Have you heard about the Essex Student Journal? Get involved in Student Publishing Week!

Introducing the Essex Student Journal

Looking to get your work published? Want to boost your writing or reviewing skills? Find out more in this blog post introducing the Essex Student Journal, our new Journal Editor, and inviting you to join our Student Publishing Focus Week!

The Essex Student Journal is an open access journal that gives Undergraduate and Masters students here at Essex the opportunity to publish their work in an official journal, improve their writing skills, and gain experience of the publishing process in a supportive environment. PGR students share their expertise through peer reviewing submissions, honing a vital skill for future careers in and out of academia.

Every year, we hire a new PGR student to be the Student Journal Editor, and for the 2023/24 academic year we are pleased to introduce Kimia Aghasoleimani! As is tradition, Kimia has written a short piece introducing herself. Be sure to look out for Kimia later in the year at various events! To further introduce you to what Kimia and the rest of the Journal Team does, we have organised a Student Publishing Focus Week, showcasing to students of all levels the variety of opportunities available with the Essex Student Journal.

Focus Week – what's on?

To get the Journal’s year going, we’ve put together a selection of sessions and information to help potential authors and reviewers. During the week, we will also be launching our call for submissions for the Journal for this academic year, including for our Sustainability Special Issue and our new Creative Writing pilot scheme (more info below).

Some of the sessions include:

• How to publish with the Essex Student Journal - an introduction for Undergraduate and Masters student about what and how to publish your writing with the Journal.
• How to approach the peer review process - an overview of the peer reviewing process for staff and PGR students, using the Essex Student Journal as a case study.
• Preparing to publish with the Essex Student Journal drop-in session - an opportunity for you to ask the Student Journal Team your questions about publishing with us.

You can find a full breakdown of the events with all the booking information on the University events page.

To stay up to date on the information and sessions during the week, follow us on Twitter/X and Instagram.

Submit to our Sustainability Special Issue

Following the success of last year’s special issue on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity, we are launching a special issue on Sustainability.

Sustainability is about much more than the environment alone, with topics ranging from poverty, equality, and education, to responsible use of resources, industry and infrastructure, and peace.

If you are interested in writing on any of the topics covered by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, we can publish it under this special issue.

During our Focus Week, the Sustainability Team will be running their Students Writing for Sustainability session, where you can find out more about sustainability and how to incorporate it into your writing and assignments.

Announcing our Creative Writing Pilot Scheme!

Last, but certainly not least, we are pleased to announce that we will be launching a Creative Writing pilot scheme as part of our Student Publishing Focus Week, inviting short fiction submissions (up to 3,000 words) from Undergraduate and Masters students. You don’t need to be studying creative writing or an associated subject to submit.

We are also looking for postgraduate students to act as creative writing peer reviewers. This is open to all postgraduates who are currently studying, or have previously studied, creative writing or associated subjects. This is a great opportunity to develop your reviewing and feedback skills. You can find more information and the link to sign up on the Student Journal website.

We are looking to expand the pilot to other submission types (e.g., poetry and scripts) later in the academic year. You can register your interest to be the first to hear when submissions for these types open.

What next?

• Check out the Student Publishing Week schedule
• PhD students – become a peer reviewer
• Undergraduate and Masters students – find out how to submit and register your interest in creative writing
• Read Kimia’s introduction to herself and the Journal
• Stay up to date with us on Twitter/X and Instagram

If you have any questions about the Journal, the Sustainability Special Issue, or Creative Writing with the Journal, you can contact the Team via journal@essex.ac.uk.

We’re excited to be able to work with such a wide variety of people through the Essex Student Journal, and to provide a unique opportunity that is rarely available to students. We look forward to seeing you during our Student Publishing Focus Week, and throughout the year!