UvA students launch academic journal
Social science students are founding an academic journal at the UvA for students: the Amsterdam Journal of Social Sciences (AJSS). The journal aims to be an interdisciplinary platform for students to publish articles and get acquainted with the academic publication process. “We are preparing students for academia.”
Folia spoke with the President, Elton Högklint (18, Sociology), and Vice-President, Enikö Parrag (22, Political Science).
Why did you found this journal?
Elton: “We saw a need among students to learn more about how the publication process of an academic journal works. This is because most students have never submitted anything to a scientific journal, even though an undergraduate degree trains you to be a scientist. So we want to prepare students for academia with this journal.”
When did the idea come up to establish this journal?
Enikö: “It came up about a year ago with some sociology students. At the time, AJSS was a small organization. The project grew to include other social science departments. At the beginning of the summer, when we joined the journal’s staff, we considered the internal structure. Who was going to do what? Then we worked out the details of the publication process. Now we have an established team and enough editors and reviewers.”
Who all contributes to your journal?
Elton: “We have students from cultural anthropology, sociology and social geography from different years. For example, I am in the second year of my studies and Enikö is a fourth-year student. There are also teachers working on it. For example, I joined after a lecturer told me about AJSS in a study group. It appealed to me so much that I joined.”
Is there a lot of enthusiasm for the magazine among students?
Enikö: “Many students seem to be interested in our magazine, so we are already getting a lot of e-mails from students who want to participate. And we're also already getting a lot of good articles from students.”
What will the publication process look like?
Enikö: “The publication process will work the same as it does in a real scientific journal. We will also work with double-blind peer reviews. That means the author and reviewer don't know each other’s identity. We also form teams with student editors and more experienced junior lecturers, or students finishing their master’s. That way the student editors and reviewers themselves learn something from the process of editing. We still want it to be an academic journal for and by students. The cooperation of faculty members in the publication process is mainly to ensure high academic standards.”
Elton: “The underlying idea remains for students who submit something to learn from the process. Even if we choose not to publish the work, we explain why. And, while we want to remain as accessible as possible as a journal, we also want to make sure it remains rigorous because that's the way it is in real scientific journals. When a piece is finished being edited, it will be posted on our site.”
How do you combine working on AJSS with your student life?
Enikö: “It's a lot of extra work, but it's also valuable educational experience to get a look behind the scenes of a scientific journal.”
Elton: “I agree. We're also doing our best to share the workload to find the right balance in how much time we spend on it, which is going well so far. After all, almost all of us are full-time students and many of us also have part-time jobs. For example, I also work 20 hours a week in addition to my normal studies and the honors program I am attending.”
This afternoon, October 18 at 2:30 p.m., is the launch of the magazine AJSS on the bridge of Roeterseiland Campus.
Update October 24, 11:30: The earlier version of this article stated that AJSS is the first scholarly journal by students at the UvA. However, this is incorrect and has been corrected.
