Framing Information Literacy as Scholarly Practice with Undergraduate Student Journals: A Grassroots Approach

Many undergraduate student associations and societies publish independentresearch journals, but very few studies exist to report on their development orsuccess.1 Often self-directed, with little to no faculty support, student-drivenresearch publications are a prime target for outreach and education effortsaround scholarly communication. This chapter presents the development ofa partnership initiated between the authors and undergraduate students involvedin the publication of research journals in the Faculty of Arts at McGillUniversity. Sharing our expertise in information literacy and scholarly communication with undergraduate editorial boards and student associations,we developed a local, grassroots engagement approach with far-reaching outcomes.In addition to training students in scholarly communication issuesand related concepts, the authors established direct and personal ties withundergraduate students committed to making a difference within the openaccess movement. These students eventually initiated other networks andgrassroots development initiatives with the aim of adopting and promotingscholarly communication practices, developing policies to support them, andestablishing these changes as an essential part of their student-led organizationalstructures—a critical step, the authors believe, that will lead to the institutionalization of information literacy interventions within the university research culture as a whole