Let’s put on a show! Creating an interdisciplinary student journal

In response to unsustainable serials subscription models, academic libraries have had a growing role in advocating for and supporting technological solutions for new forms of publishing, such as open access journals. By engaging in the scholarly publishing process with librarians, faculty, and students as the major stakeholders, we can continue the transformation of scholarly publishing begun by OA visionaries.

Cancellation of the TWU Research Symposium in 2020 due to the pandemic presented an opportunity to think about new ways to support students and introduce them to a new, open-access world. SLIS faculty and Blagg-Huey library staff began to talk about what could be done, and dreamed of an interdisciplinary, experiential student journal that could offer hands-on opportunities in scholarly publication. In this presentation we share our goals and experiences with the creation of the TWU Student Journal, as well as challenges we have faced so far -- and our next steps.