publishing undergraduate thesis

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The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Thesis Published in a Journal

• 7-minute read
• 25th February 2023

Writing your thesis and getting it published are huge accomplishments. However, publishing your thesis in an academic journal is another journey for scholars. Beyond how much hard work, time, and research you invest, having your findings published in a scholarly journal is vital for your reputation as a scholar and also advances research findings within your field.

This guide will walk you through how to make sure your thesis is ready for publication in a journal. We’ll go over how to prepare for pre-publication, how to submit your research, and what to do after acceptance.

Pre-Publication Preparations

Understanding the publishing process.

Ideally, you have already considered what type of publication outlet you want your thesis research to appear in. If not, it’s best to do this so you can tailor your writing and overall presentation to fit that publication outlet’s expectations. When selecting an outlet for your research, consider the following:

●  How well will my research fit the journal?

●  Are the reputation and quality of this journal high?

●  Who is this journal’s readership/audience?

●  How long does it take the journal to respond to a submission?

●  What’s the journal’s rejection rate?

Once you finish writing, revising, editing, and proofreading your work (which can take months or years), expect the publication process to be an additional three months or so.

Revising Your Thesis

Your thesis will need to be thoroughly revised, reworked, reorganized, and edited before a journal will accept it. Journals have specific requirements for all submissions, so read everything on a journal’s submission requirements page before you submit. Make a checklist of all the requirements to be sure you don’t overlook anything. Failing to meet the submission requirements could result in your paper being rejected.

Areas for Improvement

No doubt, the biggest challenge academics face in this journey is reducing the word count of their thesis to meet journal publication requirements. Remember that the average thesis is between 60,000 and 80,000 words, not including footnotes, appendices, and references. On the other hand, the average academic journal article is 4,000 to 7,000 words. Reducing the number of words this much may seem impossible when you are staring at the year or more of research your thesis required, but remember, many have done this before, and many will do it again. You can do it too. Be patient with the process.

Additional areas of improvement include>

·   having to reorganize your thesis to meet the section requirements of the journal you submit to ( abstract, intro , methods, results, and discussion).

·   Possibly changing your reference system to match the journal requirements or reducing the number of references.

·   Reformatting tables and figures.

·   Going through an extensive editing process to make sure everything is in place and ready.

Identifying Potential Publishers

Many options exist for publishing your academic research in a journal. However, along with the many credible and legitimate publishers available online, just as many predatory publishers are out there looking to take advantage of academics. Be sure to always check unfamiliar publishers’ credentials before commencing the process. If in doubt, ask your mentor or peer whether they think the publisher is legitimate, or you can use Think. Check. Submit .

If you need help identifying which journals your research is best suited to, there are many tools to help. Here’s a short list:

○  Elsevier JournalFinder

○  EndNote Matcher

○  Journal/Author Name Estimator (JANE)

○  Publish & Flourish Open Access

·   The topics the journal publishes and whether your research will be a good fit.

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·   The journal’s audience (whom you want to read your research).

·   The types of articles the journal publishes (e.g., reviews, case studies).

·   Your personal requirements (e.g., whether you’re willing to wait a long time to see your research published).

Submitting Your Thesis

Now that you have thoroughly prepared, it’s time to submit your thesis for publication. This can also be a long process, depending on peer review feedback.

Preparing Your Submission

Many publishers require you to write and submit a cover letter along with your research. The cover letter is your sales pitch to the journal’s editor. In the letter, you should not only introduce your work but also emphasize why it’s new, important, and worth the journal’s time to publish. Be sure to check the journal’s website to see whether submission requires you to include specific information in your cover letter, such as a list of reviewers.

Whenever you submit your thesis for publication in a journal article, it should be in its “final form” – that is, completely ready for publication. Do not submit your thesis if it has not been thoroughly edited, formatted, and proofread. Specifically, check that you’ve met all the journal-specific requirements to avoid rejection.

Navigating the Peer Review Process

Once you submit your thesis to the journal, it will undergo the peer review process. This process may vary among journals, but in general, peer reviews all address the same points. Once submitted, your paper will go through the relevant editors and offices at the journal, then one or more scholars will peer-review it. They will submit their reviews to the journal, which will use the information in its final decision (to accept or reject your submission).

While many academics wait for an acceptance letter that says “no revisions necessary,” this verdict does not appear very often. Instead, the publisher will likely give you a list of necessary revisions based on peer review feedback (these revisions could be major, minor, or a combination of the two). The purpose of the feedback is to verify and strengthen your research. When you respond to the feedback , keep these tips in mind:

●  Always be respectful and polite in your responses, even if you disagree.

●  If you do disagree, be prepared to provide supporting evidence.

●  Respond to all the comments, questions, and feedback in a clear and organized manner.

●  Make sure you have sufficient time to make any changes (e.g., whether you will need to conduct additional experiments).

After Publication

Once the journal accepts your article officially, with no further revisions needed, take a moment to enjoy the fruits of your hard work. After all, having your work appear in a distinguished journal is not an easy feat. Once you’ve finished celebrating, it’s time to promote your work. Here’s how you can do that:

●  Connect with other experts online (like their posts, follow them, and comment on their work).

●  Email your academic mentors.

●  Share your article on social media so others in your field may see your work.

●  Add the article to your LinkedIn publications.

●  Respond to any comments with a “Thank you.”

Getting your thesis research published in a journal is a long process that goes from reworking your thesis to promoting your article online. Be sure you take your time in the pre-publication process so you don’t have to make lots of revisions. You can do this by thoroughly revising, editing, formatting, and proofreading your article.

