Open Access Journals Support in Canada - Selected Survey Results

Currently, many Canadian scholarly journals rely on subscriptions for financial support; it is assumed that developing alternative models to support academic journals on an open access basis will facilitate the transition to open access publishing.The Open Access Journals Support in Canada survey was undertaken to explore the extent to which universities and university/scholarly presses are supporting (or willing to support) open access journals through the hosting of online journals and through changes in collections policies, and to gather information on their attitudes about future directions in support for open access journals. Important findings include that many Canadian university libraries host online journals, or are planning on doing so in the future, but there appears to be a gap in their understanding of what it takes to "publish" instead of simply "host" journals. Presses and libraries are either currently supporting, or are willing to support, open access publishing with their own budgets. However, models involving consortial support, such as SCOAP3, and other fixed cost models, as well as those involving external funding sources, are viewed most favourably, enjoying broad-based support from libraries and presses, and importantly, no responses of "would not support". It is hoped that results of this survey will help Canadian libraries to move forward towards a new level of support for open access publishing by identifying model(s) most likely to benefit from broad-based support.