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.


What is knowledge mobilization? Jump-start your summer learning now!

Published by Alison Moore

What is knowledge mobilization?

Knowledge mobilization is all about doing more with what we know — particularly, doing more with our research. This might be done by working closely with your community partners throughout the research process to ask questions and approach the research in a manner that is relevant and respectful to them. It might be done by using different modes and strategies of communication that are tailored and accessible to your community.

Immediate free access to research: The scholarly response to COVID-19

Published by Alison Moore

This blog post was contributed by David Gill, a former SFU Reference Librarian.

Scholarly publishers have responded to the COVID-19 outbreak by providing immediate, free open access to research on their platforms. This blog post summarizes what each publisher has made available, highlights the responses of funding agencies worldwide, and illustrates why open access to research saves lives. 

Backwards and forwards citation chaining

Published by Alison Moore

This blog post was contributed by David Gill, a former SFU Reference Librarian.

This blog post will be useful to those interested in advanced library research particularly people who are doing literature reviews.

Scholarly journal rejection rates

Published by Alison Moore

This blog post was contributed by David Gill, a former SFU Reference Librarian.

As early career researchers, you might have heard of your colleagues discuss rejection rates/acceptance rates for scholarly journals. 

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.

Dear Eminent Researcher: How to assess a conference invitation and avoid predatory conferences

Published by Alison Moore

We discussed predatory journals in a previous blog post, but you may have also heard of predatory conferences. Conferences are an important piece of the scholarly publishing world, and give you valuable opportunities to present research and network with colleagues. Just as it’s important to do research on journals before publishing, it’s important to look into conferences you are thinking of attending. Poor quality and deceptive conferences can be hard to spot; here is some information on what to look for, and how they operate.