Library Support for Student Journal Publishing at the University of Toronto

This presentation was given at the TRY Library Staff Conference 2016Student journal publishing is an active and growing area at the University of Toronto, with over 50 print and electronic journals published by undergraduate and graduate students across U of T’s three campuses. Launching, producing, and sustaining a journal provides students with valuable experience with editorial workflows, publishing within their discipline, peer review, copyright, design, and financial planning. Since support for research and scholarship at the undergraduate and graduate levels is an ongoing objective of the University of Toronto Libraries, providing students with resources to aid them in the many parts of the publishing process is a natural new fit for UTL staff. With tools and expertise already available via the UTL’s collection, its Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office, its Journal Production Services, and the U of T Archives, our main task was to engage and connect student publishers with these resources, as well as with each other. In this presentation UTL librarians share the steps taken in that direction, including the convening of the Student Journal Forum in October 2015 by a cross-departmental group of librarians, and the Student Journal Publishing Libguide, produced following the Forum. They discuss the feedback received and potential future directions in which the library could support student journal publishing