By By: BEKKA OXLEY
Staff Writer
Being an editor-in-chief of a publication at IU South Bend has its rewards and challenges. The four editors of the publications featured in this year’s Undergraduate Research Conference would all agree that such a position takes lots of time and even more energy. The days leading up to the unveiling of the publications were stressful ones, but they all said it was worth the time, commitment and dedication to be able to present student work in publications that mean so much to each of them.
Angie Rice: ‘Analecta’
Senior Angie Rice said that it is basically a year-long process to get the journals published. From advertising and collecting submissions to editing stories and designing them to fit the format of the journals, it pretty much takes two full semesters of work for each publication.
“Fall semester is when you start advertising for submissions and getting your editorial staff and your cover designer in place,” Rice said. “Most of my fall semester was spent designing ‘swag’ (posters, bookmarks, flyers, etc.) for advertising. The spring semester is when the work load gets really heavy. ‘Analecta’s’ deadline was in February, so I basically had four to five weeks to review the submissions with my editorial team, vote on the submissions, choose the submissions that were going into ‘Analecta’, edit the pieces (if required) and put it all into InDesign according to the printer’s standards.”
Rice said that even though the past few weeks have been hectic ones for her, it was worth every moment of her time to see the final result of her hard work.
“Positions like this definitely make you question yourself and your abilities,even though everyone else has all the confidence in the world in you,”related Rice. “It takes a special kind of crazy to take on something like this, but in the end, when you get to see the final result of something you put together, you find that all the craziness was totally worth it. You get to see what you’re made of.”
Joe Eggleston: ‘Undergraduate Research Journal’
For Senior Joe Eggleston, being a part of the publishing process was not a new experience, but being the head honcho was something he had to get used to.
“I’ve been an associate editor. I’ve done some of the pre-reading and gotten to be in on some of those decisions and meetings,” Eggleston explained. “It was really exciting. I worked for the ‘Undergraduate Research Journal of History’ a few years ago and I’ve done editorial work for ‘Analecta.’ I thought, ‘I’ve seen some of the pieces, but I wonder if I can manage to see the whole puzzle.’ It just seemed like a natural evolution. The next step was to take on the whole job and see how well I did at that.”
Eggleston said that one of the keys to putting the ‘Undergraduate Research Journa’l together was being able to recruit his friends as well as associate editors from the other publications to assist him in going through all the submissions and designing the journal itself.
“You can be really hands-on and want to do all the web work, the design work and all the editing in general if you wanted to, but that’s an awful lot,” Eggleston explained. “If you are not really willing to do all of that, then you end up getting associate editors to do pre-reading and people to help you out.”
Patricia Linner: ‘New Views on Gender’
Senior Patricia Linner believes her publication differs from others as it offers readers more than just research.
“NVG is unique in that we publish not only research papers but also creative works and artwork,” Linner said. “This combination allows the theme of gender to really stand out.” She also said that she wanted to be the editor of ‘New Views on Gender’ because she is passionate about the subject matter of the journal.
“I was interested in editing the publication because I work as a writer and editing is a passion of mine,” Linner said. “I previously published a bi-monthly newspaper here in Michiana titled ‘Michiana Woman,’ so the subject matter is close to my heart. It is a fun project and one that I strongly believe in. There are so many viewpoints on gender and this is a great way to share IUSB student impressions. We have such a wide variety of students here on campus and can learn a great deal from each other’s worldviews.”
Veronica Cruz: ‘Undergraduate Research Journal of History’
Senior Veronica Cruz said that she encountered some difficult experiences throughout her time as an editor.
“A challenging experience was definitely working with InDesign because I had never worked with it before,” Cruz admitted. “Deadlines are also challenging, getting everything to our printers in time, getting it ready by the research conference.”
Despite the challenges, Cruz still enjoyed her editing experience because she felt that she could encourage students at IU South Bend to get their work published.
“To me, it’s a great experience,” Cruz said. “I feel like I’m helping my fellow history students or whomever to get their work out there, to get published. I’m trying to say ‘Hey, your work is great and we want to see it published.’ You can get acclamations from your peers and faculty advisors. It’s a great honor to do it. I believe everyone on this campus is able to do it and I think they should do it.”
