Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

USURJ is an online, peer-reviewed scholarly journal featuring original work by University of Saskatchewan undergraduate students. Founded by undergraduate students, the journal celebrates undergraduate contributions to research. USURJ publishes high-quality research and review articles written by undergraduates in all disciplines and professional colleges. All submissions are reviewed by established experts in the relevant field.

Peer Review Process

Review Policy

Peer review is integral to USURJ’s editorial process. It allows the Editorial Board to make informed, fair assessments of potential articles for publication and provides invaluable feedback to authors regarding strengths of their article and areas requiring improvement.

Upon submission, each author will be asked to submit the names of at least two University of Saskatchewan faculty members or doctoral students with expertise in a related research area (excluding the author’s supervisor or course instructor in which the research was conducted) to aid the Editorial Board in determining potential reviewers. Reviewers from other institutions may be named as well. These potential reviewers will not necessarily review your paper; rather, this is a starting point for the editorial board. To find reviewers, try looking through Staff and Faculty listed on your Department's website. 

Manuscripts will be reviewed by the USURJ Editorial Board, and provided the article falls within the scope of the journal, the Editorial Board will forward the manuscript to a reviewer with expertise in a related area of research. USURJ employs a double-blind review process which means that the author’s identity will be concealed from the reviewers and vice versa.

Based on the reviewer's comments, the Editorial Board will:
  • Accept the manuscript with minor revisions; 
  • Accept, conditional upon reviewer's more substantial concerns being addressed in revisions;
  • Reject for the current issue, but indicate to the authors that further work may justify resubmission for a future issue; or
  • Reject outright.

If a reviewer's comments are inconclusive, the Editorial Board may ask an additional reviewer to assess the manuscript before making a decision. After receiving reviewers’ comments, authors will typically have a two-week period to revise their manuscript to address reviewers’ concerns. Following the resubmission of the revised manuscript, the Editorial Board will make a final decision regarding acceptance or rejection for current publication. This process can take some time and depends on the availability of reviewers. We appreciate your patience throughout. 

Publication Frequency

USURJ submissions are published continuously, but collected into winter and spring issues each year.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a global exchange of knowledge. USURJ is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

USURJ does not have article processing fees, nor does it have article submission charges.

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.