About the Journal

The Economic Development Journal of Canada includes a variety of features, columns and articles from professionals. The focus of the Journal is to provide timely articles from the trenches. The central intention of the Journal is to transfer knowledge, increase awareness and offer a perspective on the critical issues and concepts of importance to the profession of economic development. Its audience is the practitioner, and other directly linked professions (Planners, Politicians, Academics, ICI Realtors, Site Selectors, etc.).  With less time to digest the incredible variety of articles, books, policy proposals, and vision statements that pour from all levels of government, universities, think tanks, and research institutes, it's important to have a Journal that provides articles that are timely with examples of best practices.

Since 2020, the Economic Development Journal of Canada is published by York Digital Journals (YDJ), an initiative of York University Library.  

History

The Economic Development Journal of Canada was initiated by Frank Miele, former Executive Director of Economic Development in Niagara Falls, at an EDCO quarterly meeting in 1983. EDCO Board of Directors approved the production of the "The Economic Development Journal of Ontario" and appointed Miele as the Editor for its first printed edition in 1988. Volunteer members of EDCO coordinated the annual journal, however, for 1990 and 1991 the Journal was not produced. The purpose of the educational journal was to create a platform where EDPs and others would share their "real-life" experiences in implementing economic development policies and programs and discuss innovative solutions and future trends in the multi-disciplinary field.

Miele decided to revitalize the journal with the assistance of a co-editor, Ms. Eva Samrey, a Ryerson University Professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning. With the financial assistance of the Federal and Province of Ontario and advertising support from the private sector, the journal published and printed its 3rd Edition in 1992 and every year thereafter until 2002. The Journals were launched at the January EDCO annual conference in Toronto. Journals were distributed to conference participants and mailed to a list of professionals in the Economic Development field.

Due to costs and a lack of advertising, the Editors and EDCO decided to publish the 2003 and future Journals digitally on its website www.ecdevjoural.com.

The Journal is a not-for-profit publication and is subsidized by the founding Editor. Over 50,000 unique visitors/per year read the posted articles on a regular basis for a minimum of 10 minutes. The readers are from diversified fields of interest including economic development professionals, academia, students, politicians, ICI realtors, and NGOs such as FCM, AMO, EDAC, OMMI, OGRA, OBIAA, and many more.

In 2020, with the assistance of Tomasz Mrozewski, a Digital Publishing Librarian at York University Libraries, the Journal became part of the Open Journal System (OJS) which is an open-source software application for managing and publishing scholarly journals. Originally developed and released by Public Knowledge Project (PKP) in 2001 to improve access to research, it is the most widely used open-source journal publishing platform in existence, with over 10,000 journals using it worldwide.

Articles are submitted by a variety of authors on issues directly associated with economic development activities which professionals in the field deal with on a regular basis. Recently, the Journal has been publishing a series of articles researched and written by graduate and post-graduate students. These articles are thoroughly vetted by the Editorial Board.