You have probably heard of ACE, OMA, LASA, RHA, SGA, LGBTA, WTF, but R U aware of RURJ? To clarify this seemingly new acronym, RURJ stands for Rollins Undergraduate Research Journal. However, RURJ is actually not new at all; the journal was started by Fay Pappas in 2007. Pappas, who was a Rollins student at the time, fashioned the journal after the Harvard and Yale Undergraduate research journals. Annamarie Carlson ’14 explained that Pappas “saw RURJ as a means for students at Rollins to not only get published before finishing college, but also as a way to allow people to feel accomplished about all the work they put into the paper and to give Rollins students a voice.” In essence, RURJ provided Rollins students with the opportunity to showcase their papers before graduating which, in addition to giving them bragging rights as a writer, also looked excellent on their résumés.
Unfortunately, the journal died out after Pappas graduated in 2009. “Due to technical difficulties and people graduating, it disappeared,” said Louisa Gibbs ’11. This is where Carlson comes in: she was asked by Director of the Olin Library Dr. Jonathon Miller to help reorganize and reinstate the journal for current students. “Since the journal is starting from scratch, I need an almost entirely new staff including editors, peer reviewers, and, of course, contributors. All positions are on a voluntary basis.” Carlson has been sending out e-mails and requests to people, asking for their help and skills.
Carlson says that these positions, especially editors and peer reviewers, are open to all areas of study, not just English majors. Editors would oversee all of the submissions for publication and have a chance to work with both the writers and the peer reviewers; Carlson wishes for it to be noted that being an editor will be the biggest time commitment compared to all of the other jobs. Peer reviewers will receive the accepted submissions from the editors for extra revision and critique. Finally, Carlson says that “a few million authors would be great,” but as long as she has a fair amount, she will be happy. Authors are permitted to submit any academic work that was not previously published; the only rule for authors is no creative writing allowed.
Carlson and Pappas emphasized that submitting essays and other works to the RURJ will open countless doors in the future, such as greatly improved job offers and the possibility of being published in other journals. For more information regarding the RURJ and the process of joining the staff or submitting, contact aecarlson@rollins.edu.
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