Day/time: May 6, 2025, 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
This session includes two individual 15-minute presentations and three 2- to 3-minute lightning talks.
Title: Overdue Knowledge: Teaching & Learning via Student-led Journals in the Library
Presenter: Rebecca Wojturska (she/her), Open Access Publishing Officer, University of Edinburgh
Description: Academic publishing is an area often associated with a lack of transparency. What goes on behind the scenes and how does publishing really work? One of the many merits to Open Access is not only opening up research but the practices that make it possible. Embedding this knowledge from undergraduate level has the potential to help students flourish when it comes to approaching academia or publishing as a career path. But how can librarians help?
Edinburgh Diamond, situated within Edinburgh University Library, provides free publishing services to academics, staff and students of the University of Edinburgh who wish to publish their own Diamond Open Access books and journals. The service currently has eight journals that are led by student-groups across the University, showcasing a variety of research from internal students as well as researchers of all levels worldwide. Edinburgh Diamond aims to grow this offering to increase publishing transparency and to equip students with skills and knowledge in academic publishing, including: launching a journal, managing workflow, facilitating peer-review, coordinating submissions, understanding editorial, production, marketing and promotion processes, and the importance of indexing, metadata and discoverability.
This presentation will demonstrate how the service aims to engage with students to develop their understanding and practical application of publishing knowledge, as well as how the process of running their own journal enhances the learning experience. Furthermore, this presentation will look at Edinburgh Diamond’s history and growth of student-led publishing, highlight student feedback, and share plans for the future.
Title: Building Bridges between Publishing and Teaching
Presenter: Gabriela Mircea (she/her), Digital Project Librarian, University of Calgary
Description: A few years ago, I attended the Libraries as Publishers: Building a Global Community, a two-day satellite pre-conference held in advance of IFLA’s World Library and Information Congress. I recall some presentations demonstrating how close the librarians were working with students and faculty to incorporate journal publishing within courses. Ever since that event, I have been intrigued by the idea, and I wanted to learn more about the library’s role in incorporating journal publishing into education.
In 2022, while on research leave at McMaster University, I set out to examine the level of support from academic libraries in incorporating journal publishing in teaching. In this context, I looked at the similarities and differences between the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) libraries in Canada, and between CARL libraries in Canada and Association of Research Libraries (ARL) libraries from the US.
The initial work was focused on building and refining the research instrument. I used a mixed-method study that provided sufficient depth of detail to gather relevant data for the research topic. To collect the data, I used a survey. The questionnaire included questions about staffing, maturity of publishing services, number of hosted journals, level of instructional, technical, and production support, service level agreements, policies and workflows, level of participation in journal publishing instruction by library staff and/or assisting faculty to incorporate journal publishing into teaching. Follow-up questions captured information on documentation, course framework, and syllabus.
The presentation will share key findings on how libraries integrate journal publishing in education.
Title: Undergraduate Journal Workflows Project
Presenter: Christopher A. Barnes (he/him), Assistant Professor and Digital Publishing Librarian, Adelphi University
Description: Academic librarians are frequently asked to support and publish student-led journals featuring undergraduate scholarship. Student editors and faculty advisors look to library publishers for guidance on all aspects of the publishing process, from developing policies and selecting platforms to organizing the review process and production workflow. By following the example of professional scholarly journals, these undergraduate journals can provide students with educational experience as editors, peer reviewers, and authors of peer-reviewed publications.
As closely as these student journals model themselves on their professional counterparts, however, they are necessarily different by virtue of their undergraduate leaders and authors. New editors must be found and trained to replace those who graduate, for example, and graded coursework should be prioritized over involvement with an extracurricular publication. Furthermore, faculty members must find time to help and advise on a myriad of issues, often at the busiest times of their year. Finally, the educational purpose of the journal must not be lost in the effort to edit and publish the next issue, meaning that more time must be allotted to student authors, editors, and peer reviewers as well as the faculty and staff members who advise them. Successfully supporting and publishing an undergraduate journal on a regular schedule year after year is therefore one of the more difficult responsibilities a library publisher can face.
The undergraduate journal publishing workflows project is aimed at better understanding how successful journals are organized and published with the support of academic librarians. Inspired by the Library Publishing Workflows project, the goal will be to analyze and diagram the responsibilities, schedules, and internal policies that have enabled a variety of undergraduate journals to operate successfully for multiple years. This presentation will offer an overview of the initial stages of the project and solicit library publishers who would like to participate.
Title: Open Access to Publicly Funded Research in China: Policies, Platforms, and Accessibility
Presenter: Feng Yang (he), Professor, Sichuan University
Description: Funding agencies for various types of scientific research, as key stakeholders in the management, decision-making, and allocation of public funds, hope to ensure that research outcomes have a “public” nature. On the other hand, the continuous accumulation of public funds and the growing number of research outcomes have led to an increasing demand from the public for access to and utilization of these results. Therefore, open access to research outcomes funded by public funds is an important way to unlock the potential of research results and a key safeguard for social innovation and development. In China, public funding for scientific research is a crucial means by which society generates knowledge, shares knowledge, and promotes social development. This also gives public institutions the authority to impose funding conditions that require researchers to fulfill corresponding obligations. How are these policies regulated? In order to safeguard the public’s right and ability to access and utilize research outcomes supported by public funding, which public institutions in China are currently constructing open access platforms? What are the specific circumstances of these public institutions in the practice of implementing open access policies for research outcomes? How is accessibility ensured?
Title: An Ultra-Brief Look at Aperio’s Platform Migration
Presenter: Dave S. Ghamandi (he/him), Open Publishing Librarian and Managing Editor, Aperio, University of Virginia
Description: Since our 2019 Library Publishing Forum presentation where we first outlined our new press, Aperio has gone through some significant changes. We recently switched our service provider from Ubiquity Press to Fulcrum. Our journal program remains our main focus, and it is now powered by Janeway (via Fulcrum’s contract). This presentation will briefly explore some of the reasons why Aperio migrated, challenges faced, and benefits gained.
This presentation is done with a spirit of solidarity and to report back to the community from where much has been drawn over the years. Attendees considering migrations are encouraged to follow up with Aperio staff for continued conversation.