During this process, make sure you and your co-authors (if any) are going over one another’s work and having outsiders read it to make sure no comma is out of place.

What are the benefits of getting your thesis published?

Having your thesis published builds your reputation as a scholar in your field. It also means you are contributing to the body of work in your field by promoting research and communication with other scholars.

How long does it typically take to get a thesis published?

Once you have finished writing, revising, editing, formatting, and proofreading your thesis – processes that can add up to months or years of work – publication can take around three months. The exact length of time will depend on the journal you submit your work to and the peer review feedback timeline.

How can I ensure the quality of my thesis when attempting to get it published?

If you want to make sure your thesis is of the highest quality, consider having professionals proofread it before submission (some journals even require submissions to be professionally proofread). Proofed has helped thousands of researchers proofread their theses. Check out our free trial today.

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An Undergraduate's Guide to Funding and Publishing Research

• URECA and other SBU Research Programs and Opportunities
• Funding Your Research
• Publishing Your Research: Why and How?
• Publishing Your Research: List of Undergraduate Journals

SBU's own publications

Note that among the journals listed here are SBU's own publications such as  SBU Brooklogue ,  Young Investigator's Review  and the Stony Brook Undergraduate History Journal . 

How do I know whether my discipline is considered a Humanities or Social Science field?

Humanities includes fields such as Art History, Classics, English, Comparative Literature, History, Musicology, and Philosophy. Sometimes History can be considered broadly as either a Humanities or Social Science discipline, but for the sake of this list, most history journals are listed in the Arts & Humanities category. Likewise, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and related fields often use methods from both Humanities and Social Science research, so you might find related topics on either the Humanities or Social Science list. Psychology is another borderline discipline that might be classified as either a social science or STEM field. For the sake of this list, Psychology is listed with the Social Sciences. STEM fields are those affiliated with science, technology, engineering, or math.

Journals that publish undergraduate research

There are many journals that focus specifically on publishing undergraduate research. The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) keeps an ever growing list of journals that feature undergraduate work . However, many of those listed by CUR are hosted by a specific institution and might only publish the work of their own students, and others might not be peer-reviewed or have publishing fees, so read the descriptions carefully. And, as always, carefully review each journal's website, published articles, and the author submission guidelines before submitting your work.

Below is a list of selected journals that SBU undergraduates are eligible to submit to, organized into the following categories:

• Broad Scope: Journals that publish research in any disciplinary area.
• Arts and Humanities : Fields such as Art History, Classics, English, Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, History, Musicology, Philosophy, Theology, and Writing & Rhetoric. Sometimes History-related fields are also classified as a Social Science, but on this page, most history journals are in the Arts & Humanities category.
• Social Sciences: Fields such as Sociology, Psychology, Economics, International Affairs, Geography, Sustainability, Political Science, and Human Rights are included here.
• STEM : Fields in the hard sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Broad Scope: Journals that publish research in any discipline

• Aletheia: The Alpha Chi Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship Peer-reviewed journal for undergraduate scholarship run by the Alpha Chi National College Honor Society.
• American Journal of Undergraduate Research (AJUR) AJUR is a national, independent, faculty peer-reviewed, open-source, quarterly, multidisciplinary student research journal.
• Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research (BJUR) Submission of original, scholarly research articles is open to undergraduates from any accredited college or university. BJUR publishes scholarship across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
• Discussions: The Undergraduate Research Journal of Case Western Reserve University The journal accepts research papers written by current undergraduate students from accredited colleges and universities around the globe. The research can be on any topic.
• Inquiries: Social Sciences, Arts, & Humanities An open access academic journal focusing on publishing high quality original work across a range of disciplines, especially on work in the social sciences, arts, and humanities.
• International Journal of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities (IJURCA) Peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to the publication of outstanding scholarship by undergraduates and their mentors. Accepts submissions from all academic disciplines, including original research in the the form of articles and literature reviews, as well as creative work in a variety of media.
• Journal of Student Research Multidisciplinary and faculty-reviewed journal devoted to the rapid dissemination of current research done by high school, undergraduate, and graduate students.
• Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research Multidisciplinary scholarly journal produced by a team of Monmouth College student editors and faculty members with peer and faculty reviewers for each article.
• SBU Brooklogue SBU's exclusively undergraduate, peer-reviewed journal for humanities and social sciences.
• Undergraduate Research Journal Double-blind, educator-reviewed print and electronic journal published annually. A forum for multidisciplinary undergraduate research and creative endeavors including case studies, conceptual pieces, creative writing, journalism writings, literature reviews, original art, photography, and scientific studies. Highlights mentored undergraduate scholarly products across all disciplines from all types of higher education institutions.
• UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity The official undergraduate journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council. Submissions are accepted from undergraduates in the following categories: STEM, Social Science, Humanities, Fine Art, and Creative Writing.

