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SFU Library Digital Publishing supports instructors and students in creating open access publications that feature student work and involve students in the publishing process.
Our projects use open source software developed by the Public Knowledge Project - Open Journal Systems and Open Monograph Press. We can also support open textbook publishing projects in Pressbooks, hosted by BC Campus.
Librarians provide technical support for publishing platforms and are available to speak to your class about scholarly publishing and writing for publication, as well as topics such as:
- Open access and subscription based publishing
- Intellectual property and author rights
- Privacy and concerns around openness
- The different forms of scholarly content
- Participating in peer review and the different peer review models
Journals: Publishing an open access journal with your class
Course journals are online, open access academic journals published as part of for-credit academic classes.
In Digital Publishing we use Open Journal Systems, open source software for journal publishing, and support instructors and students as they play the roles of journal editor, author, and reviewer. The system allows students to get hands-on experience with setting up a journal site with relevant publishing policies, submitting to an academic journal, reviewing the work of their peers, and revising their own work for publication.
We’ve worked with course instructors in English Literature, Publishing, World Literature, and Gender Sexuality and Women's Studies to showcase student work and involve students in the publishing process using Open Journal Systems.
Check out our models for course journals (students as authors and students as editors) for more ideas, or contact us to discuss how you might use Open Journal Systems for your in-class publishing project.
We are always looking for new opportunities to work with SFU instructors to publish journals as part of our course in any discipline. We can also support a department-wide journal, where multiple subsequent classes each publish an issue of the journal with a dedicated theme or topic.
If you're interested in trying this in your class, please get in touch!
Books: Publishing an open access book with your class
Instructors have the option to work with their class to publish an open access book, such as a collected volume of essays, which is added to the SFU Library Publication Series.
Students learn about copyright, author rights, and open licenses for book publishing, and have the opportunity to showcase their coursework in a way that is discoverable and preserved over the long-term. The Library supplies each book an ISBN and DOI, and adds the book to the Library catalogue and WorldCat for discoverability.
How is this different from course journal projects?
- Students do not need to login to the system to submit their work and upload peer review feedback and revisions.
- All of the editorial work happens outside of the publishing software, and is facilitated by the instructor.
- Students and / or instructors format the book for publication.
- The Digital Publishing Librarian helps with adding the book to the SFU Library Publication Series.
Textbooks: Publishing an open textbook with your class
SFU instructors have access to the BC Campus self-serve instance of Pressbooks for adapting and creating open textbooks. Learn more about support for open textbook publishing at SFU Library.
Students can contribute to an open textbook by writing content or creating instructional videos or other learning materials which showcase their knowledge and contribute to future students’ learning and success.
Learn more about student contributions to open textbooks in the UBC Open Textbook Publishing Guide: Student Collaborations.
Benefits
Benefits of in-class publishing projects
Student privacy and open publishing projects
Being asked to contribute to open publishing projects can pose concerns and risks for students. We always recommend that instructors provide several options for students so that they feel safe and comfortable sharing their work. These options might include:
- Allowing students to publish anonymously or with a pseudonym
- Giving students the option to hand in a regular assignment for a grade, instead of publishing their work in the class publication
- Allowing students to withdraw their published work at any time - even years into the future - if they are no longer comfortable sharing it.
For more information about student privacy for in-class publishing projects, see the UBC Open Textbook Publishing Guide: Student Collaborations, or contact the SFU Library Digital Publishing team.