Come Create a Journal With Us! Providing an Authentic Research Experience through Publishing

 

Donald P. French

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2018, Volume 39

Abstract

Recently, Oklahoma State University (OSU) received funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to create a course based authentic research experience for undergraduates. To accomplish this, we implemented an undergraduate journal we named, the Journal of Introductory Biology Investigations (JIBI). Students work through a three-week investigation with their TA (mentor) and use each week to perform an experiment, write, and revise a manuscript. In this lab, a student TA does not grade them, but instead three anonymous and independent reviewers, who are TAs from other sections of the lab, grade the students. The reviewers evaluate each manuscript using a rubric, scoring each section from unacceptable to excellent. JIBI publishes 15% of the articles submitted in four issues per semester resulting in 21 total issues. This session will focus on describing the process of how one can create a journal of their own, or have us host one for them! We will describe how we use a free open source software called Open Journal Systems (OJS) to create JIBI, facilitate student submissions, offer our expertise to those who are interested in this process, and facilitate the creation of their own journal.

Keywords:  authentic research, journal

University of Wisconsin, Madison (2017)