The Undergraduate Research Journal Now Accepting Submissions

The IIT Undergraduate Research Journal is a student led peer reviewed scientific journal published by undergraduates for undergraduates—and the IIT academic community at large. The Journal highlights and promotes a wide range of undergraduate student research throughout campus, from law to mechanical engineering to biochemistry to psychology. Further, it provides a forum of interdisciplinary discussion on topics involving the latest advancements, the most controversial debates, and the most intriguing questions in different fields based on short, original, and insightful articles about science that will be written to be accessible to a wide audience. Submissions to the journal are reviewed by our distinguished student led advisory board, with final edits approved by the esteemed Dr. Oscar Juarez.

The Advisory Board currently consists of undergraduate students currently involved in research who are passionate about writing and research. Funded in part by the College of Science and the Student Activity Fund, the goal of the Journal is to promote research by publishing undergraduate work both in print and online, featuring five research papers carefully chosen amidst a number of submitted manuscripts. This selection will demonstrate the diverse range of disciplines that students are involved in. Prizes will be awarded at the end of every academic year to recognize efforts such as Best Manuscript and more.

This journal serves to encourage undergraduates not as involved in research or hesitant to join research to see the impressive lab-work and humanities research that students like them are doing. It is imperative for students already heavily involved in research to bring up the next generation of researchers to exemplify how fruitful the abilities of undergraduates even in early attempts of research could be.

In addition to the typical research projects, we are also publishing a feature section. For our feature of the first issue this spring, we were inspired by the New York Times Project 1619 to create a learning project about the rich Black American history in Bronzeville, called Project 1890, representing when our school was founded. We are hoping to receive and publish contributions–stories, photographs, or any other expressive work–from Black students both past and present about their experiences here, and any other personal narratives about the Black experience at Illinois Tech from students, faculty, staff, and others affiliated with Illinois Tech. URJ feels that Illinois Tech students should further recognize and appreciate the vivid history and community of Bronzeville that was interrupted by the construction of our university. We hope through this project more students will become aware of how the university negatively disrupted the community and what we can do as students to increase diversity and inclusion on campus and connect with the surrounding areas in meaningful and helpful ways.

The deadline to submit has been extended to March 7, 2021 and manuscripts are reviewed on a rolling basis. For more information on our submission guidelines, visit our website at http://urj.library.iit.edu/index.php/urj/about. If you have any questions or would like to get involved, do not hesitate to reach out to us through email (urjiit@iit.edu) or Instagram (@urj.iit.).