2026
CRKN Virtual Conference: Creative Collaborations, Collective Momentum
Virtual
May 12 - 14, 2026
Advancing scholarly book publishing in Canada: Access, infrastructure, and the Federation's role
Wednesday May 13, 2026
From 1:30pm to 1:45pm
The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences administers two flagship programs with funds from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council that recognize and amplify outstanding humanities and social sciences (HSS) scholarship across Canada: the Scholarly Book Awards and the Canada Prizes. These collaborative initiatives provide essential infrastructure for scholarly book publishing in Canada and enable broader public engagement with HSS research.
This session explores how the Federation-SSHRC collaboration strengthens the Canadian research ecosystem by sustaining scholarly publishing capacity and creating pathways for diverse HSS scholarship to reach multiple audiences. We will share both achievements and ongoing challenges in ensuring equitable access to recognition and publishing support across varied career stages, institutional contexts, linguistic communities, and research approaches.
The session also invites collective discussion on how these programs, and others across the ecosystem, might better support open access monograph publishing. Expanding access to scholarly books requires coordinated, cross-sector solutions and shared responsibility across funders, institutions, publishers, and scholarly communities.
By sharing insights about the programs' impact on individual researchers and the broader scholarly community, we demonstrate how this model of federal-organizational collaboration can advance both research excellence and equity commitments, while building collective momentum for a robust, inclusive, and publicly engaged HSS research ecosystem in Canada.
Speakers
Director Policy & Programs
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences