Mission Statement
The goal of the Columbia Undergraduate Research Journal (CURJ) is to foster interdisciplinary academia at the undergraduate level. Towards this end, CURJ will publish each edition with a designated topic that may vary in specificity (topics could be as specific as gender in New York City during the 1970s or as broad as postmodern art); CURJ will cover this topic by incorporating as many different subject areas as possible. In other words, CURJ seeks to narrow its focus/topic to broaden the scope of research that can be incorporated. To ground this in an example, one issue may have its “focus” as gender in New York City during the 1970s, which will then incorporate economic research on social inequality based on gender during that time, historical research on the roots of LGBTQ clubs like the Studio 54, an analysis of Andy Warhol’s art, an urban studies piece covering the housing situations of women in the 1970s, and so on. The job of the editorial board will be to select, edit, and bring together research papers in a way that creates a cohesive image or connected narrative of an edition’s designated topic. The goal is not necessarily to send a message, but to provide as many perspectives from as many disciplines as possible to create a full picture.
Aim & Scope
The primary goal of the Columbia Undergraduate Research Journal is to provide undergraduate readers with high-quality academic articles from a variety of disciplines focused through the lens of specific topics; each edition of the journal will have a different designated issue or topic through which to build interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and diverse academia.
The Journal is meant to highlight undergraduate work across the world and promote academia. While we prioritize publishing the work of Columbia University students, the journal will publish exceptional papers from other undergraduate students.
In addition, there may be events with professors and organizations to promote development in academic careers. CURJ may also host social events to connect those interested in academia to each other.
Open Access Statement
CURJ is an open-access journal, which means that all content is licensed as CC-BY and freely available without charge to the user or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. Authors retain their copyright and agree to license their articles. CURJ is a no-fee journal. Authors are not charged for the publication of their articles.
Archiving Policy
CURJ is archived in Columbia University’s Academic Commons. Academic Commons is Columbia University’s institutional repository, offering long-term public access to research shared by the Columbia community. A program of the Columbia University Libraries, Academic Commons provides secure, replicated storage for files in multiple formats. Academic Commons assigns a DOI and accurate metadata to each work to enhance discoverability.
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
Ethics Statement and Plagiarism Policy
CURJ upholds a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism by prospective authors. Any concerns should be directly addressed to the editorial board of CURJ. In the interest of a fair deliberation process, CURJ requires all members of its editorial board to report conflicts of interest.
AI use is not per se banned, however the author must report any use of AI and exactly how they used it. After that point the editorial board will determine if the use is acceptable. Typically, only copy editing AI use (like grammarly) will be permissible.