troubled childhood, one of only two French-language scientific journals published by Laurentian University, could soon release the last issue in its history. After the bilingual university in Northern Ontario cut its funding budget in February 2021, the future of the publication is uncertain. A scenario that saddens many researchers.
At the beginning of last year, when the university took shelter from its creditors, Professor Yvon Gauthier found that the budget of approximately $47,000 which enabled him to publish nine issues of his annual review — the only one in French Canada to be interested in the field whose name it bears, he said — had disappeared. The editor-in-chief is now “99.9% sure” that he will not see this sum again, even after the restructuring of the establishment.
“I said to myself, in time and place, I will find the money [pour le prochain numéro] somewhere and at the limit I will pay out of my own pocket”, relates to the Duty professor emeritus. After months of research to find grants, it is now the second option that takes precedence. Last week, the Franco-Ontarian learned, despite his repeated requests, that the establishment will not finance the publication of the ninth, and potentially final, issue of the journal. The average cost of a number is $5,000 to $6,000, he estimates.
The post-secondary institution did not say whether the budget will be re-allocated for future publications. Expenditure requests are assessed individually during restructuring, it is said. That of the teamtroubled childhood, for the publication of its ninth issue, has not been approved since it does not support “directly the training of students”, indicates the establishment. A memorandum dated November 2020 attesting to the professor’s retirement confirms, however, that he “will have access to the funds as long as he is editor-in-chief of the newspaper”.
“Laurentian, which refuses to pay us only $5,000, is like being told: ‘it’s not that bad,’ says Yvon Gauthier. The situation is serious”, emphasizes the professor, since people have invested money and time to allow the journal to be published for almost 10 years. More than 60 researchers have published articles in Childhood in difficulty since its first edition in 2012, according to Mr. Gauthier. According to data from the Érudit site shared by the editor-in-chief, 52,865 pages of the journal were consulted between January and October 2021, an increase of nearly 40% compared to the same period in 2020.
Impact on searches in French
Yvon Gauthier believes that the closure of the journal “would be a real loss” for experts in the field of special education. Some of them are sorry for the uncertain fate of the scientific journal. “I see the end of the journal as a lack of will to support French-speaking researchers and professors,” says Professor Éric Dion, from the University of Quebec in Montreal, who has published two articles in the journal.
“I am really saddened,” reacted Ève Pouliot, professor of social work at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi. The researcher co-wrote, for the journal, a first article in 2019 on the psychological impact of the Lac-Mégantic tragedy on elementary school students and will publish a second in the next issue addressing the current health context. She stresses that it would be “a pity to lose this platform to disseminate research results on this theme, especially in the context of a pandemic which particularly affects our young people”.
The editor-in-chief says he cannot transfer his journal elsewhere, as some researchers who have contacted him would like, since he says he must obtain permission from Laurentian University – with whom he signed a contract in 2010 — to do so. The university did not respond to the question of the Duty on this subject.
Yvon Gauthier recognizes, however, that French-speaking researchers prefer to publish in English rather than in French to obtain more visibility. “It’s an open secret: researchers who have solid data tend to publish it internationally because it looks better”, confirms Professor Éric Dion, who does research on school dropouts and learning disabilities. French-language journals in Canada and those in the United States represent “two completely different worlds,” he says. According to the UQAM professor, journals like troubled childhood must develop a new niche if they want to gain visibility. Corn troubled childhood may not have the chance to do so.
Five other journals published by members of the university community also exist, the institution wrote by email, but most have been inactive for a few years or n.‘not accept articles from researchers from other universities, noted The duty. the Nurse Practitioner Open Journal, it was first published in 2021.