Building on its growing international recognition, Coalition Publica, the partnership between Érudit and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), has launched a new website and refreshed visual identity. These updates reflect our evolution and will support our mission to strengthen research dissemination and digital scholarly publishing in Canada for years to come.
A New Website for the Canadian Diamond Open Access Community
In early 2025, the Coalition Publica team undertook a major project to revamp our website to reflect the maturity of Coalition Publica and the place it holds in the Canadian scholarly communication landscape. As a national research infrastructure that underpins diamond open access in Canada, we work closely with libraries, journals, and research organizations across Canada and internationally.
From the start, we wanted to take the opportunity to surface the work that we do with our amazing community and the collaborations that make Coalition Publica possible. The new website places this network of partners at the forefront. Our Community page highlights collaborations with university libraries as well as national and international partners, and presents our governance structure.
Our new searchable blog page featuring all our events, webinars, announcements, scholarship opportunities, and advocacy efforts, shows the full picture of the extent of Coalition Publica’s activities. By bringing these elements to the forefront, we hope to demonstrate what, in the words of one of our partners, “…becomes possible when libraries, journals, and infrastructure providers come together with a shared commitment to equity in scholarly publishing.” We sincerely thank all our partners for their kind words of support.
We’re proud to further showcase what we do with our community in our new resources section which has been built, designed, and maintained in collaboration with the Canadian library publishing community and aims to grow with input from all our collaborators.
Making Coalition Publica Easier to Understand
From our community, we’ve also heard over the years that it’s hard to explain: what is Coalition Publica? We’re a big project so this isn’t surprising! We’ve taken that feedback to heart and taken the time to clarify information for different audience contexts so they find the information they need more easily – be it journals looking for information about services we provide, libraries considering establishing a publishing program, or researchers looking for access to our datasets.
A more Accessible and Bilingual Platform
Beyond an update on how we present our work, we took the time to consider our bilingual identity and ensured our site was navigable in both official languages at the page level – this is in line with the Canadian bilingualism we see on websites of many of our national partners and funders.
Improving accessibility was another key priority. The new website has been developed in accordance with modern web accessibility standards to ensure it remains usable for a wide range of audiences. You can learn more about the work we’ve done – and the work that’s still to come – by visiting our accessibility statement.
A Visual Identity that Reflects Who We Are
Alongside the new website, Coalition Publica has introduced a refreshed visual identity that reflects how far the initiative has evolved and the community we serve.
Illustrations featured throughout the site bring together visuals that evoke our infrastructure, which combines PKP’s Open Journal Systems software with the erudit.org platform, our commitment to diamond open access, an open door to research, and the Canadian scholarly publishing community.
The bracket symbol in our logo, which appears in several places on the site, recalls our role in supporting the dissemination of Canadian research. An expanded colour palette also allows the site to better reflect the diversity of our initiatives.
A Team Effort
Hopefully it has become obvious by now that the launch of the new Coalition Publica website reflects more than just a design refresh – it represents the collaborative spirit that defines the initiative itself. Coalition Publica was built on the idea that strengthening scholarly publishing infrastructure requires shared expertise, shared resources, and shared goals. The new website mirrors that philosophy.
At the heart of Coalition Publica is a partnership between two leading organizations in scholarly communication: Érudit and the Public Knowledge Project. This website, just like everything we do together, is a team effort.
However, Coalition Publica does not operate in isolation – it works closely with the people who create, manage, and use scholarly research. Thus, the website represents the voices and needs of a much larger scholarly community.
Ultimately, the new Coalition Publica website functions as more than an informational resource. It reflects a collective vision for the future of scholarly publishing – one that prioritizes openness, accessibility, and collaboration.
In that way, our website itself embodies the principle that defines us: meaningful progress in scholarly communication happens when organizations and communities work together.
Teresa Lee, PKP’s new Managing Director, and co-lead of Coalition Publica, had this to say about this team effort and the new website:
“Coalition Publica demonstrates what is possible when partners and communities coalesce around a mission to make knowledge production and sharing more equitable. From Coalition Publica’s work with Canadian partners to our collaborations with international initiatives advancing multilingualism, interoperability, and bibliodiversity, the new website tells the story of a growing movement — one that positions Canada as a global leader in sustainable scholar-led open access.”
| The Coalition Publica team would like to thank everyone who contributed to the development of the website, including colleagues from PKP and Érudit, members of the CARL Library Publishing Community Engagement Team, and the many partners whose insights helped shape the project. To learn more about the team behind Coalition Publica, we invite you to visit our About page. |
Looking ahead
As the global movement toward open access continues to evolve, Coalition Publica remains committed to strengthening open infrastructure and equitable funding models. As stated in our Statement for Diamond Open Access, we believe that diamond open access is the best way to achieve the goals of the open access movement and reaffirm the role of research as a public good.
We’re excited to move this vision forward in April at our Advancing Diamond event. This national event will be an opportunity to work with the community to develop a shared vision for greater collaboration to support diamond open access publishing in Canada.
The new Coalition Publica website will help carry these conversations forward by serving as a hub where the community can access updates, resources, and outcomes from important events.
Reflecting on the initiative’s future, Érudit Executive Director Tanja Niemann emphasized the importance of continued collaboration:
“I am proud to see that Coalition Publica has been able to bring together a large community around its mission. In the coming years, we will strengthen our collaborations, particularly with university libraries, to continue our work of solidifying Canada’s position as a true global leader in diamond open access.”
Stay in touch with us!
Sign up for the Érudit monthly newsletter and PKP’s Archipelago so you can learn more about this project and our activities in the coming months!
You can also follow us on PKP’s LinkedIn, Bluesky, Facebook and Mastodon, and Érudit’s LinkedIn, Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram.