Arts and Humanities

• Animus: The Undergraduate Classical Journal of the University of Chicago Supports undergraduate scholarship in the Classics and related fields.
• Apollon Undergraduate Journal A peer-reviewed journal run by faculty and students at Fairfield University. Any undergraduate student whose research was produced through coursework in the humanities may submit.
• Archive: An Undergraduate Journal of History Accepts submissions of History scholarship, including scholarly papers, articles, book reviews, and historical essays from undergraduate students of all majors from colleges and universities in the U.S. or abroad.
• Berkeley Undergraduate Journal of Classics Original manuscripts on any topic related to Classics from undergraduate students in any major at an institution which confers a bachelor's degree are eligible to submit.
• Clio's Scroll: The Berkeley Undergraduate History Journal The journal publishes articles by undergraduates and recent graduates of any university on historical topics.
• Dies Ligibiles: An Undergraduate Journal of Medieval Studies The journal accepts research papers, book reviews, translations, and art in English, French, and Spanish from any undergraduate student at any college or university. The work must pertain to the time period 400 - 1600 CE.
• Epistemai: An Undergraduate Philosophy Journal A student-run philosophy journal at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. The journal publishes short, original philosophical work done by undergraduates from universities across the country, and internationally.
• Falsafa: Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy Run by the Philosophy Club at the University of California, Irvine, this journal highlights philosophical ideas and research by undergraduates.
• Forbes & Fifth This undergraduate journal of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh considers both scholarly and creative work from students at any accredited university in the world.
• The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era Open access peer-reviewed undergraduate journal that publishes academic essays, public history essays, and book reviews on the Civil War Era.
• History Matters: An Undergraduate Journal of Historical Research An undergraduate history journal published annually by the Department of History at Appalachian State University. The journal is indexed by EBSCOhost's America: History and Life.
• Journal of Art History and Museum Studies (JAHMS) An undergraduate peer-reviewed journal that publishes undergraduate scholarship by a diverse coalition of student artists and historians.
• The Kennesaw Tower: Undergraduate Foreign Language Research Journal Annual undergraduate double blind and peer-reviewed journal publishes scholarly work of advanced undergraduates students in Chinese, FLED, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
• Mysterion: The Theology Journal of Boston College Publishes undergraduate research from around the world on topics related to theology.
• Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology Publishes essays written by undergraduate students from universities around the world. Topics include historical musicology, ethnomusicology, popular music studies, music theory, music education, and interdisciplinary subjects. Double blind review by professors across Canada.
• The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English Published annually, and requiring a faculty member's endorsement, the refereed journal in indexed in EBSCO and accepts undergraduate criticism and research in the field of English from students throughout the U.S. and abroad.
• Queen City Writers: a journal of undergraduate writing & composing Refereed journal that publishes essays and multimedia work by undergraduate students affiliated with any post-secondary institution. Topics covered include writing, rhetoric, reading, pedagogy, literacy broadly conceived, popular culture and media, community discourses and multimodal and digital composing.
• Rock Creek Review An undergraduate journal edited, produced and published at Heidelberg University in partnership with the English Department. The journal publishes literary research from schools around the world for an annual publication. Check the website for the "call for papers," which will explain the theme of the next issue.
• RhetTech Undergraduate Journal Run by students at James Madison University, this journal showcases exemplary work being done in undergraduate writing, rhetoric, and technical communication courses around the country.
• Simpliciter: Brandies Philosophy Journal Run by students at Brandeis University, this journal aims to recognize excellent works of philosophy produced by undergraduates from universities anywhere in the world.
• sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies A peer-reviewed journal devoted to the diverse voices of emerging scholar-activists, authors, and artists in Women's Gender & Queer Studies and related fields. First established at McGill University, sprinkle is now published at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and welcomes submissions from around the world.
• Stance: An International Undergraduate Philosophy Journal Peer-reviewed journal publishes original work by undergraduates from around the world.
• Stony Brook Undergraduate History Journal Peer-reviewed publication that showcases the research of SBU students writing about history at the local, national and international levels.
• UC Berkeley Comparative Literature Undergraduate Journal Publishes undergraduate research in comparative texts and media, treating a broad range of topics including theoretical literary discourse, international trends in literature, and comparisons for national literature. Showcases the best work across the U.S. and also highlight more contemplative writing by students regarding multicultural issues, culture shock, or transnational experiences such as studying abroad.
• UC Santa Barbara Undergraduate Journal of History A space for undergraduates to share original research other scholarly works of history. Reviewed by graduate students with faculty mentorship.
• The Word: The Stanford Journal of Student Hiphop Research Continually solicits research papers and blog content related to hiphop culture. An open-source, open peer-refereed journal. Open to undergraduates from any college or university.
• Xchanges: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Technical Communication, Rhetoric, and Writing Across the Curriculum The fall issues publishes these and research projects of upper-level undergraduate students. Submissions may be traditional articles or multimodal "webtexts." Based in the English Department at the University of New Mexico.
• Yale Historical Review Welcomes works from undergraduates at any institution on any historically relevant topic.
• Young Scholars in Writing (YSW) An international peer-reviewed journal. Publishes original research and theoretical articles by undergraduates of all majors and years on the subjects of rhetoric, writing, writers, discourse, language, and related topics.

