for comparison, is currently around 31 per cent. While the large commercial publishers bring a level of expertise, experience and economies of scale to publishing, a number of concerns have emerged. Commercial publishers prioritize profit and with it a tendency to focus on publishing as many articles as possible. Coupled with academic pressures that can tempt researchers to divide their work into least-publishable units to increase their publication count and career prospects, and we have a market flooded with more published research that does less to advance knowledge. In more extreme cases, the pressure to publish can lead to unethical platforms like paper mills, where researchers pay to have their names added to manuscripts with trivial results or fabricated findings.  

At CSP we are not driven by shareholders’ profit motives, as we have no shareholders. Because financial considerations are not our primary concern, we can focus on the long-term development of our research journals instead of short-term metrics or Impact Factor chasing. We maintain independence from the influence of funders, advertisers or sponsors. 

Our editors are all volunteers. There are no financial incentives that would influence their publishing decisions, and we only cover their travel and expenses related to the journal. Our editors are proud that our journals have stuck to the principles of publishing quality over quantity.

Transparent publication ethics and policies

CSP has clear, publicly available policies on conflicts of interest, misconduct, and retractions (see our Publishing Policy). These provide a framework to deal fairly with disputes and controversial findings. They also protect authors from retaliatory or politically motivated retractions. We work hard to encourage ethical whistleblowing and honest scholarship.

We offer a formal process for challenging editorial decisions or addressing disputes that allow authors to appeal decisions or report interference. This promotes fairness and accountability within the Editors’ publishing decisions.

Support for Indigenous and marginalized researchers

CSP has pledged to help build a science publishing culture that is equitable, diverse, and inclusive. In support of this commitment, we work to include historically excluded voices on our editorial and reviewer boards, and among our authors, supporting these researchers with mentorships, resources, training, and flexibility (not everyone is able to volunteer regular academic service on a board). To ensure our journals are welcoming of a wide range of epistemic perspectives, we continually review and adapt our policies and guidelines, empowering all researchers to enrich scientific discourse. We believe that with academic freedom comes the responsibility to create a setting that allows all researchers to thrive and participate in science and science publishing.

Summary

As an independent, not-for-profit publisher, Canadian Science Publishing is positioned to safeguard editorial independence, uphold rigorous ethical standards, and support diverse voices in research. In an era of growing pressure on scientific integrity, CSP stands as a resolute champion for unbiased, high-quality scholarly publishing. We invite the research community to join us in protecting the freedom to ask difficult questions, challenge established ideas, and advance knowledge without compromise.

For further information, please review our Publishing Policy.

About the authors

Robert Mann, CSP’s Executive Editor-in-Chief, brings a wealth of experience to this important volunteer role. A professor and researcher in gravitation, quantum information, and particle physics, and the former Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Physics, Robert plays a key role in safeguarding editorial independence across all CSP journals. He acts as a liaison between CSP editors, the Board of Directors, and CSP employees to ensure that our publishing policies and practices uphold the highest standards of ethics, integrity, and editorial freedom.

Elaine Stott, CSP’s Chief Executive Officer, is proud to lead an organization driven by mission rather than profit. With over 30 years of experience in scholarly publishing, Elaine believes that independent not-for-profit publishing has a special role in the academic community, especially in these times when there are increasing concerns about undue influences and biases in research, and the validity of science and experts is being questioned.