Students Speak Out : The Impact of Participation in an Undergraduate Research Journal

Universities are places where writing plays a central role in knowledge creation and dissemination (Graves, 2011). Students engage with writing in their courses, at their institution’s Writing Centre, and, perhaps more recently, in co-curricular projects such as an undergraduate research journal club. By participating in an undergraduate journal club, students develop critical thinking skills (Roberts, 2009), learn skills in research (Sandefur & Gordy, 2016), and produce knowledge (Neville, Power, Barnes, & Haynes, 2012). In this paper, we explore the impact of participation in a particular undergraduate research journal, the Undergraduate Journal of the Arts1 (UJA), on students’ interactions with academic writing. To do so, we first surveyed the landscape of undergraduate research journals in Canada. We then conducted an online survey and interviewed the UJA’s authors, editors, reviewers, and management board members. Our findings show that regardless of the roles they held at the UJA, participants benefitted from participation in terms of the development of their writing, interpersonal, and communication skills. We also discovered that participants faced time management constraints but were able to turn these obstacles into an opportunity to gain time management skills. Overall, our research has contributed to a sparse area of literature on undergraduate research journals. It also shows the value of an undergraduate research journal for student development.


Introduction
For several decades, opportunities have been created for undergraduate students to participate in collaborative research with faculty mentors (Caprio, 2014).Students develop inquiry skills, greater disciplinary knowledge, and enhance their communication skills through this collaborative research with faculty (Caprio, 2014) Universities are founded on a joint model of teaching and research with the expectation that students will learn as well as contribute new knowledge.To do so, students are expected to use and develop written communication skills during their time at university.Emig (1977) argues that as a mode of learning, writing is unique because it inherently creates opportunities for review of information; in addition, writing is both a process for learning and a product of learning.While teaching undergraduate students to write is given priority within many undergraduate institutions, Ozay (2012) advocates the necessity of incorporating research skills into the curriculum for undergraduate students.In this way, students can learn to be both consumers and producers of knowledge.Ozay points out that shifting forms of communication and information gathering in an internet-driven world create an even greater need for students to learn research and inquiry skills, which are now not only necessary for further academic pursuits but also for flourishing in other sectors and careers.Universities must provide multiple opportunities for students to gain writing and research skills while increasing their familiarity with research processes.In so doing, students will be better prepared for 21 st century challenges (Caprio, 2014).

Undergraduate Journal Clubs
Many universities are adopting undergraduate journal clubs as a way of engaging their students in the research process and the literature it produces (Clark, Rollins, & Smith, 2014).These clubs are generally led by faculty, through whom students gain exposure to and experience with the research process and literature.These clubs take a variety of forms across institutions, but regardless of their structure, these clubs work toward similar goals.Sandefur and Gordy (2016) describe undergraduate journal clubs as a high-impact and low-cost opportunity for students to learn invaluable skills in applying the scientific and research process and also to engage, often for the first time, with primary research literature.Likewise, Roberts (2009) discusses how the undergraduate journal club works to expose students to peer-reviewed research and equips them with analytical and critical thinking skills as well as the confidence needed to approach research articles.Students who participate in these clubs are generally reading and analyzing journal articles as opposed to producing a journal.
While undergraduate journal clubs offer one type of opportunity for undergraduate students to engage with research, other, perhaps more vibrant, opportunities can also be found through participation in undergraduate research journals.
Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie Volume 28, 2018 http://journals.sfu.ca/cjsdw231 such as sustainability and motivating students to invest the necessary time and effort.Ho (2011) specifically looks at how a library can shape and support the organization and publication process of an undergraduate student-run journal.A library can provide a platform for journal hosting and acquaint students with scholarly publishing.In addition, Ho suggests that the library can connect students with other campus resources to ensure the journal's operation.In Marken's (2015) case, it is the Writing Centre that supports the institution's URJ.The spectrum of organizational structures used to run an URJ may impact the participants' particular experiences, but overall, URJs benefit the students who participate in their development.Because there are a limited number of URJs in Canada and abroad, we wanted to learn more about their structure.We used one URJ as a case study to delve into students' participation in the URJ and their perceptions of learning through the publication process.
To explore the management models of URJs, we searched for URJs online and gathered information from the websites of 11 URJs.Of the 11 URJs, eight were from Canada and are both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary URJs with an online presence.The others were from England, Australia, and the Netherlands.As shown in Table 1, three URJs are from the sciences, and two from the arts.The two URJs from the arts, social sciences, or humanities publish journals on specific themes.Finally, the remaining four journals in our set are multidisciplinary.unique in that it is the only one from the arts, social sciences, and humanities and does not publish its yearly publication on a specific theme. 4Given the UJA's unique position as a student-led interdisciplinary 5 URJ, it provided an ideal site to learn more about the benefits of participation in an URJ.