Social Sciences

• Afkar: The Undergraduate Journal of Middle East Studies International peer-reviewed journal that accepts research articles, essays, and book reviews that focus on the politics, history, culture, and society of the Middle East and North Africa.
• Al Noor Boston College's Middle Eastern Studies journal. It is run by undergraduates and publishes work from students around the world.
• Chicago Journal of Foreign Policy: University of Chicago's Premiere Undergraduate Journal of International Affairs Accepts submissions from undergraduates from around the world on articles related to foreign policy, international relations, and related topics, preferably pertaining to the period since 1945..
• Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas A joint project of Northern Illinois University and Arizona State University, Compass publishes work related to American democracy understood in the broad contexts of political philosophy, history, literature, economics, and culture.
• Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development To encourage an international community to think more broadly, deeply, and analytically about sustainable development, the journal publishes work by students, researchers, professors, and practitioners from a variety of academic fields and geographic regions.
• Critique: a worldwide student journal of politics Peer-reviewed journal that publishes scholarship by students of political science. The journal is recognized by the American Political Science Association and indexed by EBSCO.
• The Developing Economist Student-run undergraduate economics research journal, published with support from the Longhorn Chapter of the Omicron Delta Epsilon Economics Honor Society and the Department of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin.
• Issues in Political Economy Co-edited by undergraduates at Elon University and the University of Mary Washington, the journal publishes undergraduate research in the field of economics and is indexed in Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Economics and Finance.
• Journal of Integrated Social Sciences A web-based, peer-reviewed journal committed to the scholarly investigation of social phenomena. We especially encourage students and their faculty advisors to submit the results of their investigations in Psychology, Sociology, and Gender Studies.
• Journal of Interpersonal Relations, Intergroup Relations, and Identity (JIRIRI) Affiliated with the Universite de Montreal, the international peer-reviewed journal publishes the work of undergraduates on new theoretical ideas in the fields of psychology, identity, interpersonal and intergroup relations. It publishes both theoretical and empirical articles.
• Journal of Politics and Society Published by the student group Helvidius at Columbia University, the journal focuses on undergraduate interdisciplinary research in the social sciences.
• The Journal of Undergraduate Ethnic Minority Psychology (JUEMP) Open access, double blind, peer-reviewed journal devoted to publishing research authored or co-authored by undergraduates. The journal is especially interested in submissions that are from ethnic minorities perspectives, that focus on the thoughts and behaviors of ethnic minority populations, or both.
• New Errands: The Undergraduate Journal of American Studies Sponsored by The Eastern American Studies Association and the American Studies Program at Penn State Harrisburg, this journal publishes undergraduate research in the field of American Studies.
• The Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Review International undergraduate journal housed in the Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Virginia Tech. Through a double blind review process, the journal publishes original research in the humanities and social sciences from undergraduates worldwide.
• Process: Journal of Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Scholarship Published quarterly, the journal publishes undergraduate writings that rigorously engage with issues of social justice, transformative education, politics, identity, and cultural production. Publishes both critical essays and non-traditional or multimodal compositions.
• Righting Wrongs: A Journal of Human Rights Based at Webster University's Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, this peer-reviewed academic journal publishes undergraduate research papers, book reviews, opinion pieces, and photo essays that explore human rights issues.
• Social Moments: A Student Journal of Social Relations Interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal examining the social and cultural world through a social science lens. All undergraduate and graduate students are invited to submit work in any social science discipline.
• Sociology between the Gaps: Forgotten and Neglected Topics Undergraduates, graduates, and professionals in sociology and related fields may submit their articles, books and film reviews, and point of view essays. Double blind peer review.
• Undergraduate Economic Review (UER) Supported by the Department of Economics and The Ames Library at Illinois Wesleyan University, this is an open access peer-reviewed journal that publishes undergraduate research in the field of economics from around the world.
• Undergraduate Journal of Global Citizenship Based at Fairfield University, the journal publishes undergraduate research on topics related to International Studies such as global awareness, interdependence, environmental responsibility, social justice, humanitarianism, and other themes that promote the understanding of global citizenship.
• Undergraduate Journal of Service Learning & Community-Based Research Refereed, multidisciplinary, open access undergraduate journal that publishes articles from students all around the world. Accepted articles contribute to the literature on service learning and community-based research through reflection, research, or analysis. Based at University of North Carolina Wilmington.
• The Undergraduate Research Journal of Psychology at UCLA (URJP) Based at UCLA, but accepting submissions of undergraduate research from institutions all over the world, this peer-reviewed journal aims to empower undergraduate students to engage in and with research and facilitate scientific conversation and inquiry in the field of psychology.

