By Nichole Poblete
Late on Tuesday afternoons, like clockwork, a group of ten UC Santa Barbara undergraduate students convene on the third floor of the humanities and social sciences building, bypassing classrooms and teaching assistant offices to reach an office of their own: The Undergraduate Journal of History.
Three issues of The Undergraduate Journal of History, including the latest Fall 2022 release.
The journal publishes the academic research of history undergraduate students from both within and outside UC Santa Barbara. The editorial staff comprises students enrolled in History lecturer Jarett Henderson’s course Internship in Scholarly Publishing. They release two issues annually, in the fall and spring.
“I cherish the time that we can talk together or do scholarly peer reviews with each other in class. The weekly meeting is a good space to meet people to discuss future steps and how we can make our journal a better place for both students and for ourselves,” said Keren Zou, a student on the journal’s staff.
Students who submit to the undergraduate history journal must have received a grade of A- or higher on a paper that that has been edited to between 3500 to 7500 words, and is written in the Chicago Manual of Style. Submission requirements and details are listed on the journal’s website.
Interesting works received in recent years include one on Chinese philosophy in video games, and a study of the war on drugs through media and policy.
“You can tell that the authors really love writing it, or they feel very passionately about the topic,” said Sujitha Polimera, a third-year Economics and History double major who manages the journal's website.
Once the pieces have been selected, they are put through rigorous academic peer review. The editorial board must find two or three expert reviewers in the discipline and subject of the piece, often a faculty member and a graduate student. It usually takes about a month for editors to receive feedback from peer reviewers after the review has been confirmed.
Polimera noted that interdisciplinary works pose a unique challenge by driving the journal’s editorial staff to contact faculty beyond the history department at UCSB. It is essential to find reviewers knowledgeable in the specific topics of a paper to do justice to the content and the author, she said.
Keren Zou, left, and Sujitha Polimera are editorial staff members at the Undergraduate Journal of History.
The job of maintaining communications after the list of reviewers is secured falls to Keren Zou, an international student in her fourth year of a triple major in History of Public Policy and Law, Geography, and Asian American Studies. Zou conducts regular check-ins with the reviewers of each piece to keep the process moving forward smoothly.
“Without camaraderie among students, among editors, how could we overcome the problems in the process? Our work requires a lot of cooperation,” Zou said. “Keeping a good relationship with each other — that's beneficial to both your own work and to the whole well-being of the group.”
Once the scholarly reviewers have submitted their notes, a revision goes out to the author, who has two months to complete editing. After this revised version comes back to the editors, the student editorial staff copy-edit and format the piece readying it for publication.
The final product is a professional, peer-reviewed issue of an academic undergraduate journal, which can either be printed or read on the website. It serves as a gateway into academia for both the editors who learn from the process, and for the student authors who are able to publish early and get a foothold in their field.
Creating the journal and submitting to it can be arduous and intimidating to both prospective editors and authors who fear rejection or the unknown. But it’s worth it, Polimera says.
“Don't be scared of rejection,” she urges fellow students. “The worst that can happen is we say ‘no.’ And when we say ‘no,’ we're always going to welcome you back.”
Information on submitting to the Undergraduate Journal of History can be found on its website, which includes past journal issues and a podcast. Students interested in participating in the journal should contact Jarett Henderson in the History Department.
Nichole Poblete is a fourth-year History major at UCSB. She wrote this article for her Writing Program course Digital Journalism.