Annual report 2015–2016

Presentation

Érudit provides access to extensive document collections and scientific data, primarily in the social sciences, humanities, literature and the arts. As a platform for producing and disseminating research findings and tools, Érudit offers services based on an intensive use of digital technology, which has become a critical component of scholarly communications.

Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium comprising the Université de Montréal, Université Laval and Université du Québec à Montréal. Érudit receives support from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec, and has been recognized as a Major Scientific Initiative by the Canada Foundation for Innovation since 2014.

Mission

Érudit’s mission is to circulate and promote knowledge and provide access to bodies of knowledge to facilitate research. Érudit works to promote open access dissemination of research.

Values

  • Innovation
  • Sharing
  • Collaboration
  • The common good
  • Trust
  • Passion

A word from our chair

It is with great pleasure that I begin my first term as Chair of the Érudit Consortium this year. As a professor and researcher, I regularly consult documents on the Érudit platform, and I am proud to be able to contribute to the development of this singular organisation in Canada.

First, I would like to mention, on behalf of the Board of Directors, the wonderful work performed by Dominique Bérubé from 2012 to 2015, when she carried out this role. Her commitment and strategic vision made Érudit one of the main digital platforms for circulating publications in the social sciences and humanities, and were undoubtedly a critical factor in the consortium’s major accomplishments over the last year. Érudit’s recognition as a Major Scientific Initiative by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the establishment of a partnership with Canadian university libraries are just two examples of the achievements of 2015-2016.

There are still great things ahead for the Érudit Consortium and, through it, for the research community in Quebec and Canada.

Frédéric Bouchard
Frédéric Bouchard
Chair of the Érudit Consortium

A word from our director

After its latest achievements (our recognition as an MSI, as well as our partnership with university libraries), Érudit carried on its mission of disseminating and promoting scholarship from Canada and Quebec. Although our organization has grown substantially for several years, we also operate in a changing environment, and we must fulfil the constantly growing needs of researchers, librarians and publishers for digital services.

Work on our strategic plan, which our Board of Directors and our entire team began this year, is therefore in line with our determination to position the Consortium at the heart of the ecosystem of scholarly communications and digital culture. This will also allow us to provide a framework for preparing major applications for financing, and to consolidate our guiding principles.

In addition, the Érudit team has expanded even further. We established a development team to better maintain our services, especially in preparation for several major upcoming technological projects. Furthermore, we are happy to have Frédéric Bouchard join us as Chair of Érudit Consortium. I would like to welcome him on behalf of the entire team. Mr. Bouchard’s expertise and commitment to promoting research and innovation will be valuable assets for our organization. I would like to thank Dominique Bérubé, our outgoing Chair, for her tremendous work. Her dedication and remarkable managerial abilities have left a lasting imprint on Érudit.

Tanja Niemann
Tanja Niemann
Executive director of Érudit

Érudit in Numbers

We assist scientific and cultural publishers in digitally disseminating their publications by means of a broad range of services. Here are some figures on our activities in 2015-2016.

Publications

  • 162,760

  • articles accessible through Érudit

  • 6,775

  • new articles disseminated in 2015

  • 95%

  • of the articles are open-access

  • 69,502
  • harvested theses from eight universities:
    • McGill University
    • Université de Montréal
    • Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
    • Université du Québec à Montréal
    • Université du Québec à Rimouski
    • Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
    • Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue
    • Université Laval
  • 169
  • journals disseminated and archived
    • The journals disseminated through Érudit represent more than 30 disciplines in the humanities and social sciences: research on language, history, anthropology and ethnology, industrial relations, political sciences, theatre, film, law, etc.

New journals

Nine new journals joined the Érudit platform in 2015-2016:

  • Alterstice

    • Scholarly journal
      Two issues per year
      Full open access
    • Alterstice uses a broad definition of what is intercultural research in the aim of expanding the “natural” boundaries of different fields of study related to migrants, migration and phenomena existing within one or more cultures. To understand local realities in a globalized world, converging views between researchers are encouraged since they give additional depth to social sciences analyses.

  • Les ateliers de l’éthique

    • Scholarly journal
      Three issues per year
      Full open access
    • The Ethics Forum publishes research articles on ethics in its various forms, especially regarding the normative challenges of public policies and social practices.

  • Archives

    • Scholarly journal
      One issue per year
      Numéros courants sous restriction
    • Archives is a meeting point between diverse disciplines that are more traditionally related to information science, such as archival studies, library science and document management, and new challenges such as knowledge management, change management, metadata management and content management.

