SURJ: Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal of Clark University

Our Story

Clark University’s Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ) is the institution’s first student-run undergraduate interdisciplinary research journal. It aims to promote awareness and highlight ongoing undergraduate research throughout the University. As a completely student-run journal, SURJ team members are provided with the opportunity to experience the whole range of publication processes, as a staff member or an author, in the processes of peer review, editing, layout, and web design. Through the collaboration between faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students, the journal seeks to create an avenue for student-faculty partnerships, as well as cross-departmental scholarly dialogue. The journal is in its fifth year now, and with the experience is maturing into an organization trying to locate itself at the center of undergraduate research in small research university. This means our aims have expanded from creating a journal to become a catalyst and a facilitator for undergraduate research altogether.

Over the past four years, we have published 15 manuscripts, 10 review articles and 1 communication piece. While the social sciences certainly are the majority of the works we have published, the spread is truly interdisciplinary. We publish annually, and have a launch on the day of Academic Spree Day in the Spring (usually mid-April) both physically as well as digitally. Of these 26 total works we have published, they have been downloaded a total of 23,389 times (as off today). To quantify how much our work has grown in relevance, about 12,665 of those downloads are from this past year alone. We have been downloaded from about 1,300 different educational institutions around the world (including Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Oxford, etc), and about 90 different government organizations (State Department, Department of Education, etc.). Our readership is truly global, and our works have been downloaded in 154 countries, and about half our readership (~11,000 downloads) is from outside the U.S.

I would like to think that we have made a real difference to the Clark community as well. We have just reached about 100 submissions from Clarkies (this semester), from papers spanning different departments and interests. We have student teams of Peer-Reviewers, Copy Editors, and Editors that follow the path of publication. Every year our teams have grown, and this year a combined list of students (Peer-Reviewers, Copy-Editors and Editorial Board) has reached a total of 63 students (from 37 from last year). Totally, about 240 students (all told) have been involved in this four and a half year long story (alongside about 40 faculty members).

This journal in its current state is deeply indebted to its members that created it and have pushed the bar of excellence since its inception. Former Editor-in-Chiefs: Christie Joyce, Lauren Howard and Alexander Grayson alongside the editorial boards of these past four years deserve incredible credit to have made the platform for us today. At SURJ, we are constantly attempting to grow, we would be thrilled to have you reach out to us. You may contact the editors here, or by email ([email protected]).

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