Radical Access: The SFU Scholarly Publishing blog

Scholarly Publishing and Open Access blog

The latest news and answers to your questions about scholarly publishing and open access.


Open book publishing: The landscape of scholarly monographs

Published by Alison Moore

Conversations around open access publishing often focus on open access journals and journal articles. But what about open access books?

While scholarly monograph publishing has been slower to adopt open access due to a number of factors, proponents of open access recognize the importance of expanding Open to include book publishing.

Publishing in-class book projects with the Library

Jordan and the Magic Cape book cover
Published by Ioana Liuta

Students, faculty, and staff at SFU can work with the Library to publish academic and educational content using open source software developed right here at SFU Library through our Digital Publishing division. Read on to learn about some recent book projects created by students in their classes and published with the Library.

Should I be worried about my thesis or dissertation being openly available in Summit?

Published by Jennifer Zerkee

It can be daunting to think about your thesis or dissertation being openly available in Summit for anyone to find and read. You may have heard concerns about plagiarism, predatory publishers or limitations on your ability to publish a manuscript based on your openly available thesis. Be reassured that, for the most part, these concerns are unwarranted. Most universities in Canada make their students' theses and dissertations open.

Making Knowledge Public: Student reflections on the 2018 President’s Dream Colloquium

Published by Ioana Liuta

By Alice Fleerackers

Changing the academic system to be more accessible

“You shouldn’t have to pay a large sum of tuition to have access to basic information,” Melissa Roach says when I ask her what she’d like to change about our academic system. “It just creates layers of mediation between scholars, media and the public, and that disconnect can cause a lot of misunderstanding.” 

Plan S and cOAlition S: A commitment to open access in the EU

Published by Ioana Liuta

One of the strongest commitments to open access publishing to-date was announced in the European Union this week, and is enhancing the way scientific research will be shared and disseminated.

Eleven European research funding organizations, along with the European Commission including the European Research Council, have announced a plan to make immediate open access publishing mandatory for all publicly-funded research in the EU by January 2020.