This edition of our “5 Questions with” series focuses on the Revue multidisciplinaire sur l’emploi, le syndicalisme et le travail (REMEST), a journal dedicated to the dissemination of research on labour, its transformation, management and institutions. REMEST favors a multidisciplinary approach, publishing research papers related to industrial relations, occupational psychology, labour economics, sociology of work, labor law, and occupational health.

We spoke to its director, Jean-François Tremblay, Professor in the Industrial Relations Department at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, to find out more about the challenges involved in relaunching the journal.

Early on, it was part of the work conducted by the Centre de recherche sur l’emploi, le syndicalisme et le travail (Centre for research on employment, syndicalism and labour), which was itself part of the Université du Québec en Outaouais. This ideologically non-aligned research centre worked to promote and disseminate research in French on industrial relations and related fields. The multidisciplinary aspect and the openness to theoretical and methodological pluralism which were part of the centre’s DNA were unsurprisingly transferred to the REMEST. The Centre, like the REMEST, was also looking to create a stimulating academic environment for grad students at the Université du Québec en Outaouais. In that sense, one of the objectives of the REMEST was to act as the main vehicle for disseminating the work of doctoral students in industrial relations. After the Centre’s closure in 2005, the REMEST continued operating autonomously, which it continues to do to this day. The REMEST has always highlighted its two main characteristics, namely being an electronic journal and being open access. That might not seem groundbreaking today, but that was not the case in the early 2000s. In a context where, for the last 75 years, 90% of scholarly journals created in Canada are published in English, the REMEST is proud to work to disseminate knowledge in French, with a genuine desire to contribute to knowledge as part of the pluralist tradition that defines industrial relations in the West.

Beyond the closure of the research centre to which the REMEST was attached, the last decade has been marked by a lack of sustained promotion for the journal as well as a certain ambiguity as to its place within the Université du Québec en Outaouais. Similarly, the lack of technical support needed to keep the journal’s website updated over the years proved to be a major difficulty when it came to showcasing the quality of the REMEST’s issues. Thankfully, as of 2025, these problems have been resolved, with the support of administrators within the Université du Québec en Outaouais. While those years were difficult when it came to maintaining the journal’s web infrastructure, we could, however, rely on the precious help provided by our partner Érudit. Through this partnership and the support of the Érudit’s dynamic team, access to the vast majority of the journal’s issues remained possible, and this is something for which the journal’s editorial team is deeply grateful.  The REMEST faced another important difficulty, something we could call the “too busy to evaluate an article” syndrome within the research community. The importance and the recognition given to the work of evaluating scholarly articles vary greatly from one institution to the next, or from one department to the next. And finally, the various dissemination indexes that favour English-language journals create an environment of undue, if not damaging, competition for a French-language journal that has, by definition, a more limited readership.

For us, the uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic was an opportunity to take a step back and create a relaunching plan. We saw two paths: keep publishing the journal more or less regularly, but with articles whose quality might deviate from the REMEST’s editorial vision, or find a way to obtain quality manuscripts to relaunch the journal on a solid foundation. We chose this second path. Our main challenge was then to convince the various stakeholders that it was better to take a step back, rather than continue forward without clear direction. Furthermore, we wanted to avoid a spiral where the lack of quality contributions to the journal led to a negative reputation for the journal, which would then lead to fewer quality manuscripts. Thankfully, we escaped that dynamic.

After rather fruitless attempts to find articles through social media or research communities, we turned to the strategy of publishing thematic issues. By proposing themes which are specific and stimulating scientifically, we offer contributors the possibility to participate in an issue that boasts a coherent overarching subject matter and an initial evaluation process that guarantees that the articles are of a certain level of quality, two elements which might stimulate their desire to submit a manuscript. Similarly, it lets our readership find original contributions, even innovative in some cases, which then certainly leads to more submissions of the same level in the future.

The lack of staff is tied to three realities. First, there is the question of the priority given to the journal’s editorial activities by the members of the editorial committee, compared to other academic tasks, which might be valued more than administrative tasks, mainly teaching and research. Second, the availability of potential article evaluators is a definite challenge, and that is without mentioning a generalized form of disengagement. The number of refusals has clearly been rising over time and that, over the last two or three years, those motivated by excessive workloads or health issues have become more and more frequent. In that sense, we seem to be living in a reality that mirrors what is generally happening in Western society. Third, the low number of grad students who could participate in administrative support activities for the REMEST makes it very difficult to find someone that could work to support the journal’s everyday activities over the length of their studies. Together, these three factors create an overall challenge when it comes to sustaining and relaunching the journal.