STEM Fields

• Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal (CUSJ) Open access science journal that publishes manuscripts resulting from significant scientific research or analysis. Each paper undergoes a double-blind peer review process and a faculty review by the CUSJ Faculty Advisory Board.
• EvoS: The Evolutional Studies Consortium A peer-reviewed open access journal, EvoS welcomes work from all academic disciplines and interdisciplinary scholarship that incorporates evolutionary theory.
• Illumin Magazine: A Review of Engineering in Everyday Life An online magazine dedicated to exploring the science and technology behind the things we encounter every day. Features the work of University of Southern California undergraduate engineers, as well as submissions from universities across the U.S.
• Impulse: The Premier Undergraduate Neuroscience Journal International online neuroscience journal for undergraduate publications.
• International Journal of Exercise Science This journal engages undergraduate and graduate students in scholarly activity as both authors and reviewers. Articles on exercise science undergo peer review.
• Intersect: The Stanford Journal of Science, Technology, and Society An open access international science, technology, and society research journal that accepts undergraduate, graduate, and PhD submissions at the intersection of history, culture, sociology, art, literature, business, law, health, and design with science and technology. Students from around the world are invited to submit.
• Involve: A Journal of Mathematics High quality mathematical research involving students from all academic levels. Submissions should include substantial faculty input; faculty co-authorship is required and the submission should come from a faculty member.
• Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research Peer-reviewed journal that publishes undergraduate students' work in chemistry, including analytical, organic, inorganic, physical, polymers, and biochemistry.
• Journal of Undergraduate Kinesiology Research Published by the Kinesiology Department at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, the peer-reviewed, journal is dedicated to original undergraduate research in Kinesiology. Currently, the research originates from students at the University of Wisconsin, but undergraduates from all institutions are invited to submit.
• Journal of Undergraduate Reports in Physics (JURP) Peer-reviewed publication of the Society of Physics Students comprised of undergraduate research, outreach, and scholarly reporting.
• Journal of Young Investigators (JYI) JYI publishes original work in the sciences written by undergraduates mentored by a faculty member. The mission of the journal is to improve undergraduate science training by providing innovative, high quality educational experiences in science writing, publication, and the peer-review process.
• Psi Chi Journal Undergraduate, graduate, and faculty submissions welcome year round to this peer-reviewed psychology journal.
• Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal Devoted entirely to papers written by undergraduates on topics in the mathematical sciences. Sponsored by the Mathematics Department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, the journal accepts submissions from undergraduates around the world and faculty co-authors are not permitted.
• RURALS: Review of Undergraduate Research in Agricultural and Life Sciences Faculty-refereed international journal devoted to the publication of high quality research by undergraduates in all agricultural research problem areas.
• SIAM Undergraduate Research Online (SIURO) Run by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), SIURO publishes articles written by undergraduates from all over the world in the field of computational mathematics. Each paper must be submitted with a letter from a faculty advisor.
• Spectrum Published by the University of Alberta, this multidisciplinary journal publishes research completed by undergraduates in a variety of formats including research articles, review articles, music, video, visual arts, and creative writing.
• Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics Published by Illinois State, this is an open access refereed research journal dedicated to publishing high quality manuscripts by undergraduate or graduate students that describe mathematical and statistical techniques to solve problems in biological settings, as well as in experimental biology. Requires an article processing charge.
• PUMP Journal of Undergraduate Research PUMP stands for Preparing Undergraduate Mathematicians for Ph.D.s, and the journal publishes articles by undergraduates students who want to pursue doctoral studies in the Mathematical Sciences. The journal especially encourages submissions by students from underrepresented groups. Topics include pure and applied mathematics and statistics and authors may submit research papers, papers containing new proofs of known results, and expository papers which propose original points of view.
• Undergraduate Journal of Experimental Microbiology and Immunology (UJEMI+) Based at the University of British Columbia, the journal has two versions -- one that publishes only UBC students (UJEMI) and the other that is open to external submissions (UJEMI+). Dedicated to the publication of undergraduate articles in fields related to microbiology and immunology, the journal requires a formal endorsement from a course instructor or researcher who mentored the student authors.
• Young Investigator's Review Stony Brook's own student-run science journal!
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How can I publish an academic article as an undergraduate student?

Choosing where to submit your work as an undergrad.

As a researcher, where you submit will really depend on the details of the submission and where it best fits, as well as where you're likely to be successful at this point in your career. Journals will often consider any original research and will assess it based on the novelty and contribution to the field of research. However, there are a few steps you can take to increase your chances of being successful in getting your work published at this stage.

• Check out our post on Getting Published: Tips for choosing an academic journal for general suggestions about journal publishing, including where to look for possible journals and options for making your work open access.
• Check the journals' rejection rates. Journals with very high rejection rates may be more challenging to publish in as a student, simply because they accept fewer articles.
• Consider whether you can work with a faculty member to co-author the paper that you submit.
• Do some research to find out where other undergraduate students in your department have been successful in getting published.

Journals dedicated to publishing undergraduate research

More information about undergraduate publishing.

Visit the following resources to learn more about Scholarly Publishing, and contact your liaison librarian or [email protected] for additional support.

• Scholarly Publishing and Open Access webpages
• Introduction to Scholarly Publishing at SFU - Canvas Course
• Attend a Research Commons publishing workshop, such as the Publishing Symposium (while the Research Commons workshops are primarily offered to graduate students, undergraduate students interested in publishing are welcome to attend).

*Don't see an SFU student journal in your discipline? Consider starting one! Visit the SFU Library Digital Publishing webpages and contact [email protected] to learn more.

Contact us : For assistance with scholarly publishing, please contact  [email protected] .

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Five great tips to start publishing as an undergraduate

If the PhD and masters’ students are the flesh of any university, undergraduates are its laboring bones and joints. They are what forms the supporting structure of the academia. An average undergrad will go through college with a lots of study pressure, exams, assignments and occasional snippet of research for theses. Occasionally, an ambitious undergrad may be work on a nice piece of project or create one of their own research questions that has great implications. This is a good chance for this student to show the world the fruits of their efforts.

In my bachelors, I had an opportunity to work as a research assistant on multiple projects, two of which, resulted in scientific publications with my name as one of the authors. They were neither prestigious articles nor belonged to a high-impact journal but nevertheless, it was an inspiration for me to continue my journey in the academia. I have written this blog to highlight some aspects of publishing whilst being an undergrad student. So, here goes--

Why publish as a bachelor student?

If you are a bachelor student who wants to pursue a career in academia or in a research rich environment, it is generally a good idea to aim for a publication in the course of your undergraduate education. It won’t guarantee you a good postgrad position or a job in prestigious industry but will definitely give you a taste of what it is like to publish and obviously, an opportunity to showcase your work. But it is not a simple job and hence will require a lot of effort on your part in addition to the burdens that you carry being an undergrad student.

What to publish?

This is an important question. Although, the judgements and reputations of a successful academic career seem far off, a publication will be a permanent addition to your resume. Thus, it is very important to be sure of what stuff you should put out there. Generally, undergrad research is a part of a team project or a subproject of a much larger scheme. If you are sure that the work being done is sufficiently because of your individual contribution , it is a good idea to go ahead. You can be a part of a bigger list of authors in an over-arching paper that contains your work. Very rarely, you might do something that entitles you as a sole contributor of a research piece.

