For Community Organizations

Community organizations hold knowledge that rarely leaves the filing cabinet or their staff: program data, evaluations, needs assessments, and frontline insight. A Community Knowledge Publication (CKP) places that knowledge on the public record, in a paper that students, researchers, funders, and policymakers can find, cite, and act on, while the organization remains in control of its own data.

How community knowledge is used

A CKP describes a community issue, the affected community, and the programs responding to it, drawing on community sources. When an organization is featured, the publication presents, in plain language, the author's understanding, research, and investigation of the local challenge and of the organization's work, and grounds its claims in cited evidence. ScienceReach assists authors in preparing their publications and reviews each publication independently; the analysis is the author's, and the organization's knowledge is the foundation it rests on.

Most CKPs are built entirely from publicly available sources and academic publications, so a CKP can be written about an organization's work without drawing on anything the organization has not already made public. Organizations are welcome to contribute their own data, knowledge, and frontline insight, and ScienceReach strongly encourages it, because the people who run the programs see what the public record misses, and that input makes a publication more accurate, representative, and useful. Any contribution is acknowledged, and a substantive contribution can lead to co-authorship (see Credit, below).

Ownership and publishing rights

A community organization's underlying data, reports, and knowledge remain its own, as does the work of each author. Taking part in a CKP does not transfer ownership of that data; organizations remain free to use their own materials for their own purposes, such as annual reports, grant applications, and advocacy. The authors write and publish the CKP and are named on it. What the authors grant ScienceReach is the right to publish and maintain the finished publication: the CKP is hosted and kept current on the public record at ScienceReach, and is not republished in full on other platforms without ScienceReach's agreement. The full terms are set out in the CKP publishing agreements.

Draft review before publication

Before a CKP that features an organization is published, the authors are encouraged to provide the organization with the draft. The organization has time to review it and to request corrections of factual errors, clarification of data, or changes to how it is named and credited. ScienceReach retains final editorial control, and works with the organization in good faith to ensure accuracy and fair representation.

Protection of non-public data

If a CKP shares information that is confidential or not intended for public release, the authors or the organization should notify ScienceReach, and ScienceReach will keep that information out of the published CKP wherever feasible. Where omitting it would undermine the publication, ScienceReach will discuss alternatives with the organization, such as aggregating or anonymizing sensitive figures, or noting that restricted data exists without disclosing it. ScienceReach does not publish non-public data without consent.

Credit

A contributing individual or organization is acknowledged in the publication. Where an organization makes a substantive contribution, it can be credited as a co-author, named in the byline and the acknowledgements, with attribution following standard citation conventions.

Corrections after publication

If a correction is needed after a CKP is published, organizations may contact ScienceReach, which will address the matter under its publication ethics standards, including, where appropriate, a correction or an editorial note.

Reviewers and mentors

Practitioners and community staff hold the kind of knowledge these publications depend on: an understanding of what works in practice, what the data leaves out, and what would genuinely help the field. ScienceReach invites them to contribute that expertise in two ways. As reviewers, they can help review Community Knowledge Publications and keep them accurate, grounded, and useful. As mentors, they can support the students in the Micro-Exp Internship as they learn to work with community knowledge. Both roles are flexible and require little time, and both are a meaningful contribution to the public record and to the development of the next generation of practitioners. Practitioners and community staff interested in either role may contact ScienceReach at info@sciencereach.ca.

Proposing a CKP

Community organizations interested in a CKP about their work may contact ScienceReach at info@sciencereach.ca with a brief description of the community issue and the organization.