1. Continuing Open Source Publishing Software Development
PKP’s open source software, distributed at no charge to users, goes through a continuous cycle of improvement with frequent releases, based on the needs and sometimes the contributed code of its growing user community. Open Conference Systems Version 2 was recently released, and is a major rebuild based on the advances made with Open Journals Systems.

2. Creating New Reading Environments for Scholarly Work
PKP is experimenting with ways to improve the online reading environment for research and scholarship for a wide range of readers through the use of “reading tools,” which connect what’s being read to related research, media reports, and government materials, providing a context for critical engagement, with studies underway involving policymakers, humanities scholars, high school teachers, college students, and members of the public.

3. Strengthening African Research Culture and Capacities
With over 250 African journals using PKP software to list their contents in the African Journals Online program, PKP will be conducting Online Scholarly Publishing workshops in 6-8 African research libraries on the feasibility of moving journal to online management and full-text publishing as a way to strengthen local research culture and knowledge building.

4. Toward an Intellectual History of Publishing
Current focus is on the implications of John Locke’s theory of property for intellectual property rights and responsibilities within the “commonwealth of learning,” as it relates to current levels of access to scholarly work and to student’s lack of experience with such property in the schools given the increasing emphasis on standardized testing. Previous work on this theme has been done on the Oxford English Dictionary, Leibniz, and Newton.

5. Synergies: the Canadian Information Network for Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities
The Synergies initiative will create a national network for the production, storage, and access to digitized knowledge, including peer-reviewed journal articles, datasets, theses, conference proceedings, and scholarly books produced in Canada. OJS will play a major support role in Synergies, being used by four of the five principal Synergies partners. Synergies recently received $12 million in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).