  • BioéthiqueOnline

    • Scholarly journal
      One issue per year
      Full open access
    • BioéthiqueOnline is a bilingual journal that publishes theoretical, conceptual and empirical research in bioethics. The journal is a collaborative endeavour between the Bioethics Program and the Bioethics Student Association (AÉBiUM) at the Université de Montréal. It uses a completely online platform to bring together scholarly and professional resources to help foster the development of a robust, collaborative bioethics community in Canada and internationally.

  • Canadian Social Work Review

    • Scholarly journal
      Two issues per year
      Restricted access to current issues
    • *Canadian Social Work Review * (CSWR) is a bilingual, peer-reviewed journal that reflects current thinking and focuses upon contemporary concerns relevant to Canadian and international social work practice and education. The purpose of the journal is to advance social work scholarship, practice, and education by publishing original research, critical analysis, and debate that enriches or challenges existing knowledge.

  • L’Inconvénient

    • Cultural journal
      Four issues per year
      Restricted access to current issues
    • L’Inconvénient offers different articles exploring a multiplicity of perspectives on today’s world that are intended for a multigenerational readership. It is determined not to neglect anything related to what makes life worth living: beauty, even its difficulties and complications or, in other words, its shortcomings (“inconvénients” in French). In keeping with its mission, the journal provides, among articles on other topics, a section of criticism covering literature and painting as well as TV series and film.

  • Mesures et évaluation en éducation

    • Scholarly journal
      Three issues per year
      Restricted access to current issues
    • Mesure et Évaluation en Éducation (MEE) is a learned journal disseminating the most current research papers from multiple perspectives in the field of measurement and evaluation in education.

  • Nouveaux Cahiers du socialisme

    • Cultural journal
      Two issues per year
      Restricted access to current issues
    • Nouveaux Cahiers du Socialisme is the main platform used by the Collectif d’Analyse Politique (CAP) to disseminate its work. Through the journal, CAP seeks to provide an in-depth analysis of the structural aspects of contemporary capitalism to develop an anti- and post-capitalist perspective that offers concrete, practical proposals to fuel the social movement and left-wing politics with new alternatives.

  • Revue générale de droit

    • Scholarly journal
      Two issues per year
      Restricted access to current issues
    • The Revue Générale de Droit publishes, in French or in English, original articles addressing legal phenomena in the broad sense as well as socio-legal issues through diverse scientific approaches, including inter- and multidisciplinary approaches, comparative law and critical positivism.

Services

  • Publishing

    • The detailed content mapping, metadata enhancement and variety of reading formats offered by Érudit’s production chain ensure that publications can be easily found by national and international audiences.
  • 130
    • Canadian and international publishers collaborate with Érudit to digitally publish their documents (journals, books, conference proceedings).

  • Dissemination

    • Most article views come from the following five countries:
      1. Canada
      2. France
      3. United States
      4. China
      5. Germany
  • +23M
    • 23,437,270 documents consulted on the platform in 2015
  • Partnerships
    • Partnership with Wikipedia
      • In 2015 Érudit signed a partnership agreement with Wikipedia to provide preferential access to our collections for some of the major contributors to the online encyclopedia. This partnership increased the number of Wikipedia citations of articles disseminated through Érudit by 10% over the last year.
    • Partnership with AIEQ
      • Érudit continued its partnership with the Association Internationale des Études Québécoises by offering its members outside Quebec access to a selection of journals.

  • Marketing

    • 1,100
      • libraries and documentation centres signed a subscription or partnership agreement with Érudit in 2015.
    • 772,100$
      • in revenue redistributed to journals over the 2015-2016 fiscal year.
    • Four major agreements
      CRKN
      53 Canadian university libraries belonging to the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) continued their partnership agreement with Érudit in 2015 to support Canadian academic journals and open-access dissemination.

      CCSR
      48 college libraries and 23 school boards in Quebec belonging to the Centre Collégial des Services Regroupés continued their agreement with Érudit in 2015, providing them access to the entire corpus.

      Couperin
      48 college libraries and 23 school boards in Quebec belonging to the Centre Collégial des Services Regroupés continued their agreement with Érudit in 2015, providing them access to the entire corpus.
      CIFNAL
      Under an agreement signed with the CIFNAL consortium (associated with the Center for Research Libraries), six US institutions subscribed to one of Érudit’s collections: Harvard, Yale, Duke, University of Washington, University of Vermont and the New York Public Library.

