The Community-Engaged CoLab is committed to producing research that is rigorous, ethical, and socially meaningful. Publishing—whether through peer-reviewed articles or other knowledge mobilization formats—is an integral component of this commitment. This section outlines the lab’s expectations around publishing and explains why dissemination is a core aspect of ethical community engaged scholarship.

Our research is grounded in strong ethical practice. Publishing is part of fulfilling those obligations:

• Community partners, committee members, and collaborators invest significant time, trust, and resources—often beyond what is visible in formal documents. Publishing helps ensure their contributions lead to tangible and accessible outcomes.

• Delivering complete, publicly available research outputs is a form of accountability. Not publishing means that the full value of the research may never reach the communities who helped shape it.

• Ethical community-engaged scholarship includes both the process and the products. Publishing helps ensure that the work has lasting impact beyond the research interaction itself.

Graduate theses and dissertations serve important pedagogical purposes, but they are rarely read by audiences beyond supervisory committees. Publishing:

• Moves the research from a training exercise into a contribution that is visible, citable, and usable.

• Allows the insights co-generated with communities to reach broader networks who may benefit.

• Ensures that valuable findings—often supported by public funds—are not effectively lost after examination.

A common misunderstanding is that academic publishing conflicts with community-engaged ethics. In fact:

• Publishing supports community partners by documenting successes, challenges, and innovations in ways that can strengthen future initiatives.

• Peer review adds credibility and helps ensure that findings are recognized and taken seriously by external audiences.

• The key ethical question is how we publish—honouring equity, authorship principles, and collaborative processes—not whether we publish at all.

While it is true that publishing also benefits academics, including supervisors, it is important to understand why:

• Publishing is the recognized way our field measures contribution and influence.

• If community engagement is our field, then contributing meaningfully to its scholarly conversations is essential for advancing theory, practice, and visibility.

• Publishing well and ethically strengthens the field and helps ensure that community-engaged work is valued within academic structures.

The CoLab recognizes diverse and flexible approaches to sharing knowledge:

• Authorship will follow transparent, equitable principles that respect labour, leadership, and contributions from all collaborators, including community partners when appropriate.

• Students are also encouraged to pursue a range of dissemination formats in addition to peer-reviewed publishing, including policy briefs, creative outputs, community presentations, and digital media.

• The CoLab supports students in choosing formats that align with their project goals while also ensuring that the research is publicly available in at least one permanent, citable form.

While the primary purpose of graduate study is education and mentorship, publishing is part of what completes the training process:

• Students who publish are better prepared for academic, professional, and applied careers.

• Publishing strengthens scholarly identity and confidence.

• Strong, complete research outputs lead to strong reference letters—often a decisive factor in future opportunities.

All students in the CommunityEngaged CoLab are expected to work toward publishing research based on their thesis (I will also support MREMs who would like to attempt publishing). This expectation is:

• Supportive, with guidance provided throughout the process;

• Flexible, allowing for multiple formats and authorship models; and

• Ethically grounded, in alignment with community agreements and relational accountability.

The goal is not publication for publication’s sake, but rather to ensure that research created with communities is shared, recognized, and able to make a meaningful difference.