Many students on IU's campuses have participated in fascinating research and hope to share their findings with the community. Undergraduates have an opportunity to publish their work right here on campus with the IU Journal of Undergraduate Research (IUJUR).
Submissions can be original work created specifically for IUJUR or papers that you’ve written previously for classes or research. If you’ve previously written the paper for a class, your faculty sponsor will be the professor to whom you submitted the piece. If you are submitting research results, talk with your PI about IUJUR (pointing them in the direction of https://iujur.iu.edu/ to learn more) and outline your proposal. That said, don’t be intimidated if you have not yet conducted research or written a paper that you’d like to submit. Original ideas or independent projects are welcome in the Journal and IU has a multitude of resources to support you throughout the investigation and writing process.
All student submissions require faculty support, so it’s important that the research is conducted and the paper is written under the guidance of a faculty member at IU. To find a mentor for an independent research project, browse departmental websites or speak to a counselor at the Walter Career Center to find 2-3 potential faculty sponsors. Explain your research goal and work with them throughout the investigation and writing process. All topics are welcome and papers will be sorted into one of four categories for the review process: natural sciences, applied sciences, humanities, or social sciences.
The research process may look slightly different depending on your topic and discipline, but a reliable model is to identify a question, preliminarily review literature, refine a research topic, collect data, and analyze your findings. For literature review and data collection in systematic reviews, consider using the research guides created by IU libraries for curated news articles and subject-specific databases. For even more specificity, look into the library research guides for guidance on resources held in IU archives as well as a library contact for the given subject.
When the time comes to write your piece, keep in mind that IUJUR accepts submissions of full length articles and literature reviews. For more details, visit https://iujur.iu.edu/submit/options/index.html. Your submission may be written in any language, but English language papers generally have a faster turnaround time. The Journal is open access, meaning that there are no barriers, monetary or otherwise. The IUJUR Student Author Contract allows for publishing, reproduction, distribution, and creation of derivative works of the publication on other platforms. Your submission will be peer reviewed so as to ensure rigor in the review process, so you can expect comments and constructive feedback from IUJUR editorial board members.
If your submission is deemed as suitable for the Journal, you will proceed to edit and improve your piece. Common points of improvement for submissions are structural or grammatical; consider having multiple people read through the piece to catch any errors that you may have missed. For help with references, consult the IU libraries citation guide, which has templates for APA, MLA, and Chicago style references. Writing Tutorial Services is a resource at IU that can help with line editing and fine tuning the piece.
When you are satisfied with all updates and edits, the editorial board will review the piece once again and be in contact regarding the next steps. Having your work published in a peer-reviewed journal as an undergraduate student is a standout experience and opens the door for future publications; IUJUR encourages your submission!