  • Other services offered by Érudit

    Archiving
    Érudit provides long-term storage of files produced in XML, XHTML and PDF formats, as well as of their metadata on Portico.
    Editorial management
    Journals circulated on the Érudit platform have access to the Open Journal System (OJS), an online tool for submitting and editing articles.
    Strategic support
    Publishers of journals disseminated on Érudit receive personalized support for activities related to publishing and digitally disseminating their scholarly publications.

Achievements of the Year

Renewing and developing our financing opportunities

  1. Submission of an application to renew the Major Scientific Initiative grant from CFI

    • In early 2015, our organization received a $1.4 million investment from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation as part of its Major Scientific Initiative (MSI) fund. This grant allowed us to maintain our technological infrastructure and our services to publishers, librarians and researchers for two years, and recognized Érudit as the only national initiative for research in the humanities and social sciences. We began preparing our application to renew this financial support, which will ensure greater financial stability for our consortium in the years to come.

  2. Submission of an application for a Cyberinfrastructure grant from CFI

    • We were actively involved in preparing the application for a Cyberinfrastructure grant filed in 2016 with the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.
    • Headed by Professor Vincent Larivière, Canada Research Chair in the Transformations of Scholarly Communication at the Université de Montréal and Scientific Director of Érudit, this project brought together a dozen researchers and partners in Canada and abroad to focus on new possibilities offered by digital technology for research in the humanities and social sciences.

Planning our consortium’s growth

Two major components supported and structured the Érudit Consortium’s development in 2015-2016: a strategic planning project and the establishment of an information technology team.

  1. Strategic planning

    • In a period of significant growth, Érudit has begun to establish the guiding principles governing its activities over the long term. Two consultants from the research community assisted Érudit’s Board of Directors and employees with this project.
    • In addition, the domain of research dissemination is being transformed by the introduction of new research practices (data visualization, the use of corpora, etc.) and the development of the open access movement. Against this backdrop, Érudit must change both its range of services and its business model.

  2. Creation of an information technology team

    • In preparation for a number of major technological projects, Érudit decided to establish its own internal information technology team. With the assistance of Université de Montréal’s human resources department, we hired new employees in autumn 2015 to develop open-source code and enhance knowledge dissemination.
    • Under the leadership of Davin Baragiotta, this team consists of two developers (David Cormier and Sophy Ouch) and two systems administrators (Philippe Dagenais and David Montminy). At the same time, we rely on several consultants and businesses for some targeted development projects.
    • The creation of this team required some work on knowledge transfer from the members of CEN-R, which has worked with Érudit for several years to maintain our technological infrastructure.

Promoting our partnership with CRKN

Érudit signed a partnership with the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) in order to establish a permanent nationwide solution to support open-access academic publishing. Through this partnership, 53 Canadian university libraries are lending their support to 107 Canadian scholarly journals.

By developing concrete solutions to the challenge of transitioning to open access, this partnership has had a major impact on the dissemination of research. In 2015-2016, we were also invited to present this initiative at nearly 20 conferences and events in Canada and internationally. A detailed list is provided in the Communications section.

In partnership with CRKN, we also organized a seminar that brought together more than 120 editors of scholarly journals and university libraries to discuss new models of knowledge dissemination and open access. This day provided an opportunity to explore the challenges currently facing university libraries and scholarly journals in Canada, and resulted in productive discussions between the various stakeholders in the community.

Two presentations, in particular, drew our attention:

  1. Changes in scholarly publishing in the digital era

    • Vincent Larivière, associate professor at the École de Bibliothéconomie et des Sciences de l’Information at the Université de Montréal, Canada Research Chair on the Transformations of Scholarly Communication and Scientific Director of Érudit, discussed the changes confronting academic publishing in the digital era. Despite the diversification of places of publication, anglicization, slower obsolescence of scholarly literature, and the concentration of publishing in the hands of a few major commercial publishers, scholarly journals continue to play a crucial central role in the research ecosystem. In this context, the open-access dissemination of research has become a key element in maximizing the impact of academic publishing on research.
    • -> Presentation summary

  2. Study on an open access scholarly publishing cooperative

    • John Willinsky, a professor at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University and the founder and director of the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), discussed the different business models for open-access dissemination of research publications. Circulation by means of green open access (self-archiving of articles) is not entirely appropriate for the humanities. Delayed open-access relies on the exclusion of some readers. The article processing charge (“author pays”) model does not free us from the monopoly of major commercial publishers. Given these facts, a cooperative business model to support open-access dissemination is the best solution, according to Mr. Willinsky, both in terms of the financial capital required, fairness to the various research stakeholders, transparency of management, and the quality of the academic heritage that we are creating.
    • -> Presentation summary

All seminar presentations (recordings and summaries) are available online at

seminaire2015.org

These communications have helped us assert Érudit’s leading role in the research community for the humanities and social sciences and confirmed the wisdom of our decision to continue using and strengthening the partnership model to support open-access in the years to come.

