Publishing with SPF

WHO PUBLISHES WITH SOCIAL PUBLISHERS FOUNDATION (SPF)?

The Foundation supports practitioner-researchers, action-researchers, and community-based participatory researchers working to strengthen practice and assess results of practice in a number of areas. Included also are various research, products, and essays submitted by engaged citizens and youth for the purpose of creating a more peaceful, socially just, and sustainable world. The following are examples:

  • Practitioners employed in or involved as volunteers and/or engaged participants in Education (preK-12 through higher education)
  • Community-based nonprofit social work and social services organizations, projects, and initiatives
  • Community-based wellness and healthcare institutions, initiatives, and projects
  • Community-based or school-based youth participatory action research (YPAR) initiatives
  • Community-based and neighborhood initiatives involving collaborative action research and/or participatory research in which community members are co-equals with professional practitioners in a collaborative effort to address a community or neighborhood issue.

 

HOW TO GET YOUR WORK PUBLISHED

To submit a completed project report or manuscript for publication, follow these steps: (a) read the section above on “Who publishes with SPF?” to make sure your work fits the list; (b) complete author profile (see “Become a Social Publisher”); and (c) submit the completed “About Your Research Project” form or “About Your Product Development  Project” form, or “About Your Essay” form. Publishing with SPF as well as access to all other published materials are free (see further below for the copyright information).  The publication process is based on the following:

  1. All submissions will be reviewed by the Foundation in a timely manner. Approved submissions will be notified of next steps. In some cases, the submission may have strong potential but some revision is necessary. For these applications, we will ask the submitter to modify and resubmit.
  2. The Foundation uses a peer-review process for all submissions. Foundation reviewers include experienced researchers and practitioner-researchers in a wide variety of fields associated with the domains included in the Foundation’s scope. The Foundation believes that collaborations between experienced researchers and practitioners in local contexts and communities will lead to rigorous examinations of what works and a more balanced perspective regarding evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence. Where appropriate, the Foundation provides mentoring on write-up during the editorial process.
  3. All practitioner-researchers and action-researchers whose work is accepted for publication on the Foundation’s website agree to become social publishers with SPF’s open source platform and understand that they hold the copyright to their work through Creative Commons. In the view of the Foundation, the sharing of the knowledge produced by practitioners, youth, and engaged citizens is social publishing with a social conscience.
  4. All prospective authors seeking to publish through the Foundation’s website agree to practice Protection of Human Participants procedures and to follow institutional review processes relevant to their work and/or community settings.

      What is a Social Publisher?

Social publishing involves new forms of online content creation. The social publishing supported by the Foundation democratizes knowledge production and dissemination to foster social progress and individual wellbeing in a variety of social domains. SPF fosters the sharing of ideas among practitioners regarding what works in practices of varying types in diverse social contexts. None of what is published in the knowledge base is the “final word” on practice in a particular social domain but is a contribution to fuller and, SPF hopes, deeper consideration of what practitioners, youth, and citizens in general can do to make our societies better places.

The social publishers included in the Foundation’s knowledge base are the owners of their knowledge and products, but are willing to share them for free with practitioners and people around the world. More information about copyrights of the intellectual properties on the Foundation’s website is provided in Creative Commons. The website’s knowledge base will be an open-access source of practitioner-research, participatory research, and action research that will be promoted globally.

View the Resources: Starting a Project on this website

View the Resources: References & Links on this website