Ohio Northern’s Undergraduate Research Journal “Aurora” Makes Return to Campus

Ohio Northern University harbors several student publications – PRestige for public relations, Polaris for art and literature, the Law Review and International Law Journal for all things law, Pharmacy Wellness (PAW) Review, and – of course – Northern Review. Soon, another will join their ranks: The Aurora research journal.

Aurora is an interdisciplinary journal focused on undergraduate level research. Its first and only issue on Digital Commons was published in 2020, and contains five submissions. Topics included exercise physiology, psychology, and education under the issue’s theme “Better You, Better ONU: Advances in athletics, public health, and safety.” Four of these submissions read as traditional academic papers from 10-13 pages in length (including references). The fifth is a copy of a poster presentation. 

Now, Aurora is once again soliciting submissions from all majors and minors. A call for submissions provided to Northern Review indicates Aurora is “first university-wide undergraduate research journal at Ohio Northern University,” and affirms the journal’s aim to support research from multiple disciplines.

In addition to receiving its submissions from undergraduate ONU students, Aurora is edited and published by undergrad Polar Bears. A 1-6 credit hour course, ENGL 2531: Web Publishing Practicum, provides students the chance to earn academic credit for contributing to Aurora’s administration. There are no prerequisites, and the course is being offered again Spring semester for up to 15 students.

Bryan Lutz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at Ohio Northern, is the faculty advisor for Aurora and the instructor of record for the Practicum. He feels students should read Aurora “to learn what researchers their age are accomplishing at ONU.” He also feels that Aurora provides valuable experience to the students who administer it: “Want to learn submissions management? How do you market a journal? What is the workflow of editing and publishing? What are the W3 schools, HTML, and CSS?” 

Readership of Aurora’s first issue (demonstrated in the figure below) reached 86 countries and 196 academic institutions. One of Lutz’ goals for the Journal’s revival is to expand on its international standing by publishing submissions from other countries.

Jalynn Brownlee, sophomore Language Arts Education major, is a member of the marketing team at Aurora. She says, “[w]e aim to foster a research journal that demonstrates what ONU has to offer from the whole college. We hope to encourage students to publish work who may not have thought about the idea before.” Part of this work includes reviving the journal’s Instagram page, which previously hadn’t been active in over four years.