Succession & Sustainability - Presentations - Video

Succession & Sustainability - Presentations
Moderated by Michelle Wilson, The University of Maryland Libraries
Maintaining a Successful Academic Journal at a Small College
Barry Devine, Cecilia Groth, Maddisen Mikkelsen, The Rock Creek Review, Heidelberg University
How to Build an Editorial SOP for your Student Journal
Cecilia Gray, Gwendolyn Harrison, Jessicah Jensen, Kimiko Hammari, Alexus Wall, GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing, George Washington University

Maintaining a Successful Academic Journal at a Small College
Barry Devine, Cecilia Groth, The Rock Creek Review, Heidelberg University
Maintaining both student interest and faculty participation in the publication of an undergraduate academic journal can be a challenge. Students come and go every year, and faculty can often change with little notice. The Rock Creek Review at Heidelberg University has developed a simple formula that is easily transferrable from one Managing Editor to the next and from one Faculty Advisor to the next with little to no interruption. While some undergraduate publications struggle to make it past two to three years, The Rock Creek Review is competing its sixth annual issue and is setting up the editorial staff for our seventh. We are happy to share our process so that other schools can establish and maintain publication opportunities for undergraduate research.

How to Build an Editorial SOP for your Student Journal
Cecilia Gray, Gwendolyn Harrison, Jessicah Jensen, Kimiko Hammari, Alexus Wall, GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing, George Washington University
Student journals experience frequent turnover in our leadership and community members; this constant shift in involvement can make continuity a persistent challenge. Over the past year, the GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing (GWJEP) has worked intentionally to preserve institutional knowledge by developing comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to document editorial and operational workflows. These SOPs guide articles through submission, review, revision, and publication; revision feedback to authors—especially those in the humanities or publishing fields who may be unfamiliar with scholarly processes; how we write and evaluate various types of content; social media campaigns; and managing student volunteers, including strategies for addressing inactivity. GWJEP team leads will share process for creating effective SOPs, templates we’ve developed, and examples of how these documents have improved our day-to-day operations. We will also discuss the tangible benefits other student-run journals can expect to experience by implementing SOPs, including smoother transitions and reduced labor between teams, clearer expectations for new staff, and ultimately more sustainable operations. Attendees will leave with the knowledge of practical steps to take to create, implement, and maintain SOPs in their own publications.