Thank you, Madam Chair.
It's an honour and privilege to be invited before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research on behalf of the Association of Canadian University Presses for its study of the report of the external advisory panel on the creation and dissemination of scientific information in French.
The Association of Canadian University Presses welcomes the report of the external advisory group on the creation and dissemination of scientific information in French and in particular the recommendations set out in the chapter on scholarly communications in French.
The report highlights “an unequivocal finding: in Canada, as elsewhere, English has come to dominate scholarly communications.” It says, “To secure the future of research in French, it is not enough to produce that research; the research must also be made visible, discoverable and accessible.” It also states that “a coordinated and sustainable strategy is required for the Canadian scientific Francophonie to regain its vitality and place in the international dissemination of knowledge. Such a strategy would serve to address the three challenges—normative, financial, and organizational—[that were] identified” in the report.
The report notably underscores the challenges related to the funding of scholarly publishing and insufficient support available in Canada for the translation of research. Among other measures, it highly recommends increasing funding for the awards to scholarly publications program administered by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Grants from the program have not increased for the past 20 years. It also recommends funding a national scholarly book translation program and establishing a scholarly publishing support program that includes grants specifically designed for university presses operating in minority-language contexts.
There is, as well, an identified need for dissemination platforms that bring together French-language scholarly publishers to improve content discoverability. Improving websites, metadata management and search engine visibility requires dedicated funding. Additionally, while open access is laudable and widely pursued, publishing business models still fundamentally depend on revenue generated through book sales.
Canadian scholarly publishers serve Canadian scholars in their reach of domestic and international audiences with exceptional world-class books that present the world with the best of Canadian scholarship. Our publishing programs are committed to the highest standards of peer-reviewed publication. We strive to maintain our place at the international forefront of technological development and adoption; however, technological developments are evolving at an exponential pace, creating an urgent need for funding, training and public policy support. The cost of producing scholarly books continues to increase year after year.
There is a lack of government funding specifically dedicated to scholarly book publishing. Given the significant financial challenges currently facing Canadian university presses, ACUP calls on the Government of Canada to move quickly to implement the recommendations of the external advisory panel.
The Association of Canadian Presses is the national voice of Canada's French- and English-language scholarly publishers. The association represents 18 members, three bilingual presses, four French-language presses and 11 English-language presses. ACUP promotes the exchange of ideas on scholarly publishing in Canada and serves as a vital source of publishing expertise and support for learned societies, post-secondary institutions, governments, researchers, the media and the public.
Thank you.