Abstract
Background: Undergraduate research journals are a popular mechanism for inducting students into research, communication, and publication facets of academia. A thematic review of 17 review papers found little evidence for journal impact. Methods: A scoping review identified 91 journals. A systematic search identified the journal website, its International Standard Serial Number (if any), its citation rate on Google Scholar, its start year and end year (if applicable). Results: Seventy-five journals had both a Google Scholar h-index and a discoverable start year. Sixty-eight had been cited one or more times. The median h-index was 2, mode was h = 1, and the average h-index = 4.38. Correlation with start year was not statistically significant, neither was content field of journals. Conclusions: Surprisingly, almost all currently published journals have been cited at least once, showing that undergraduate research journals have some impact on the scholarly world. Further analyses are suggested to examine career impact of publication on students and faculty.
Highlights
Undergraduate research journals (URJs) are formal publications of material generated by undergraduate students
Surprisingly, almost all currently published journals have been cited at least once, showing that undergraduate research journals have some impact on the scholarly world
While we recognise that citation rates might not be the best way to assess impact, this review of 75 URJs, 65 of which are currently active, does indicate that almost all of them get cited at least once, meaning that they can claim to contribute to the discipline
Summary
Undergraduate research journals (URJs) are formal publications of material generated by undergraduate students. As evidence for this, the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR: https://www.cur.org/resources/students/journals/) and the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR) both have large databases of undergraduate journals in the United States of America and Britain, respectively. In 2008, the CUR website listed approximately 40 undergraduate journals in the United States [1], which increased to 70 journals by 2011 [2] and reached 115 in 2013 [3]. This number has increased substantially since . Undergraduate journals are not limited to the UK or the USA with Macquarie University Number (if any), its citation rate on Google Scholar, its start year and end year (if applicable)
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