Juan Pablo Alperin reflects on his academic career
As ScholCommLab co-director Juan Pablo Alperin continues advancing in his career, he reflects on the path that brought him here. In this blog post, he revisits his professional journey and most notable achievements, including the founding and ongoing impact of the ScholCommLab. He also opens up about some of the challenges he has faced and overcome along the way, and shares the steps he plans to take as he looks ahead.
This interview contains excerpts from Juan’s application for promotion to full professor. Read the full career narrative here.
What has been the central focus of your career so far?
Over the course of my career, I have researched, advocated, and broadly worked to transform the way scholarly knowledge is produced, disseminated, and used. I have done so in order to build a more equitable, informed, and participatory public sphere—a public sphere in which knowledge is understood and treated as a public good, and in which those working at knowledge institutions are entrusted to contribute by making their own knowledge public.
My research has focused on two intersecting themes: first, the reimagining of scholarly communication systems to support equity, openness, and participation; and second, a critical examination of academic career incentives and how they shape what, how, and for whom scholars work.
What is your preferred way of working?
My contributions have taken different forms over the years. I have made methodological and empirical contributions through traditional research publications, influenced disciplinary and professional discussions through presentations and keynotes, and shaped professional practice through the development of widely used publishing software.
As shown in different aspects of my work, including my role as co-director of the the ScholCommLab, my preferred approach is to work with colleagues, students, and postdocs from across disciplines to gather evidence in multi-authored publications, and then to bring this evidence, along with my broader expertise, into advisory roles, keynote addresses, presentations, and working group contributions where my perspective is sought.
Overall, I would say my work can be said to draw on a combination of computational, quantitative, and qualitative methods, with a deep commitment to collaboration and interdisciplinarity.
What role has the ScholCommLab played in your career?
In 2017, Stefanie Haustein and I founded the Scholarly Communications Lab (ScholCommLab). Originally a place to house our collaboration and offer an affiliation to unaffiliated collaborators, the Lab has come to garner an international reputation due to the calibre of work and individuals who make up the team. Over the years, the ScholCommLab has grown into a diverse and interdisciplinary group that has supported upwards of 50 early-career researchers.
We have made important contributions from the lab, with dozens of research outputs that have garnered significant attention and proven to be influential in scholarly communication debates. We have also seen lab members go on to win national fellowships and start promising careers, both within and beyond academia.
We have made important contributions from the lab, with dozens of research outputs that have garnered significant attention and proven to be influential in scholarly communication debates.
Yet, what I am most proud of is having contributed to shaping the inclusive and collaborative culture we have cultivated in the ScholCommLab—one that prioritizes mentorship, co-authorship, and collective inquiry. We have managed to build this culture—despite the distributed nature of the members, their numerous other affiliations, and their different career stages—by leaning on a collaboratively developed Code of Conduct and Authorship Guideline documents, by modeling inclusive practices, and by holding regular online “lab events” to support each other and build community.
The Public Knowledge Project (PKP) is another key part of your work. What should we know about this project and your involvement with it?
PKP has been a central pillar of my career, and by far its most impactful aspect. I have worked with PKP since 2007, first as a software developer and researcher, and, since 2016, as part of its leadership team.
I am currently the Scientific Director of PKP, where I have led a talented team of developers, researchers, librarians, and staff in advancing one of the world’s most widely used scholarly publishing platforms: Open Journal Systems (OJS). OJS has grown to support over 50,000 journals worldwide, and has become a cornerstone of global open access infrastructure.
Supporting this number of journals carries with it a big responsibility to ensure that this content can be discovered and preserved, as well as to support those publishing these journals in keeping their content open to the public. Blending my ScholCommLab and PKP roles, our current focus is on analyzing how we can achieve universal indexing of all scholarly content.
PKP’s work has been recognized through a wide range of national and international funding, awards, and contracts. This level of support and growth reflects not just technical achievement, but the success of the deliberate positioning of PKP—and as a result, SFU more broadly—as a leader in knowledge infrastructure at a time when questions about access, trust, and equity in scholarly communication are more pressing than ever.
Your work with PKP originated while you were living in Latin America. What’s the significance of this region to your career?
My work challenging long-held assumptions in scholarly publishing can be traced back to the beginning of my academic career, especially as it pertains to the value of scholarship being produced in the Global South.
My now 10-year-old dissertation offered empirical evidence of the public’s use of open access research. I uncovered that 20-25% of downloads of open access research in Latin America come from non-academic readers, highlighting the importance of access for the broader public.
More broadly, my work documenting Latin America’s uniquely regional approach to non-commercial and cooperative publishing has helped to establish Latin America’s approach to OA as a paragon for the rest of the world. It has been gratifying to see these efforts materialize as Latin America is finally being recognized internationally in discussions about Open Access, including those taking place at the two recent Global Diamond Open Access Summits.
How do you envision your work unfolding as you continue moving forward?
My work is grounded in a belief that scholarship must serve the public good. In an era of disinformation, polarization, and growing mistrust of academic institutions, I see my efforts as part of a broader movement to realign academic systems with public needs and values. As I look ahead, I remain committed to continuing to work in the service of both the academic community and the public by building the tools, partnerships, and research needed to make scholarly communication more inclusive, participatory, and impactful.
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