Engaging Student Journal Editors

Editing and publishing a student research journal is a high-impact educational practice that libraries are uniquely suited to support. Gettysburg College’s Musselman Library hosts three student-edited journals in our open access institutional repository. We train student editors to use the online journal publishing platform to receive, assign, and review submissions. We also expose them to the scope of undergraduate publishing beyond our institution, describe the benefits of open access publishing to authors (including sharing their own use metrics), invite professors who edit professional journals to share their expertise with the students, and facilitate a discussion about how their editing process parallels the professional publishing process in their fields. Engaging student journal editors in the overarching issues related to peer review and publishing is a rewarding way for the library to contribute to student success in this important endeavor