LAUSR

As those who began their careers before the turn of the millennium are well aware, the world of scientific publication has changed drastically over the course of the past 20 years. The many steps involved in publishing articles—submission, peer review, publication and availability to readers—have been fundamentally changed by the Internet and open-access publishing. The same applies to the expectations of the players involved. Among the most visible of the players, authors expect online submission to be easy, the entire review process to be fast and transparent, time from acceptance to publication to be short and distribution to be the widest possible. Editors and reviewers, the principal guarantors of journal quality, ask that their volunteer work be facilitated by systems that are user-friendly and nimble. Readers, for their part, want to be apprised quickly of the science that is happening and to have almost real-time access to it. There are three other categories of players whose work is less apparent but every bit as vital to ensure quality publications and science. Distributors, primarily university libraries but also electronic subscription conglomerates, make the articles available to readers. Publishers produce and distribute journals through subscription sales. They are also responsible for the operating systems to interface between authors and editors. Finally, owners have the ultimate responsibility for the publication, production and content of a journal. Beginning with this issue, the Canadian Journal of Public Health changes its publisher and business model. Since its creation, the Journal has been self-published by the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA). While CPHA will remain the owner of the publication, the Association has contracted out the production and distribution of the Journal to Springer, which is part of Springer Nature. Over the last few years, it has become more and more difficult for CPHA to ensure the timely production of the Journal and its distribution to a sufficient number of institutions. As a result, our articles are available less quickly and to fewer individuals. This has unquestionably resulted in the limiting of the Journal’s impact. While the impact metrics are not necessarily the only factor influencing the choice of journal in which to publish one’s results, its importance is nevertheless undeniable. It is in the interest of the Canadian public health community that its principal vehicle of knowledge transfer maintains an impact factor that makes it attractive for researchers and guarantees its readers quality and timely information. We are also well aware of the pressures that the scientific publication industry is currently experiencing. It is, undoubtedly, a business model that allows a company to profit from the volunteer work of thousands of scientists while selling their product, most often to public institutions, thus limiting access to the means of knowledge distribution, either at the point of production (in the open-access model) or at the point of use (in the traditional model). But, in the field of scientific publication, business models are diversifying and it would be hard to deny that this industry will continue to experience profound changes over the next few years. However, it is highly unlikely that we will go back to the earlier model. We believe that our association with Springer will be beneficial for all parties involved with the Canadian Journal of Public Health. As a first change, the Journal’s website will be much more informative for users and will allow the Editorial Board and CPHA to develop new services and new ways of interacting with our readers. Another important change will be putting articles online as soon as they are produced, without having to wait for the creation of an issue. Last, wewill benefit from the fact that the Journal will be available as part of a bundle of journals, thus increasing tenfold the number of * Louise Potvin [email protected]