When to publish?

This is another important aspect of your decision. The question of directing your attention to working on a publishable manuscript whilst studying full-time for a graduation can be a difficult one. In my case, I spent a better part of last two years of my bachelors struggling with full time courses along with trying to get drafts of manuscript on the paper at the same time. Remember, your studies have the priority over all else while graduating. When you are sure that you have some ‘publishable’ research material available with complete results, then it is a good idea to look into the option for publishing.

Where to publish?

Most commonly, this is a question that your guide or supervisor will give you the best suggestions about. There are very specific domains outlined by journals that you can publish in. Sometimes, however, it can be a good idea to look for specific places where undergraduate research is highlighted. In such journals or magazines, you are reviewed on undergrad standards and not on those of the broader scientific world. Some details of such research journals can be found here . Sometimes though, it is a good idea to aim for a higher journal depending on quality of your research because, if you have a publication in a prestigious journal, it makes your resume more alluring for future prospects.

How to publish?

This is a question that I saved for the last. Let’s start with ‘what is a publication?’. More often than not, it is a report of research work that was done towards a specific goal. The report or research ‘paper’ generally includes description of the goal and gaps in knowledge (introduction), what was done to fill that gap or achieve that goal (methodology), what was the result (results) and the interpretation of the result in existing knowledge along with its future implications (discussion). This research paper will start out as a manuscript that you write and get reviewed from your supervisor, then it gets reviewed by group of other qualified people (either peers or editors of journal, depending on the nature of journal) and then after making necessary alterations, gets accepted to be published. A publication is complete when you have this manuscript printed in the official volume of the journal in question. It is always a good idea to ‘ target a journal’ while preparing the manuscript.  See the figure below for an example of a peer review flow chart. Source: APEM 

We hope this blog will help you make your first steps into the publishing world. Do you want to read more articles by Pranav Kurkani? See his other blog posts How to become a PhD student and First steps in the PhD program . 

Recent blog posts

Tips for successful collaborations with government partners, tips for successful collaborations with industry partners, how to compile your publication list, how to develop a publication strategy, how to use x (twitter) as a scientist, centering your teaching around your teaching vision, how to build up an (international) network, transitioning into the last leg of your phd journey, what changes between a postdoc and assistant professorship, how to write an academic cv.

• Sustainability

Resources for Publishing Your Research in a Peer-Reviewed Undergraduate Journal

Author: Lucy Britt , Assistant Professor Bates College Politics Department

Interested in publishing your research project in a peer-reviewed undergraduate journal?

These are student-run journals, often with a faculty advisor, that model the peer-review system used by professional academics but that publish undergraduate students’ research. The editors and reviewers are typically all undergrads.

First, you would choose a journal. You might want to think about the “fit” between your project and the mission of the journal, which you can usually find in a page on the journal’s website labeled “About.” If your project is interdisciplinary, then a more generalized journal that takes submissions from multiple disciplines would be appropriate. If it’s political science-specific, there are good options that cover political science broadly as well as options that cover specific topics, subfields, or themes within political science.

Here are some undergraduate (there might also be a few graduate student journals in there too), peer-reviewed, academic journals, some of them political science-specific and some of them more general:

• https://www.swarthmore.edu/department-political-science/undergraduate-journals  
• https://unl.libguides.com/c.php?g=51642&p=333918
• https://www.helvidius.org/
• https://about.illinoisstate.edu/critique/
• https://upr.lse.ac.uk/about/
• https://www.psajournal.org/
• https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/gssr/

When you’re choosing which journal to submit to, you also might want to consider:

• Page or word limit. Would you have to spend a lot of time editing your paper to be short enough or long enough for this journal?
• How updated the website seems. If the last issue of the journal or the last call for papers posted on the website is from 2016, you might want to skip this journal – they might not get back to you anytime soon!
• Whether the journal has policies about not submitting your paper to another journal at the same time or policies about whether pieces that have already been partially published in another venue can be published in their journal

Next, you would submit your paper to the journal. Some journals have portals for submission and some have an email address that you just send your paper to.

Next, you wait. Ideally the journal would 1) have a timeline for how long you should expect to hear back from the journal and 2) actually follow that timeline. That is not always the case! These are undergraduates and the journals often operate as a student club, so keep in mind that they might be less responsive in the summer and the winter holidays. You should expect either an email confirming receipt of your paper or a confirmation page in a portal; if you don’t receive one of these after a couple weeks (during the semester) you can contact the journal for a confirmation. If it’s been a couple months and you haven’t gotten an update on your article beyond the confirmation they received it, you can contact them to ask about its status. During this period, the editors take a look at your paper and will either reject it immediately (a “desk reject”) or send it out to reviewers (other undergrads). Then, the reviewers will typically decide to accept it without changes, ask you to make some major changes and resubmit to the reviewers for another review (a “revise and resubmit”), or ask them to make some more minor changes and resubmit (a “conditional acceptance”). Make the edits that the reviewers and/or editors ask you to make, write a short letter or memo explaining the edits you made based on their requests, and turn it back in!

Finally, you will hopefully receive an acceptance. If you don’t, you can consider any feedback you got with the rejection and try it all over again in another journal. Once your article is published online, you can share it with your advisors, Tweet about it, link to it on your resumé and LinkedIn site, and brag about it in job and/or grad school application materials!

