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. USURJ also publishes undergraduate student artwork and research snapshots. Established experts in the relevant field review article submissions. 

Peer Review Process

Review Policy

Peer review allows the USURJ Editorial Board to make informed, fair assessments of potential articles for publication and provides invaluable feedback to authors regarding the strengths of their articles and areas requiring improvement.

Upon submission, each author will be asked to submit the names of at least two University of Saskatchewan faculty members with expertise in a related research area (excluding the author's author 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; this is a starting point for the editorial board. To find reviewers, try looking through Staff and Faculty listed on your department's 

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

Based on the reviewer reviewers, the Editorial Board will:
  • Accept the manuscript with minor revisions; 
  • Accept, conditional upon the reviewer'reviewer'sstantial 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 review is inconclusive, the Editorial Board may ask an additional reviewer to assess the manuscript before making a decision. After receiving reviews, authors typically have two weeks to revise their manuscript to address reviewer comments. Following the resubmission of the revised manuscript, the Editorial Board will decide whether to accept or reject the 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 in an issue and celebrated two to three times a 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.