Springboard to Awareness: Student Publishing & Intellectual Entrepreneurship

Publication Date

March 2012

Abstract

Building on a challenging curriculum for students majoring in Economics, and featuring excellence in critical thinking and writing, the Undergraduate Economic Review (UER) immerses students in an online publishing experience that reframes and expands their understanding of research, peer review and audience beyond the classroom. At the heart of publishing the UER, a born-digital, open access student journal, is the notion of intellectual entrepreneurship: “educating individuals who utilize their intellectual assets to add to disciplinary knowledge and social good.” (Cherwitz) A strong collaboration between the journal’s faculty advisor, the Scholarly Communications Librarian and the student editor-in-chief provides the human infrastructure for the journal, and each partner brings complementary knowledge and expertise to the table to facilitate a successful experiential project for students. With the successful launch of this online journal, several challenges abound: the rising number of submissions, finding adequate incentives to increase the pool of student reviewers, developing editorial talent over time, assessment of student editors’ and reviewers’ experiences, and marketing the journal effectively. Amid these challenges lies the educative imperative to keep Open Access tenets at the forefront of discussions and teachable moments with established and emerging scholars alike to prime them for further action and advocacy. Assessment of students’ understanding of Open Access is underway and will be reported on during this presentation.

Disciplines

Library and Information Science

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