Overview of the UJA
The UJA is an URJ that aims to engage its participants-authors, editors, reviewers, and management board members-in developing their understanding of research, academic writing, and the publication process.Beyond its local participants, the UJA hopes to engage its readers with highquality, peer-reviewed, academic research articles.The UJA is unique in that it is a student-driven endeavour.
The UJA was founded in 2011 by a pair of enthusiastic undergraduate students with the support of a few faculty members.After a couple of years of working through the challenges of running an

Research Objectives
The overarching goal of this research was to learn more about the benefits of participation in an URJ.
To do so, we were guided by the following research questions: (1) What are students' experiences of participation in the UJA? (2) What do UJA participants learn about academic writing and the publication process as a result of their involvement?

Methodology
Our research was led by a writing consultant at the institution's Writing Centre and a team of seven undergraduate students who also served as UJA management board members for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Methods
Our project employed a mixed methods approach (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007), consisting of surveys with qualitative and quantitative questions and semi-structured interviews.The mixed methods approach was best suited to answer our research questions as it allowed us to gain a detailed understanding of the impact of participation in the UJA on a large number of people while also helping us learn about participants' experiences in more detail.It also allowed us to focus on the academic writing aspect of our research, but, as we learned, it provided opportunities to learn about other experiences of UJA participants.The mixed methods approach and strong survey and interview response rates allowed our team to collect data from a range of participants in the UJA (i.e., authors, reviewers, editors, management board members).Table 3 shows the roles that survey participants held at the UJA; as noted, there was representation from all roles.In the next section, we explore the findings from our data analysis.

Findings
In this section, we address four key themes that emerged from our data analysis:

Writing Development
The first major finding of our research was that participants, regardless of their position as author, editor, reviewer, or management board member, developed new writing skills through their participation with the UJA.Participants reported developing new writing abilities, including selfediting skills, critical reading skills, self-awareness through exposure to others' work, and a comprehensive understanding of the writing process.This writing development can be seen through survey data from authors (see Table 5) and editors/reviewers (see Table 6).As noted in Table 5, 100% of authors surveyed learned both how scholarly publication contributes to a research community and how to revise intensively following reader feedback.Additionally, 83% of authors also learned how to improve the organization of a paper and how to manage the writing process in general.Likewise, 94% of editors and reviewers surveyed learned how to evaluate the credibility of article authors, and 89% learned about the process of publishing an article.Additionally, 67% found that they learned at least one new citation style through their experience with the UJA (see Table 6).
The survey data indicates that writing development was a major benefit of participating in the UJA.
one management board member noted, "[The journal] works under tight deadlines and relies on a tight team structure.That can be difficult at peak times because we are all students before we are on the board!"Authors also noted the challenge of time management in the survey.One participant said, "The largest challenge I experienced with [the journal] was the continuous editing of a paper that was not a part of my mandatory academic work load….I was in my fourth year of university… and had many other assignments, projects and papers on my plate."Another author wrote, "There are a great many revisions and you must be able to complete them within the deadlines." The theme of time management appeared in interviews as well.Management board members and reviewers, in particular, discussed the challenge of balancing the UJA with their academic and other commitments.One participant said, "[The journal is] like an extra course…depending on how involved you get" (Co-Editor in Chief W).Others noted similar issues: "You really need to manage your time effectively" (Chairperson K), and "[I] spent my weekends working on the journal…and then my evenings…It was a hectic task!" (Creative Director F).Reviewers also recognized the limited time for task completion: "There was a short period of time in which we had a lot of work to do… it's kind of constrained within a couple of weeks" (Reviewer I).
While participants clearly expressed the challenge of managing their UJA time with their academics and other commitments, they also considered that this challenge resulted in an opportunity to gain valuable skills in time management.Survey data revealed that 79% of editors and reviewers and 91% of management board members indicated that they had faced a challenging learning experience.In interviews, participants discussed how the journal helped them manage their time: "[The journal is a] distraction that helps you focus more on your work" (Chairperson K), and "[It] really gave me a time management skill… and an understanding and appreciation of how much work goes into [this publication]" (Creative Director F).

