About ScienceReach

ScienceReach is a Quebec-based science communication and knowledge mobilization platform. We help students learn knowledge mobilization in a mentored cohort, and we help researchers, practitioners, and community organizations publish Community Knowledge Publications: peer-reviewed, open-access publications that put local data and knowledge on the public record, findable, citable, and credited.

Why we exist

Most research never reaches the people it is meant to help, and most community knowledge never leaves the organization that created it. These two knowledge systems run in parallel, without a reliable bridge between them. At the same time, students are rarely given a structured way to work with real community knowledge until late in their studies, so they graduate without the translation skills, community contacts, and published work that public-interest careers expect.

ScienceReach was built to close both gaps at once. Through our programs and our publishing service, community knowledge becomes a public, citable record, students build skills they can carry into any field, and organizations gain visibility and a credible publication to point to.

What we do

We run two services, built around the same publication standard.

The Micro-Exp Internship is a mentored, cohort-based program in which students learn knowledge mobilization and implementation science, work with a real community organization, and co-author a Community Knowledge Publication with editorial support.

The CKP Publishing Service is a standalone editorial service for researchers, practitioners, and organizations who want to publish a Community Knowledge Publication without joining a cohort.

Both routes lead to the same place: a peer-reviewed, open-access publication on ScienceReach.

Focus and scope

ScienceReach publishes Community Knowledge Publications (CKPs): short, peer-reviewed, plain-language publications that put community knowledge on the public record. A CKP profiles a community issue, the affected community, and the programs and organizations responding to it, drawing on community sources and academic evidence and applying ideas from knowledge mobilization and implementation science. The aim is to make local knowledge findable, citable, and useful to researchers, students, funders, and the community itself.

ScienceReach welcomes CKPs from across the social and community sector. Topics include health and well-being, housing and homelessness, mental health, immigration and settlement, environment and climate, youth and education, literacy, and community and social services.

Publication frequency

CKPs are reviewed and published on a rolling basis. A publication goes live once it has cleared review, rather than waiting for a fixed issue date. We are planning field and theme based cohorts and volumes for the internships and publications as well.

Open access

ScienceReach currently publishes CKPs in open access. Each published CKP is free to read and download on ScienceReach, so that community knowledge reaches the people and organizations who can use it. ScienceReach holds the rights to publish, distribute, and maintain each CKP, as set out in the publishing agreement.

Permissions and licensing

Authors retain copyright in their original contributions, and grant ScienceReach the rights to publish, maintain, and distribute the CKP, as set out in the publishing agreement. ScienceReach publishes CKPs under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY), so readers may share and reuse a CKP, including for research, teaching, policy, and practice, as long as they credit the author and the original publication. For how to cite a CKP, see the How to Cite page.

The team

The people behind ScienceReach, the editor, the supervisors, and the advisers, are listed on the Editorial Team page.

Supporters and partners

ScienceReach develops its programs in partnership with university teams and with support from research and innovation organizations.

With support from: District 3, McGill Engine Centre, Mitacs, and the Quebec Ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie.