Lifting All Boats: Fostering a Community of Practice for Student Publishers

Undergraduate and graduate students are increasingly being encouraged to work with faculty and researchers to generate traditional scholarship, as well as other types of projects that feature original content. Through this process, students are more frequently taking on roles as researchers, authors, and publishers. Student scholarship and student-run publications are valuable to the scholarly record, representing the nascent activities of the next generation of scholars, but also serving as an academic playground for emergent forms of publishing and media. Furthermore, students who manage publications gain practical skills that transfer to a variety of careers in academia and private industry. However, student publications are often struggling and are occasionally invisible. They face many of the same sustainability problems affecting the broader publishing industry, as well as unique problems inherent in student publications. These groups frequently need and often seek a combination of professional mentorship and a forum for peer group interactions to advance their publishing goals. At Georgetown University, Ohio University, and the University of Maryland, university presses and libraries have each leveraged their expertise and resources to research the student publishing landscape and develop a low-risk program to build a community of practice for student publications.