My Crash Course on Founding a Student Journal

During this year's back-to-school season, I'm reflecting on the experiences that piqued my interest in editing. As an undergrad, I volunteered with the University of Alberta's Spectrum journal. I enjoyed the experience so much that, when I realized there wasn't any graduate-level English journal at McGill University (where I had accepted to start my graduate studies), I founded Caret. Today I'd like to share a "crash course" of what the founding editorial board did to get the journal up and running.

We completed 3 big tasks in our semester-long planning stage:

1. Writing information documents

2. Understanding everyone's strengths

3. Clarifying our relationships

1. Writing Information Documents

The first of these documents was a to-do list, and it was certainly daunting! Once we had our goals in front of us, though, we succeeded in writing our:

a) Editorial Aims and Scope

b) Editorial Workflow

c) Author Guidelines

d) Author Agreement

e) Submission Guidelines

f) Reviewer Guidelines

g) Reviewer Sign-Up Form

For each document, we delegated 2-3 people to write a draft. Then, during our next meeting, we read out the draft and made small changes. We completed the process by completing related documents, such as a chart that visualized the editorial workflow. Each document found a place in a Google Drive folder, depending on when we would use it during the editorial process:

(A screenshot of Google Drive folders used to organize Caret's resources into the steps of the Editorial Workflow: 1. Planning/Resources, 2. Recruitment, 3. Preliminary Review, 4. Peer Review, 5. Copyediting, 6. Proofreading, 7. Promotion/Outreach)

2. Understanding Everyone's Strengths

Once we had clarified how and why the journal would run, we started thinking of ways that each member of the editorial board could contribute to the project. We fostered an environment of collaboration: some of us already had experience building websites or designing logos, some of us wanted to work directly with authors while others had a passion for proofreading, and some of us even favoured planning events like editor recruitment picnics and issue launch parties. As the managing editor, I delegated tasks based on people's comfort and desire to do them.

3. Clarifying Our Relationships

Our journal began running, but it was really just a dozen or so graduate students trying out new tasks. We gave Caret a more solid place at McGill by getting other people involved: our graduate student association could consider us as a part of their Professional Development committee; the campus library could provide resources about copyright and where to store print issues; groups to promote Scholarly Communications could teach us at workshops like "Student Journals 101."

Just like freelance editing, founding a student journal is an exciting and challenging experience. It inspires editors and writers to be creative, apply what they've learned during their studies, organize their work, and discover helpful resources. And, best of all, it gives editors the opportunity to work with new authors and read interesting texts every day.