By Rachel Shomer|Co-Editor in Chief
In the Spring of 2015, five students embarked on forming Augusta University’s Undergraduate Research Journal, the Arsenal. Co-Associate Editors Amberly Walton and Natasha Venugopal sat down to discuss the journal’s creation and benefits of being published.The Arsenal aims to showcase student research from all disciplines while providing the opportunity to spotlight scholarly work in a professional outlet, prepare for future presentations, and involve undergraduates in the peer review process.Senior chemistry major Amberly Walton joined after receiving an email from a group of students recruiting to initiate an academic journal.“So, I was interested as a freshman, second semester. I showed up at this meeting, and it was a bunch of juniors and seniors. The main individual there was Khadijah Alexander, and the journal was really kind of her brainchild in a lot of ways. She had this team and this vision, and then she assembled a group of individuals," Walton recalled.The main students involved with the journal’s founding were alumni Khadijah Alexander, Dan Gozan, James Layton, Amberly Walton, and Adam White. Gozan and Walton are the last remaining of the original team. “It was about a year and a half of piecing, and working and research, looking at different journals and we managed to piece together the Arsenal,” Walton stated.One of the main reasons the Arsenal's leading founder, Khadijah Alexander, wanted a student-led journal was due to being part of a research institution, according to Walton.Her vision was passed down to Walton.“Giving people the chance to get inside of the peer review process and get their foot in the door in the process of publication was really our main striving goal because of serving the students.”Alexander also strived to include all departments in the journal.“This was her way of saying let’s get these disciplines together and focus on research on other areas as well as opposed to being heavily focused on the medical side,” Walton said.As with many college publications, the Arsenal faces challenges regarding spreading the word, needing additional time and funding poses difficulty for generating publicity.Having joined in the fall of 2015, junior cell and molecular biology major and Co-Associate Editor Natasha Venugopal said that the hardest issue they face is getting students to submit their research.“Getting them to submit is the problem. I mean we’ve done a lot of posters; we’ve tried to go to all those club fairs, and still, we have a lot of people signing up or do want to submit or review. I guess a lot of people don’t follow through.”Currently, the Arsenal is searching for a marketing intern; the position is nonpaid but looks significant on a resume or curriculum vitae.The experience of working on the Arsenal has proved rewarding for Walton and Venugopal.“It’s definitely the collaborative effort. Being able to coordinate with the faculty mentors and faculty board, and our board – the student board – and being able to kind of go interchange between all of them to make something work and make something out of it is really gratifying.”“Just learning to work with different people in this kind of environment where you learn a lot of give and take, and you learn how to compromise a bit especially when we’re in the stage of actually determining how the journal would function and laying down the guidelines for publication. You had five or six people in a room, and everyone had an idea of how to do it," Walton said.There are many advantages to publishing your work in the Arsenal. Walton emphasized the peer review process as being a learning outcome.“It is an actual publication with a DOI number. So, just being able to say you went through the peer review process is very valuable looking at graduate schools. And there’s no guarantee a paper will get into a national journal. Especially if you’re going into the area of academics, you will be expected to participate in this process at some point. So, being able to say I have done this; I have this experience is huge. Also, it looks great on your CV and resume.”Publishing jumpstarts entry into presenting research, Venugopal explained.“I think just the effort you put into getting published also means that effort can be translated into presentations and posters.”To submit papers to the Arsenal, please visit http://guides.augusta.edu/Arsenal/formDeadline for the Spring 2018 issue is March 2. Rolling submissions will be accepted. For inquiries, contact arsenal@augusta.edu Contact Rachel Shomer at rshomer@augusta.edu