To the editor:

I have just caught up with the March issue of Perspectives and want to correct a misstatement in the article “Academic Presses Explore Open Access for Monographs.” Author Seth Denbo suggests that in Canada authors are expected to provide funds for publication of their work. This is rarely the case.

A federal granting agency provides such funds, commonly around C$7,000 and subject to academic review and approval. It is usually these funds on which the presses rely. Moreover, the presses, not the authors themselves, apply to this federal agency.

There is a subsidy, but it is provided publicly, not by the individual author. 

Richard Harris
McMaster University

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