03/13/18
HAYS, Kan. – The Academic Leadership Journal in Student Research has returned to Fort Hays State University after a two-year absence. FHSU’s Graduate School and Forsyth Library have joined to relaunch the journal.

The journal was first published under the guidance of Dr. Jerry Spotswood, assistant dean of the Graduate School until he left FHSU in 2016.

Dr. Jennifer Bonds-Raacke, dean of the Graduate School, and Deborah Ludwig, dean of Forsyth Library, began studying in the summer of 2017 the feasibility of restarting the journal, using the library's FHSU Scholars Repository to administer the publishing process from submission through review and finally publishing, including hosting the content.

“Because both the FHSU Graduate School and Forsyth Library are hubs of knowledge discovery and creation, we feel the two are obvious partners for publishing a journal,” said Bonds-Raacke.

“Both departments are deeply involved in facilitating the growth and promotion of student research as well as sharing our expertise,” she said. “It is only natural that we would extend that commitment to student scholars around the world.”

Dr. Kim Chappell, assistant professor of advanced education programs, and Jennifer Sauer, coordinator of scholar services and electronic resources librarian at Forsyth Library, will be the editors.

“Faculty act as indispensable guides, mentors and research partners for students interested in pursuing research,” said Sauer. “Academic Leadership Journal in Research will provide student scholars with a credible venue for publishing the results of those efforts and with an introduction to the scholarly publishing process.”

The journal is an open access, peer reviewed international journal dedicated to the publication of student research (undergraduate and graduate) within all disciplines and of pedagogically based professional work that explores the intersection of student research with teaching and faculty research. It will be published annually.

The journal’s mission is to provide a forum for exceptional student research and to promote collaboration between students and teachers in the classroom, laboratory, and field.

The journal’s URL is https://scholars.fhsu.edu/aljsr.