Learn more about partnership at

-> erudit.org/partenariat/OA

Our Organisation

Communications

List of presentations made during the year

2015

  • May 25
    • Rimouski, Canada
    • Organization of a conference entitled “Une plateforme de recherche et d’expérimentation pour l’édition ouverte”, the 2015 ACFAS congress

      Under the leadership of Vincent Larivière, Scientific Director of Érudit, the conference brought together approximately 30 researchers in the field of information sciences and digital humanities.
  • May 29
    • Ottawa, Canada
    • Participation in the 2015 Congress of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

      Érudit gave a presentation on its partnership with the CRKN to approximately 30 editors of Canadian scholarly journals.
  • June 24
    • London, United Kingdom
    • Presentation of the Érudit-CRKN Partnership for open access at the annual LIBER conference

      Presentation of our partnership with CRKN to approximately 50 heads of European university libraries.
  • August 11 - 14
    • Vancouver, Canada
    • Presentation of the strengthened relationship between Érudit and PKP, Annual PKP conference

      Érudit’s management team took part in the 2015 edition of the annual Public Knowledge Project (PKP) conference with the goal of establishing the bases of cooperation between the two organizations.
  • September 25
    • Paris, France
    • Presentation of the Érudit - CRKN partnership at the Couperin Open Access Day

      Presentation of the Érudit - CRKN partnership to approximately 100 heads of French university libraries.

      More
  • October 20
    • Montréal, Canada
    • Co-organization of a round table on open-access issues in partnership with the libraries of the Université de Montréal

      The round table presented various perspectives on open-access dissemination of research. Approximately 45 students and researchers from the Université de Montréal participated in this round table.
  • October 20–22
    • Ottawa, Canada
    • Presentation of the collaborative relationship between Érudit and PKP at the 2015 Annual General Meeting of CARL-ABRC

      Presentation of further cooperation between Érudit and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) to members of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL-ABRC).
  • October 22
    • Quebec city, Canada
    • Presentation of the Érudit-CRKN Partnership at Université Laval as part of International Open Access Week

      Presentation of the partnership with CRKN to approximately 30 professors and researchers at Université Laval.
  • October 22–23
    • Ottawa, Canada
    • 2015 Workshop of the Major Scientific Initiatives Fund

      Participation in the workshop on strategic planning, risk management and user access management.
  • November 6
    • Charleston, États-Unis
    • Presentation of the Érudit-CRKN Partnership at the Charleston Conference

      Presentation of our partnership with CRKN to approximately 50 heads of US university libraries.

      More
  • November 16
    • Montréal, Canada
    • Participation in the organization of the Canadian Association of Learned Journals Boot Camp

      Érudit’s communications team helped organize a one-day Boot Camp held by the Canadian Association of Learned Journals (CALJ-ACRS). Thirty editors of Canadian scholarly journals were able to update their knowledge by attending this boot camp.

      More
  • November 17
    • Montréal, Canada
    • Organization of the Seminar on New Models of Knowledge Dissemination and Open Access in Canada, in cooperation with CRKN.

      The seminar improved dialogue between scholarly journals and university libraries in Canada with respect to open access. The daylong seminar was attended by 110 editors of scholarly journals, heads of Canadian university libraries and researchers.

      More
  • November 18–20
    • Montréal, Canada
    • Seventh Congrès des Milieux Documentaires du Québec

      This conference gave Érudit the opportunity to present all of its latest developments to the Quebec librarians in attendance.
  • November 26–27
    • Toulouse, France
    • Presentation on Érudit at the Nouvelles Collaborations Scientifiques Autour des Infrastructures du Numérique

      Vincent Larivière, Scientific Director of Érudit, introduced researchers to the Érudit platform as part of this seminar.
  • December 4
    • San Francisco, États-Unis
    • Preliminary meeting with the Coko Foundation

      Érudit’s management team met with members of the Collaborative Knowledge Foundation (Coko) to establish a lasting cooperative relationship with a view to creating new digital publishing tools.

2016

  • January 19
    • Whistler, Canada
    • Participation in the 2016 research day hosted by INKE

      Érudit took part in a day of research on digital humanities organized by INKE.
  • January 26
    • Montréal, Canada
    • Official meeting of the scientific leadership of the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (FRQSC)

      Érudit’s Scientific Director presented the principles guiding the Consortium during the official meeting with Louise Poissant, Scientific Director of the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture, on January 26 at the Université de Montréal.
  • March 18
    • Montréal, Canada
    • Round Table “Écrire en français à l’ère du numérique : les enjeux de l’édition scientifique”

      Tanja Niemann presented the activities of Érudit to disseminate and promote journals.

