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Sharpening skills in student research

The interdisciplinary Northwestern Undergraduate Research Journal immerses students in the peer- and faculty-review process

When McCormick senior Helen Zhu arrived at Northwestern as a freshman, she knew she wanted to foster her interests in STEM, journalism and design. Luckily, she found an outlet for all three in the Northwestern Undergraduate Research Journal (NURJ).  

Zhu joined the NURJ as a designer, creating polished layouts for the printed journal. 

“I'm a McCormick student with predominantly STEM classes,” Zhu said. “So being able to use a different side of my brain and my different interests was really fun to me as a freshman.” 

Now, as a senior, Zhu co-leads the publication alongside Weinberg senior Mychaela Mathews. 

The NURJ is the only peer- and faculty-reviewed undergraduate research publication at Northwestern. Its staff publishes student research and feature stories online twice a year, alongside two print products annually. The first is a magazine based on a research project the NURJ’s STEM team works on throughout the year, deep diving into a Northwestern-related topic of their choosing. The second is the annual print journal, a compilation of senior theses and feature stories written by NURJ staffers. 

More than 80 students are currently part of the NURJ staff, all working on one of its seven teams: online editorial, print editorial, design, STEM, outreach, development, and web development. 

What sets the NURJ apart, according to Zhu, is its interdisciplinary focus.  

“We have put great efforts into trying to expand past just STEM, and we now have equal, if not more, humanities research pieces,” Zhu said. “Of course, we have the hard sciences and STEM as well, but we wanted to push the fact that students who study any subject in any department can do an honors thesis or research.”  

For example, the featured an electrical and computer engineering thesis titled “Structural Characterization via X-Ray Crystallography of III-Nitrides for APDs,” and an Art History thesis, “Illustrating Indigeneity: Xie Sui’s Huang Qing Zhigang Tu and the Critical Reevaluation of its Depictions of Aboriginal Taiwanese Peoples.”  

Together, the NURJ staff manages its print journal from outreach to students and faculty to meticulously editing each thesis and creating a polished final product.  

A faculty adviser signs off on each senior thesis prior to publication in the NURJ, validating the quality of the research. The peer review is conducted by the NURJ’s print editorial team, which curate a list of high-quality theses from a range of topics and disciplines, working with their authors to prepare the pieces for publication.  

Throughout the process, the NURJ team provides guidance for students who are new to academic publication to hone their skills. 

“The whole basis of NURJ is to provide undergraduate students with the opportunity to publish their work in a peer-reviewed and faculty-reviewed journal,” Mathews said. “It can be hard to get published, so this is a great first step to walk through the publication process before attempting to do it on your own later on.” 

Beyond the research and writing skills learned through the NURJ’s publication process, Mathews noted the strong community present among the NURJ’s staff. She joined the publication as part of its outreach team, soliciting senior theses submissions and collaborating with students and faculty across the University, which helped her become more connected with a community of scholars.  

Mathews said she was excited to find a community passionate about “intellectual risk taking and curiosity,” traits she found in her fellow NURJ staffers. 

“Not only do we want to be productive and put all of our efforts towards a goal, which is our publication, but we also become a very strong community that has a good sense of self and values our relationships with others,” Mathews said. 

Students can get involved and submit research to the NURJ by emailing eic@thenurj.org.