Other Benefits
Our survey asked participants to note the benefits of participating in the processes of review and/or publication.As shown in Table 7, 75% of participants indicated that participation in these processes helped them get into graduate school, 66% indicated that this experience helped them get into a professional college or competitive program, and 68% indicated that the UJA helped their case for scholarship or award funding.Finally, 100% of survey participants indicated that participation in the review or publication process impressed their friends, family, colleagues, employers and professors.

Discussion
Our data analysis revealed that UJA participants developed their writing, teamwork, interpersonal, and time management skills over the course of their involvement with the UJA.Our findings echo those of previous research regarding benefits from participation, including communication skill development (see Bauer et al., 2009;Caprio, 2014;Sandefaur & Gordy, 2016).Beyond a club, the UJA provided a meaningful experience for participants whose roles and workload complimented their academic studies.Writing, teamwork, and time management skills are transferable to many contexts outside of university.Considering these benefits for students, URJs could be promoted as a cocurricular activity that provides opportunities for students to contribute to their academic communities and also gain valuable transferable skills.
Writing development was clearly the greatest benefit to participants in our study.Participants, regardless of their roles, found that their writing skills improved through participation in the various processes of publication (i.e., editorial, management, publishing).Further, authors benefitted from the work they did with the co-editors in chief as they prepared their papers for publication.The authors' own editing skills improved, and they also became more aware of the potential impact of their work.While participants may have previously considered research within the classroom framework, they could now see its position within the greater web of academia.Our findings align with Marken's (2015) work that revealed that students who had participated in an URJ felt better prepared for future projects.These findings have potential implications for how we teach students writing in the classroom and how institutions can promote engagement with writing in co-curricular experiences.Through participation in an URJ, students gain skills that can be applied to future studies or careers.Since participating in the editing and reviewing processes positively impacted participants' own writing development, we encourage faculty and student mentors to provide Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie Volume 28, 2018 http://journals.sfu.ca/cjsdw240 opportunities for peer review.Through the peer-review process, students can gain increased selfawareness of their own writing strengths, weaknesses, and habits.While we tend to see the value of peer review as an in-class activity, it can also serve students well in extracurricular activities such as an URJ.In our study, management board members, who were not directly involved with the peer review process, also gained knowledge of writing, which would likely contribute to their own writing development.With URJs requiring students to occupy various roles, they provide students with a multitude of opportunities to develop, learn, and contribute in ways that may help them with academic and non-academic work.
Participants also indicated that gaining experience in promotion and communication was valuable to them which may also have helped their development of writing skills.Participants who were not involved in the Arts (i.e., one participant had a computer science background) or familiar with academic writing also had an eye-opening experience that impacted their understanding of writing and how to write.An URJ such as the UJA allows students to write and to understand writing outside the traditional classroom context; in this way, the journal created a unique, valuable opportunity for writing development.As Ozay (2012) notes, post-secondary education curriculum should develop undergraduate students as producers of knowledge, develop their research skills, and allow them to flourish in projects beyond post-secondary education.Our research extends this notion into another context within the post-secondary institution.We call on students, instructors, and institutional leaders to consider supporting or beginning URJ work within their own contexts given the benefits noted in this and previous research.
In an URJ managed solely by undergraduate students, there were opportunities for teamwork and interpersonal skill development abound.One of the founding principles of the journal, we learned, was to generate opportunities for teamwork and shared learning.This vision has allowed its participants to engage in regular, close teamwork tasks.The UJA's team structure has allowed students to gain experience working with others to accomplish a variety of goals, including the overall goal of publishing an annual academic journal.While our research regarding teamwork revealed management board members' impressions, it is also noteworthy that editors and reviewers found opportunities to develop teamwork skills through the editorial process.By working with others to determine ways to manage the heavy workload of reviewing articles, they were able to share and complete their assigned UJA duties successfully.While URJ structures may vary, this research has shed light on the processes of an undergraduate-led journal.This approach may provide students with unique benefits that a faculty-or graduate student-led journal may not.
Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie Volume 28, 2018 http://journals.sfu.ca/cjsdw241 As the area of research regarding URJs is sparse, our discussion adds to the literature by both confirming findings of previous research and suggesting new areas of inquiry.While our aim was to learn about UJA participants' experiences, in general and with academic writing, our data revealed other noteworthy findings.
One of our unexpected results relates to the challenge of time management.This finding has not been explored extensively in previous studies.Participants in our research noted that managing the workload for the UJA on top of their academic work, jobs, or other commitments could be quite challenging, particularly as their UJA work coincided with other periods in the academic year.Participants indicated challenges regarding balancing the editing process while having to complete their own final papers and exams, reviewing papers within a limited time period, and managing the publication of an annual journal.In developing or leading an URJ, members should look carefully at the publication process and schedules in order to better balance their many demands.
Although participants in our study were challenged to find time to commit to the journal, they noted the opportunity their busy schedules offered them for self-development in the area of time management.Balancing journal tasks, academic work, and additional activities taught them skills that they were then able to apply in other scenarios, such as the workplace.This situation created opportunities for students to grow and learn valuable skills for their futures.As the focus of our research was not to look in-depth at time management, it would be interesting to conduct further research in this area to learn about students' strategies and to engage other campus partners in URJ development.Since the UJA has a specific management structure, it would also be interesting to learn whether the challenge of time management that was present in our research exists in other URJs.