Future Students

Majors and minors, course schedules, request info, application requirements, faculty directory, student profile.

Thesis Information: Publishing

• Introduction
• Reviewing Literature
• Supervisors
• Māori Postgraduates

Getting Started

Considering publishing papers as you go, as part of your thesis, or after your thesis is completed?

Wanting to publish your thesis now that you've finished?

Publishing is an important part of communicating your research, and vital if you want to continue in academia. Consider:

• talking with your supervisor, they may recommend best approaches and relevant places to start
• considering options for including your own published articles in your thesis, including University guidelines and copyright permissions
• creating a conference poster to share your research findings
• looking for Calls for Papers (CFPs) for relevant conferences and journals to get a sense of in-demand research topics
• reading academic publishing and higher education blogs for publishing tips
• applying for a University of Otago Postgraduate Publishing Bursary (once you have submitted your thesis for examination).
• Research Publishing and Impact This Library guide has strategic tips and links on getting published, setting up your researcher profile and networking, and tracking your impact.
• Guidelines for the Inclusion of Material from a Research Candidate's Publications in their Thesis University of Otago guidelines for PhD and Professional doctorate students, supervisors and other staff about candidates including their own published material in a graduate research thesis.
• Postgraduate Publishing Bursaries University of Otago Publishing Bursaries are available to support postgraduate candidates to complete papers arising from their research, during the examination period.
• The Guardian : How to get published in an academic journal [article] Ten helpful tips from academic journal editors for both writing and submitting your papers for publication - posted January 2015
• The Scholarly Kitchen [blog] A moderated, multi-author blog on scholarly publishing matters, including OA.
• PhD On Track: Share and Publish [online module] An online learning module examining why and where to publish, submitting articles, co-authorship, copyright and Open Access.

Where to Publish?

• Choosing the Right Journal
• Identifying Journals & Measuring their Impact

Think - Check - Submit

Identifying a relevant journal to submit your work can be challenging but will help to get your work accepted, and then read by the right audience. Here are some basic questions to ask yourself when considering a journal:

• Is it peer-reviewed ?
• What is the subject area of the journal?
• Is it aimed at the audience you want to write for?
• Do you read articles from this journal?
• Are the editor and the members of the editorial board respected researchers in your field?
• How does the journal compare to others in its field for quality and impact?
• How long does it take between an article being accepted and it being published?
• Is it Open Access ?
• What are the copyright policies ?
• What are the journal’s ethical profile and aims?
• Does the publisher belong to the Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association (OASPA) ?
• Do the publisher belong to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) or another trade association?

Adapted from : PhD On Track - CC BY-NC-SA

• Journal finding tools From Otago's Research Publishing & Impact guide; includes conference tools

Here are some tools to help you identify journals in your subject area and to get a sense of their impact in comparison to other journals in the field:

• Journal Citation Reports Uses a variety of metrics (e.g. total citations, 2- and 5-year Journal Impact Factor, immediacy, cited half -life, Eigenfactor) to rank journals within a subject category.
• SCImago Journal & Country Rank Find SJR (journal rankings) for a wide number of journals. Citation data sourced from Scopus.
• Publish or Perish Free software that analyses GoogleScholar citation data. May be especially useful to researchers with publications in social science journals. More robust than the MyCitations feature in GoogleScholar.
• Scopus - Compare Journals This tool enables you to compare up to 10 journals for a range of journal metrics based on Scopus data, including SCImago Journal Rank and Source-Normalized Impact per Paper.

Open Access Publishing & OUR Archive

• Australian Open Access Support Group: So you want people to read your thesis? [blogpost] Explores options for communication your thesis findings, including Open Access. Also includes advice about handling rogue publishers like Lambert Academic Press.
• OUR Archive University of Otago's Institutional Research Repository, which includes our e-theses.

Predatory and Deceptive Publishing

Predatory or deceptive publishers seek to take advantage of researchers. Some claim to be Open Access in order to collect payments from prospective authors for journal articles, others may approach you when you submit or deposit your thesis.

Check what you should be aware of with publishing offers .

• Chronicle of Higher Education : Dissertation for sale - A cautionary tale US-based advice about paying close attention to third party publishing options
• Slate : I sold my Undergraduate Thesis to a print content farm [article] Article about rogue publisher, Lambert Academic Publishing (LAP), which offer to 'publish' and sell theses without peer review.
• College & Research Library News : Beyond Beall’s List - Better understanding predatory publishers [article]

Books about getting published

Sharing Your Data

Arguments in favour of data sharing include maximising transparency, enabling scrutiny, increasing the impact of research, and reducing the cost of duplication.

Research funding agencies, academic institutions, and publishers may require researchers to provide access to data for the wider scientific community.

Ways to share research data include:

• Deposit with a discipline-specific or institutional repository
• Formal exchange of data with other researchers (peer-to-peer)
• Submission of data to a journal to accompany a publication
• Thesis Whisperer : Ever thought about publishing your data? [blogpost]
• << Previous: Submitting
• Next: Supervisors >>
• Last Updated: Apr 12, 2024 4:46 PM
• URL: https://otago.libguides.com/thesisinformation

• Directories
• Access Decisions
• Change Requests
• Publishing Your ETD
• Using Previously Published Work in ETDs
• Use of Images in ETDs
• ETD Formatting
• Scholarly Publishing and Open Access
• Start Your Research
• Research Guides
• University of Washington Libraries
• Library Guides
• UW Libraries
• Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs): Publishing Your ETD

Publishing an etd, will journal or book publishers consider publishing my work if it is based on an open access thesis or dissertation.

