see also: MPub Project Reports
The CCSP carries on a distinguished applied and basic research program on various elements of publishing. Current faculty members have authored evaluations of government support programs; assisted in the redesign of data collection instruments; engaged in research into book purchasing and reading; assisted firms in business development; assessed the state and viability of various industry sectors; and, within the Advanced Publishing Research Lab developed technological interventions for book publishers and scholarly journal publishers designed to transform business practice.
Research Projects
New Feb. 2011:
Digital Technology Innovation in Scholarly Communication
and University Engagement
Canada has earned worldwide attention for its general level of digital innovation in scholarly and research communication and particularly for innovation in journal publishing. Rowland Lorimer and Johanne Provençal assembled a team of 15 colleagues to produce this SSHRC-funded synthesis paper which outlines digitally enabled developments in scholarly activity, journal publishing, monograph publishing, library activities, and university engagement with the community. After reviewing this quickly changing landscape and the outstanding contributions of Canadian academics, the paper calls for facilitative policy to maintain Canadian leadership in innovation in digital technology innovation in research and scholarship.
Download paper: Lorimer-DigInnovationScholCmn.pdf
CCSP Press – Research Arm
The mandate of CCSP Press includes undertaking projects that provide information about publishing and market realities. In providing journal publishing services to clients, the press engages in a program of publishing innovation to assist its clients. Current clients include the Canadian Journal of Communications, The Philanthropist, the Journal of the Institute for the Humanities at SFU and Scholarly and Research Communication.
XML Production – Start with the Web
Work towards a web-first publishing workflow that connects free and ubiqitous web content management tools (like Wordpress) with professional production environments like Adobe InDesign.
See http://tkbr.ccsp.sfu.ca/research/xml-production
Open Journal Systems (Public Knowledge Project)
The Public Knowledge Project (PKP) is a federally funded research initiative that seeks to improve the scholarly and public quality of academic research through innovative online environments. Central to this is the Open Journal System (OJS) — a journal management system that assists with every stage of the refereed publishing process, from submissions through to online publication and indexing. The OJS is hosted and administered by the SFU Library in partnership with the University of British Columbia and the CCSP.
See:
Open Journal System (OJS)
Public Knowledge Project
Érudit
Electronic Texts Centre
Synergies Project
Synergies is a national research platform for the social sciences and humanities designed to make available hosting services for online scholarly publications. Over the four years of the project (2007-2011) it will also develop research tools for accessing and evaluating research.
PExOD
PExOD is open source software designed to allow small and medium-sized publishers to create a bibliographic database, export bibliographic data to other agencies. PExOD is capable of exchanging ONIX bibliographic data up and down the supply chain, driving a dynamic website, and providing a wealth of content management services within an organization.
Research Directions
Included in the realm of research expertise that the CCSP has cultivated are the following areas:
- The cultural, financial and economic performance of the Canadian publishing industry
- Government policy and programs in book and magazine publishing
- Book purchasing, merchandising and distribution
- Digital publishing tools
- Museum and other public sector institutional publishing
- Communications technology
- Scholarly journal publishing
- Copyright and intellectual property
- The cultural foundations of publishing
- Management
- Editing
- Design
- Online publishing
Students in the Master of Publishing program are actively engaged in publishing research and development. Graduates of the Master in Publishing Program at Simon Fraser University individually contribute to publishing scholarship with the completion of a comprehensive internship project report. Please see our list of MPub Project Reports.
Further research and scholarship in the field of communication and journalism studies can be found in The Canadian Journal of Communication. For more information, contact the editor Kim Sawchuk at Kim.sawchuk@sympatico.ca.
