Undergraduate students can now share their outstanding research in a meaningful and productive way.
The new TRU Undergraduate Research Journal (TRU-URJ) is an academic for-student and by-student journal, developed with the philosophy that students should not only have a chance to disseminate their research in a journal, they should also get firsthand experience organizing such a publication.
“The way this journal has been designed will not only encourage students in becoming more involved in research, but also in the process of organizing the journal,” said Dr. Mohammad Mahbobi, Provost’s Fellow in Student Retention and Engagement. “The faculty only participates at the mentoring and reviewing capacities.”
Mahbobi has been working with selected TRU students on the development of TRU-URJ, which launched during the Undergraduate Research and Innovation Conference Mar. 27-28. The journal is now accepting submissions for the inaugural 2015 issue. Alongside Mahbobi, psychology major Esther Briner and history major Justin Greer will work to ensure that the selected papers meet the standards of the journal. Faculty members will be enlisted to review and provide input, and the students will then prepare the papers for publication. For this year, Briner and Greer have been actively involved in establishing and maintaining the website, and creating guidelines for the papers.
“Next year, we will recruit a new group of junior and senior students in order to engage more volunteers from across the disciplines,” Mahbobi said, calling on students to volunteer for open positions in the student governance body of the journal for fall 2015.
Briner has already learned so much from the process of launching the call for submissions and setting up the website, and is looking forward to participating as a member of the governance body for the first issue.
“I think the TRU Undergraduate Research Journal provides an amazing opportunity for students to publish their research and scholarly articles at the undergraduate level.”
While TRU-URJ will first publish electronically via a website developed in cooperation with the Centre for Student Engagement and Learning Innovation’s Brian Lamb and Alan Levine, once established, Mahbobi expects there will be a print version of the journal made available.
For information
Mohammad Mahbobi, Ph.D.
Provost Fellow, Student Retention and Engagement
Senior Lecturer, School of Business and Economics
mmahbobi@tru.ca
250-377-6145
