For students applying to graduate studies and, further along the line, to academic or other high-level positions, having publications in learned journals is not just a great asset – it is increasingly a requirement, and it may make the difference between being selected or rejected. But most often, after undergraduate students submit their research papers to their professors, that is the end of the line.
The recently launched Glendon Society for Undergraduate Scholarship (GSUS) hopes to change that by finding appropriate outlets to publish these works. The group is the brainchild of Adrian Camara, a third-year international studies and history major at Glendon who plans to head to law school after earning his bachelor degree.
Right: Adrian Camara
“The mandate of the GSUS is connecting Glendon students with academic journals which publish research and papers produced by undergraduates around the world,” says Camara. He is in the process, along with his colleagues, of amassing a database of appropriate faculty-reviewed, learned journals in Canada, the United States and around the world, in institutions such as Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Cambridge and others. The Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Cognitive Science, published at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, is one such journal in Canada.
The plan is to assist students in tailoring their work to each journal's guidelines and helping them meet submission deadlines. “The idea is to turn works that students are already engaged in for their class projects into productive assets for their future careers or academic paths,” says Camara.
The GSUS, in existence for just over a month, has its own Web site and Facebook page where students and professors can find links to journals, complete with publication deadlines and the academic requirements for formatting their work. The GSUS database is organized by academic discipline and each academic department receives an e-mail reminding them of submission deadlines approaching within their field. The database includes at least one journal for each discipline taught at Glendon.
Several students have already contacted Camara about the GSUS’s services and several more have submitted papers to various journals. “A key aim of our society is to heighten the reputation of Glendon as a premier school of liberal arts by publishing the scholarly works of its students,” says Camara.
"Publishing top-quality undergraduate papers underlines the importance of original research and publications which are significant assets for students’ future. This will raise the level of academic activity among our students without requiring any additional financial commitment from them, or from our university.”
Submitted by Marika Kemeny, Glendon communications officer