The Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research, a 129-page online publication of college students’ papers on topics as diverse as modern political messaging and James Joyce’s naturalistic evolution, will publish its first edition on April 1 at digitalcommons.butler.edu/bjur/.

The refereed journal features seven papers written by Butler, Wabash College, Bellarmine University, and University of Tennessee-Martin students.

BJUR CoverThe journal, which will be published annually, was created through a 2013 Butler Innovation Fund grant. Editor Kenneth Colburn, a Butler Professor of Sociology, said the first issue took a year of planning and putting the plan into place.

“This represents an important addition to Butler,” he said. “We promote students at Butler getting to work with faculty to conduct scholarly research. For 27 years, we have held the Butler Undergraduate Research Conference to enable students to present their work. And now we have an opportunity for them to publish their work.”

The journal is interdisciplinary and is open to students from anywhere. Submissions for the first issue came from as far away as Africa.

Each paper in the journal is reviewed by a Butler faculty member who is an expert in the individual areas of research.

The journal is open access; the contents are freely available and published without cost to the author. Google Scholar will index the contents, said Franny Gaede, Scholarly Communication Librarian for Butler University Libraries, who serves as the journal’s Design and Copy Editor.

The editors—Colburn and Psychology Professor Tara Lineweaver—are now soliciting articles for the second edition. They hope to receive double or triple the number of submissions and are especially interested in papers in the areas of health sciences and the natural sciences.

Students who participate in Butler’s annual Undergraduate Research Conference, held this year on April 10, will be encouraged to submit their work.

“This is a milestone in Butler history,” Colburn said. “The journal demonstrates Butler’s commitment to undergraduate research.”

The papers in the first edition are:

-The Evolution of American Microtargeting: An Examination of Modern Political Messaging
Luke Bunting, Butler University (mentor: Margaret Brabant)

-Role Overload and Prescription Stimulant Use among College Students
Haley Cook, Butler University (mentor: Katherine Novak)

-Death Defied: James Joyce’s Naturalistic Evolution
Cody D. Jarman, University of Tennessee-Martin (mentor: Jeffrey Longacre)

-The Perpetuation of Graffiti Art Subculture
Camille Lannert, Bellarmine University (mentor: Carl Bergstrand)

-Mood-Dependent Memory in English/Spanish Bilinguals
Alix M. McLaughlin, Butler University (mentor: Tara Lineweaver)

-Digital Expressionism and Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: What Contemporary Choreographers Can Learn from Early Twentieth-Century Modernism
Kelly Oden, Butler University (mentor: Lee Garver)

-Civil and Common Law: A Historical Analysis of Colonial and Postcolonial Canada
Patrick Stroud, Wabash College (mentor: Stephen Morillo)

Submissions are currently being accepted for Volume 2, which is scheduled to be published in April 2016. The submission process is all done online.

First consideration will be given to papers received by May 10, 2015. There will be a second round of review for papers received through September 30, 2015, and a third round for consideration, space permitting, for papers received by December 15, 2015. Any papers after that date will be considered for Volume 3 (2017).

Students are asked to have their mentor provide a letter of support or recommendation of the paper as part of their application.

To contact the journal, email the editors at bjur@butler.edu.

 

Media contact:
Marc Allan
mallan@butler.edu
317-940-9822