Visit the Research Commons at SFU Burnaby and SFU Vancouver.
Research Commons locations
Research Commons at Burnaby
Room 7000
W.A.C. Bennett Library
SFU Burnaby
The Research Commons at Burnaby is open during Bennett Library hours.
Research Commons at Vancouver
Room HC 7050
Harbour Centre
SFU Vancouver
The Research Commons at Vancouver is open during Harbour Centre campus hours.
Staff
Head, Research Commons
Nicole White
Phone:
Email: ngjertse@sfu.ca
Research Commons Librarian
The Research Commons Librarian coordinates programming and services for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty across disciplines.
Julie Jones
Phone:
Email: jsj7@sfu.ca
Support areas:
- Thesis Writing Retreat and Thesis Writing Group
- All in a Day and Start Here: All About Graduate Research and Writing workshop series
- Interdisciplinary research skills
- Qualitative data analysis software (NVivo)
- Graduate student engagement and success
Digital Publishing Librarian
The Digital Publishing Librarian supports members of the SFU community to create open access publications using publishing software from the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), and provides opportunities for students to engage with and learn about scholarly publishing.
Ioana Liuta (through May 2026)
Phone:
Email: iliuta@sfu.ca
- Publication preservation
- Assigning identifiers for journals and articles
- Enhancing the visibility of your journal
- Consultations on editorial and publication standards
Kate Shuttleworth (on leave to PKP)
Digital Scholarship Librarians
The Digital Scholarship Librarians support researchers at all levels who are engaged with digital humanities through project consultations, digital skill development workshops, and the Library's resources in digitization and project hosting. The Digital scholarship Librarians are also responsible for administering SFU's Open Access Fund and supporting researchers with scholarly communication.
Rebecca Dowson
Phone:
Email: rda26@sfu.ca
Support areas:
- Digital Humanities (DH)
- DH tools / software training and support requests
- DHIL Digital Fellows
- Grant consultation for digital project support
- Knowledge mobilization, online research profiles, scholarly networks, and researcher visibility
Ali Moore
Phone:
Email: ajm30@sfu.ca
Support areas:
- Choosing a journal / options for publishing your research
- Funder open access requirements
- Author rights
- Research impact, research metrics, and bibliometrics
- ORCID Institutional Membership
- Open Access Fund
- New forms of scholarship / dissemination
- Tableau for data visualization
* For questions related to OJS or the PKP suite, please contact digital-scholarship@sfu.ca in the Digital Publishing Division.
Digital Humanities Innovation Lab Developers
The Digital Humanities Innovation Lab Developers support researchers from all disciplines in the creation, development, hosting, and maintenance of DHIL-affiliated projects through consultation and technical support.
Email: dhil@sfu.ca
Andrew Gardener
- Digital Humanities project development
Joey Takeda
Email: takeda@sfu.ca
- DH tools, software, and technical support
- Text encoding, digital editions, and markup languages (TEI, XML, XSLT etc.)
- Front-end web technologies
- Minimal computing and static website development
- DH project preservation and sustainability
Librarian for Geography, GIS, & Maps
The GIS and Maps Librarian supports researchers from all disciplines using GIS and maps in their work through consultations, workshops, and developing the Library's geospatial data and map collections. This librarian also serves as the liaison to the Department of Geography at SFU.
Sarah Zhang
Phone:
Email: tza68@sfu.ca
Support areas
- Liaison to Geography
- Accessing geospatial data
- Access to GIS software (ArGIS, IDRISI, QGIS, etc.)
- Oversees GIS graduate peer facilitator
- Access / use of print map collection
- Manages access to Esri Virtual Campus courses and ArcGIS Online
- Raise awareness of use of GIS in research and GIS services offered by the library
Research Data Services Librarian and Librarian for Government Information
Carla Graebner
Phone:
Email: cgraebne@sfu.ca
Support areas:
- Providing access to data resources
- Support in navigating and accessing government resources
- Research data management support including data curation, data management planning, and data deposit
Assistant for Theses
The Assistant for Theses provides support to graduate students with guidance on how to use the thesis template, thesis formatting requirements, and the thesis submission process in order to submit their thesis to the Library for graduation purposes according to SFU's Graduate General Regulations. This also involves the processing required for the eventual deposit of a thesis into SFU's institutional repository (Summit), Library and Archives Canada, and the Library Catalogue.
Support areas:
- Thesis formatting
- Thesis template
- Thesis submission process (Thesis Registration System, regulations and forms required, etc.)
Shania Cheung
Phone:
Email: theses@sfu.ca
Library Assistant
The Research Commons' Library Assistant provides administrative support for the Research Commons and supports Thesis formatting and submission.
Support areas:
- Thesis formatting support
- Thesis submission support
- General administrative support: Research Commons workshop registration, graduate group room bookings, etc.
Catherine Louie
Phone:
Email: cklouie@sfu.ca
Graduate writing services
You can contact the Graduate Writing Team at slc-gradwritingteam@sfu.ca.
- Read-Ahead Service
- Writing Consultations
- Presentation Consultations
- Writing Workshops
Graduate Peers and Digital Fellows
Research Programming Team
Louis A. (he/him) is a PhD student in Statistics. He enjoys reading, exploring new music, badminton, and can be occasionally found at the school's chess club. As a Graduate Peer, he strives to make programming accessible and to help students learn the different features available in the R programming language.
Fereshteh R. (she/her) is a doctoral student in psychology. Growing up in a culturally diverse environment, she is passionate about working with people from diverse backgrounds. Her research interest focuses on data analytics to promote fairness in psychological assessment. As a Graduate Peer, she is excited about supporting her peers in becoming comfortable with R for their research. In her spare time, she enjoys running, hiking, and exploring new cafes where she can savor a coffee while reading a book
GIS Team
Tiger S. (he/him) is a Master's student in Interactive Art & Technology with a strong Spatial Data Science and GIS background. Holding a Master of Science degree in Spatial Data Science and a Bachelor's degree in GIS, Tiger is proficient in using the Esri suite, various database systems, R, and Python. With professional experience as a GIS Engineer in top logistical companies, Tiger has specialized in solving complex vehicle routing problems. Their unique blend of technical expertise and creative innovation drives their passion for applying spatial data science to enhance logistical efficiency and tackle real-world challenges.
NVivo Team
Digital Humanities Innovation Lab Digital Fellows
Kaitlyn M. (she/her) is a PhD candidate in History. Her research will turn from human to non-human animal history, centering the experiences of sheep in Scotland from 1700.
More information
For more about our services, details about our spaces, and our mailing address, see About the Research Commons.
You can also contact us at research-commons@sfu.ca.