Limitations
While our research has shed light on the benefits and challenges of URJ participation for undergraduate students, our project is not without its limitations.While we had a relatively strong participation rate for both the survey and interview portions of our data collection, given our sample size, we know we were not able to reach all past participants.It was especially difficult to get in touch with former authors, and few of the authors agreed to participate in an interview.Ensuring that the URJ's management board maintains a current database of former participants would assist in conducting future research projects.It would have been interesting to learn more from authors about their experiences of the peer review process or their perceived value of writing a paper for an URJ publication.
Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie Volume 28, 2018 http://journals.sfu.ca/cjsdw242 Another limitation to note was the development of our survey.We did not use an existing survey for this work, given the limited previous research available in the area.We also did not pilot the survey.Some questions may have been unclear to participants, which may have limited their interest in responding.
As we began to conduct interviews and analyze our data, we realized that it would have been beneficial to survey or interview other people who were involved with the UJA, but who did not play a central role.For example, the Writing Consultants at the Writing Centre and the Dean of Arts may have been able to provide input on their roles and experiences with the publication.These people were mentioned as supports in our data (e.g., in terms of writing training), but we not have an opportunity to investigate these peoples' perspectives.By learning from others who are involved in the preparation of an URJ, best practices may be highlighted and challenges could be identified.

