Journal wants undergraduate research

Students may be able to see their work published

By Luke Morris

Monday, March 24, 2008

Students may be able to see their research published in a new University journal. Editors of the Journal of Undergraduate Research, or JUR, are looking for original research from University undergraduate students for the journal’s first edition, which is set to come out as early as this spring.

Editors have set a tentative deadline for submissions on Tuesday, April 1, but Ryan Ellis, one of the editors and a Manhattan junior, said that the editors might accept submissions after that time.

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What: Submissions for Journal of Undergraduate Research (JUR)

Who: KU undergraduate students

Where: E-mail to kujur08@gmail.com

When: By April 1

Ellis said one of the JUR’s goals was to feature research from many different departments.

“We really want this to be interdisciplinary and cover the whole University,” Ellis said.

Ellis said that a few other Big 12 universities had similar undergraduate journals, but only the University of Texas’ journal also covered all departments.

He said that about 12 students had shown interest in being published in the JUR so far, but no one had actually submitted anything yet.

Andrew MacDonald, Overland Park junior, said that he was cutting down his honors thesis in political science for publication in the JUR. He said that the project interested him because it provided practice for his profession’s writing style.

“It’s more rigorous to publish something for peers to critique,” MacDonald said. “It’s a model of writing we don’t get to use much in school.”

MacDonald also said that he liked the “academic dialogue” that publishing his research could potentially open.

Chris Haufler, professor of biology and director of the division of biological sciences, serves as the faculty adviser for the journal. He said that University faculty and administration had provided a lot of support to the JUR. Haufler said he decided to get involved because he believed in the importance of undergraduate research.

“I’m very supportive of undergrad research and think that it ought to be something any undergrad can participate in,” Haufler said. “I think this project provides an opportunity for undergraduates to share their research with the academic community.”

Ellis said that submissions for the JUR needed to be free of jargon and accessible to everyone.

“If you’re writing about international politics, you have to make it so someone in biology can understand it,” Ellis said.

Ellis said he hoped the first edition of the journal would be published during this semester, but publication could be delayed until next semester in a worst-case scenario.

“We’re trying to get this down in a very short amount of time,” Ellis said. “We’ve had to really push to try to get it done before finals week.”

Students looking for more information about the journal can check out the Web site at web.ku.edu/~kujur. Those interested in publishing their research can e-mail it to kujur08@gmail.com.

—Edited by Sasha Roe

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