      More
  • 20 March
    • Montréal, Canada
    • Appearance on the series Les Années-Lumière on Radio Canada’s Première channel.

      Science in French ou en anglais? Round table in which Tanja Niemann participated.

      En savoir plus

“Enjeux de la diffusion savante” series

Throughout the year, Érudit produced and broadcast a series of videos to educate the public about the major challenges affecting research publication today:

    • La fouille de textes et la visualisation de données
    • Dominic Forest
    • La grande conversation scientifique
    • Jean-Claude Guédon
    • La dérive des facteurs d’impact pour les revues savantes
    • Yves Gingras
    • L’importance des chercheurs dans la diffusion en libre accès
    • Marc Couture
    • Les défis d’un dépôt institutionnel numérique
    • Magda Fusaro
    • L’oligopole des grands éditeurs commerciaux
    • Vincent Larivière
    • Le rôle des presses universitaires à l’heure du numérique
    • Benoît Melançon

Team and Governance

Our team

Our team consists of publishing or library professionals who are all fascinated by the new possibilities that digital technologies offer for research and creation.

Executive Director
Tanja Niemann
Director of Operations
Joanie Lavoie
Chief Information Officer
Davin Baragiotta
Digital Publishing Officer
Hocine Chehab

 

Partnerships Officer
Émilie Chouinard
Communications Officer
Gwendal Henry
Developers
David Cormier
Sophy Ouch

 

Administrative Assistant
Louise Lalonde
Technical Assistants
Gabrielle Mathieu
Julie Tremblay-Devirieux

Our Board of Directors

Érudit’s Board of Directors consists of figures from the worlds of research, university libraries and publishing.

Chair
Frédéric Bouchard
Vice-rector for research, discovery, creation and innovation at Université de Montréal

 

Vice-chair
Loubna Ghaouti
Library Director, Université Laval

 

Secretary-Treasurer
Lynda Gadoury
Executive Director of Libraries, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Observers
    • Marie-Thérèse Duquette
      • Head of Partnership Development and Programs, Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (FRQSC)
    • Vincent Larivière
      • Associate Professor, Université de Montréal, Scientific Director, Érudit
    • Brent Roe
      • CRKN representative, University Librarian, Laurentian University
  • Members
    • Marie Audette
      • Deputy vice-rector for research and creation, Université Laval
    • Richard Dumont
      • Executive Director, Libraries Branch, Université de Montréal
    • Benoît Melançon
      • Professor, Department of French Literature, Université de Montréal and Scientific Director, Presses de l’Université de Montréal
    • Philippe Maubant
      • Director of the journal Phronesis ands Professor, Université de Sherbrooke

Financial Statement

2015–2016

Income

  • 2016 (12 months)
  • 2015 (10 months)

  • Publishing and marketing services, partnerships

    • 1,512,566
    • 1,405,329

  • Government grants

    • 694,570
    • 419,239

  • Contributions of the three Consortium members

    • 425,490
    • 364,771

  • Other income

    • 3,110
    • 2,305

  • Total

    • 2,635,736
    • 2,191,644

Expenses

  • 2016 (12 months)
  • 2015 (10 months)

  • Publishing and marketing services, partnerships

    • 1,171,756
    • 1,010,459

  • Payroll and technology support services

    • 1,274,307
    • 624,495

  • Professional fees and subcontracting

    • 271,680
    • 140,842

  • Administration

    • 138 932
    • 54 134

  • Advertising and communications

    • 47,034
    • 24,847

  • Total

    • 2,903,709
    • 1,854,777

Financial Results

  • 2016 (12 months)
  • 2015 (10 months)

  • Current assets

    • 1,623,287
    • 2,033,682

  • Current liabilities

    • 1,039,743
    • 1,182,164

  • Partner’s equity

    • 583,544
    • 851,518

Partners

Associates

  • Université de Montréal
  • Université Laval
  • Université du Québec à Montréal

Partners

  • Agence universitaire de la Francophonie
  • Canadian Science Publishing
  • Centre d’expertise numérique pour la recherche
  • Centre for Digital Scholarship
  • Fondation canadienne pour l’innovation
  • Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et Culture
  • Persée
  • Public Knowledge Project
  • Presses de l’Université de Montréal
  • Réseau canadien de la documentation pour la recherche
  • Société de développement des périodiques culturels québécois