Undergraduate Journals

[Dr. Old Bill]

Hey all,

Slightly off-topic given this forum's ultimate purpose, but I'm wondering about venues for undergraduate publication. I have encouraged one of my students to send out his latest essay, because I think it's definitely publishable (which is saying a lot for an English 101 student), but other than in-house college publications and Young Scholars, I can't seem to find any decent journals that publish undergraduate essays. Surely some of you have had a bit of publication experience at the undergrad level... Any ideas?

[WildeThing]

I've seen a lot on UPenn CFP, but never pad much attention for obvious reasons. I'm sure that if you search for undergraduate there you'll get some results.

[AnimeChic101!]

I know undergraduates at the institution where I go to grad school who are published in established journals in the field. They normally do the work with a professor and it goes in under both names (co-author). Could you possibly try that? It would open up quite a few more options for you. 

[bhr]

 

On 10/17/2016 at 9:57 PM, BlackRosePhD said:

I know undergraduates at the institution where I go to grad school who are published in established journals in the field. They normally do the work with a professor and it goes in under both names (co-author). Could you possibly try that? It would open up quite a few more options for you. 

It's like you didn't even read the OP's post.

Honestly, OP, there isn't much in the way of demand for a FYC paper for publication outside of your university. There are a couple places that do publish them, but most of the time it's vanity press stuff that isn't worth the effort.

If the student writing is about an issue, have them submit it to a local paper as an editorial. That will benefit them more than an academic publication, as no grad committee is going to care that someone got a FYC paper published.

 

For what it's worth, I specifically ask my students to think of a venue for publishing their work on a couple projects. I expect them to find a place to send it, analyze the platform/genre conventions and limitations, and then do an analysis of a couple articles. They write that up and submit it as part of their rubric for the paper, with the idea that they are being graded for the audience they chose/researched. This sort of work has resulted in maybe a half dozen students getting published in the local/campus papers, and a couple getting published on websites (one woman actually managed to sell her work, with my help, to an online magazine). This sort of effort is probably a lot more useful than getting them in a "best of freshman writing" journal.

[erosanddust]

I know this is decidedly different than publication, but depending on the paper/the student's goals, it might also be valuable to encourage them to adapt and submit it as a conference paper. I know the conversation about premature publication has been had many times, ie. Will they feel the same way about the paper in 3-4 years as they do now? I certainly don't about some of the early things that I published. The process was still undeniably a valuable professional experience for me, but I probably gained even more from my early participation in conferences.

[poliscar]

2 hours ago, erosanddust said:

I know this is decidedly different than publication, but depending on the paper/the student's goals, it might also be valuable to encourage them to adapt and submit it as a conference paper. I know the conversation about premature publication has been had many times, ie. Will they feel the same way about the paper in 3-4 years as they do now? I certainly don't about some of the early things that I published. The process was still undeniably a valuable professional experience for me, but I probably gained even more from my early participation in conferences.

This. I think early conference experiences are a lot more valuable than undergraduate publication. Aside from more abstract professional aspects, they are also a lot more likely to be recognizable to a committee. No one is going to recognize the South Carolina State Journal of Undergraduate Woolf Studies (etc), but undergraduate panels at ACLA, grad conferences at significant universities, sub-MLA conferences will all be noticed, and are well within the reach of good undergrad students. 

[terp2tarheel]

I think this is the most comprehensive list of undergraduate research journals: http://www.cur.org/resources/students/undergraduate_journals/. For an ENGL101 student, I'd particularly recommend Young Scholars in Writing: Undergraduate Research in Writing and Rhetoric, which specifically publishes exceptional work from FYC courses.