Conclusion
Our research has provided the writing community, the undergraduate publishing community, and others with insights into students' experiences participating in an URJ.In particular, our study revealed the benefits and challenges students have experienced through participation as authors, editors, reviewers, or management board members.Considering the sparse literature in the area of URJs, our work contributes to the field, has made explicit findings in the areas of peer review and time management challenges, and has given us a stronger understanding of management structures and peer-to-peer interactions in URJ participation.We call for additional research in the area of URJ structure: it would be valuable to complete a survey of URJs' management models and the experiences of those who manage URJs.This research project and findings have created unexpected opportunities for reflection on the UJA's past and insight into the future of this URJ.Additionally, our project created an opportunityperhaps the first formal opportunity-for past participants to offer feedback on how to improve the UJA (e.g., its editorial processes).This research has led to multiple conversations about the management structure and the future plans of the journal; the research team (who were management board members at the time of the research) have been able to implement changes as a result of the research we conducted (e.g., post-publication meet-up, increased interaction between authors and editors).The insight we gained from this work has been invaluable for the UJA's future.It will continue to guide the UJA's board and inform future decisions around the UJA's publication process, editorial process, and organizational structure.4. The other journal from the arts, social science, and humanities publishes its journal on a specific theme.
5. Interdisciplinary is used to refer to journals that encompass multiple disciplines within the arts/social sciences domain.Multidisciplinary is used to refer to journals that encompass both arts and sciences.
6.The number of downloads noted at the time of writing this paper.Articles are downloadable via Scholars Commons, the international repository for academic journals.
7. The journal receives approximately 200 submissions each year.8. Responses from the "sufficient" and "considerable" amount categories on the 4-point Likert scale.9. Responses from the "sufficient" and "considerable" amount categories on the 4-point Likert scale.
Before collecting data, our research team developed survey and interview questions, completed the Tri-Council Policy Statement training certificate, and submitted our research proposal to the institution's Research Ethics Board.We distributed surveys via email to potential participants.At the end of the survey, participants who had indicated an interest in participating in an interview were Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie Volume 28, 2018 http://journals.sfu.ca/cjsdw234 contacted and interviewed.Each interview was conducted by the principal investigator and one of the student researchers.Interview data was then transcribed by a third party.To analyze the quantitative survey data (which included 4-point Likert scales), we used Excel to calculate descriptive statistics.To analyze the qualitative survey and interview data, we used QDA Miner software(Provalis Research, 2017).We conducted a content analysis through an open coding approach(Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2017) to develop initial codes, to refine the codes, and to determine emerging themes.Pairs of research team members coded each interview (and qualitative data from the survey) to ensure accuracy in coding.Team members created summary reports to share data analyses with our full research team.In team meetings, we discussed results, confirmed themes, and addressed our research objectives.To prepare for this research project, the research team completed four formal training sessions led by the principal investigator.These sessions focused on how to (a) develop survey and interview questions, (b) conduct semi-structured interviews, (c) analyze quantitative data, and (d) analyze qualitative data.Our team met informally on other occasions to provide project status updates, discuss findings, and draw conclusions.Three members of our team presented findings from this project at the Canadian Writing Centres Association Conference in Toronto in May 2017.ParticipantsAny student who had been involved in the UJA in the position of editor, reviewer, author, or management board member between the UJA's establishment in 2011 and the winter of 2016 was invited to participate in our study.As no complete database of participant information existed, we developed a pool of potential participants through the acknowledgement sections in UJA publications, email records, Facebook, and LinkedIn contacts.Our initial survey invitation was sent via email to 39 people.Of these potential participants, 29 students participated in the survey.A total of 17 participants indicated an interest in an interview at the end of the survey and received a followup invitation.Of these, eight people participated in individual, semi-structured interviews.
(a) writing development, (b) team work and interpersonal skills, (c) time management, and (d) other benefits.

Canadian
Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie Volume 28, 2018 http://journals.sfu.ca/cjsdw243 For our research team, specifically, this research has given us the chance to connect and meet with other students and staff involved in managing URJs across Canada.These connections have enriched our own understandings of the UJA.Finally, this project has validated the UJA's role at its institution and the efforts of many people involved in the journal over the past six years.Although the UJA's management board has been able to gauge interest in its publication through submissions and support from various university departments, the research project has highlighted the successes that undergraduate students have gained through participation in the journal.Notes 1.The names of the journal and institution have been removed.2. A Dutch journal was omitted as its management structure was unclear.3. The other journal is at the University of British Columbia (Canadian Journal of Undergraduate Research/CJUR).
. An increasing number of institutions now require oral or written communication to accompany undergraduate research experiences, and undergraduate publication Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie Volume 28, 2018 http://journals.sfu.ca/cjsdw229 Engaging Undergraduate Students in Academic Writing and Research

Table 1 .
Scope of Publication of URJs Arts UndergraduateSociety (this organization is responsible for Faculty of Arts' student fees) and receives additional financial support from the Dean of Arts Office.While the UJA does not have a formal support relationship with any faculty, staff, or graduate students, the UJA benefits from a vibrant informal support network consisting of the Dean and Associate Deans of the Faculty of Arts, faculty, and writing consultants at the institution's Writing Centre.The members of the UJA boards connect with these people at various stages of the publication process to get advice and training.
approximately 20 undergraduate student volunteers are responsible for reviewing papers submitted for publication 7 and selecting the top seven or eight articles.These articles are then edited in Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie Volume 28, 2018 http://journals.sfu.ca/cjsdw233 preparation for publication.The UJA is generously funded by the institution's

Table 3 .
Table 4 shows the gender distributions of survey participants; the majority of the participants were female.Role of Survey Participants in the UJA

Table 7 .
Participants' Consideration of the Benefits of the Review and Publication Processes