Yes. Publisher policies and practices within disciplines do vary, but recent surveys of journal editors showed that about 80% or more of journal editors in the sciences and the humanities and social sciences would "always welcome" article submissions based on open access ETD's, or would consider them on a case by case basis or if they were "substantially different" from them. A similar proportion of university presses surveyed would consider publishing a book based on one. In part, this is because most publishers consider theses and dissertations to be "student work" that will require substantial editing and revision before being published in article or book form. Publishers say that they are more interested in the quality of the work and an author's willingness to edit as needed than they are in whether the work has previously appeared in another form

• Elsevier Elsevier recently clarified its position on prior publications, affirming that theses are welcome for submission.
• Springer Springer also makes an exception for theses in what it considers to be prior publication.

What do I need to do if I am planning to submit my work to a publisher?

The first thing is to check SHERPA/RoMEO to see what your journal's self-archiving policy is. If they allow self-archiving, you're all set. If they don't have a policy explicitly allowing self-archiving or sharing, it's important that your editor be aware that your work is part of your ETD and will be openly available if it is not already. In most cases, editors are completely fine with an ETD being available online. In some cases, an editor may ask you to adjust your access levels so that open access is delayed.

Including a publication in an ETD

Can i use previously published articles of my own in my work.

It depends. Assuming that you conveyed the copyright of your work to the publisher you need to see if the publisher allows it.

SHERPA/RoMEO is a good starting point for finding your publisher's policy. Alternately, simply google ' [Your publisher] self archiving policy" or " [Your publisher] sharing policy."

As of Fall 2011 most major publishers indicated on their web pages that a previously published article could be included in a thesis or dissertation. If they do not allow it, you'll need to get special permission.

How do I get permission if I need it?

You will need to contact the editor you worked with to publish your work. If you don't have their contact information, you can contact the publisher directly. A draft permissions letter is available from ProQuest on pages 3 and 4. Contact library staff to determine the publisher of a journal and obtain contact information.

How do I acknowledge the status on my ETD's copyright page?

The second section of all theses and dissertations is required to be a Copyright Page that follows the Graduate School's formatting requirements. If you have transferred copyright to any part of your thesis you need to identify the correct rights holder on this page. Check with your department to see if they have guidelines on how this should be structured. If they do not, one way to do this is to identify each section's rights holder individually, and then state that you retain copyright to 'All other materials', such as the following:

Chapter 1 © Copyright 2016 Springer Nature Chapter 2 © Copyright 2017 American Historical Review All other materials © Copyright 2018 Jane Student

Decisionmaking Flowchart

• << Previous: Change Requests
• Next: Using Previously Published Work in ETDs >>
• Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024 10:06 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/etds

Life @ U of T

My Experience Writing an Undergraduate Thesis

This year, I’ve been working on a really exciting project… my undergraduate thesis! It's my fourth year of university, and I decided to write an undergraduate thesis in Political Science under the supervision of a professor. This week, I wanted to write about why I decided to take a thesis, how I enrolled, and how it’s been going so far! 

What is an undergraduate thesis?

An undergraduate thesis is usually a 40-60 page paper written under the supervision of a professor, allowing you to explore a topic of your interest in-depth. I primarily decided to write an undergraduate thesis to prepare me for graduate school - it's allowed me to get started on work I might continue in graduate school, hone my research skills, and test out whether academic research is for me.

How do I write an undergraduate thesis?

To write my undergraduate thesis, I had two options (this may vary depending on what department you're in!). First, I could join the Senior Thesis Seminar offered by department. These seminars group students together who are interested in doing a thesis and teach them research skills and background information. Students then simultaneously complete a thesis under the supervision of a professor. Senior Thesis Seminars often require applications to register in, so if you’re interested in this option, make sure you look into this in your third year of study!

Because I already had a close working relationship with a professor, I opted to instead do the second option, an Independent Study. An Independent Study allows you to work one-on-one with a professor and design whatever course you’re interested in. For either option, you’ll need to know what topic you're interested in writing your thesis on and ask a professor to work with you, so make sure you've figured this out. 

How's it going?

So far, I’m about half-way through my thesis and I’m having lots of fun. It’s a great way to get super involved in a topic I care about, and it's preparing me for graduate research much more than any course I’ve taken in my undergraduate degree. I’ve also been enjoying working one-on-one with a professor and learning a lot from them about the field of study I’m interested in, what being an academic researcher is like, and what my position in the field is. 

I will say that an undergraduate thesis is a considerable amount of work! It definitely requires more work than all my other classes, and because I’m working so closely with a professor, there’s no way I can slack on it or procrastinate.

Still, if you’re interested in a topic and want to pursue it after your undergraduate studies, I think writing an undergraduate thesis is an incredible opportunity. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below!

1 comment on “ My Experience Writing an Undergraduate Thesis ”

Is an undergrad thesis mandatory in order to graduate or to get into a Masters program? Also, I’ve heard most Profs only help those with really high grades for their thesis?

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Harvard University Theses, Dissertations, and Prize Papers

The Harvard University Archives ’ collection of theses, dissertations, and prize papers document the wide range of academic research undertaken by Harvard students over the course of the University’s history.

Beyond their value as pieces of original research, these collections document the history of American higher education, chronicling both the growth of Harvard as a major research institution as well as the development of numerous academic fields. They are also an important source of biographical information, offering insight into the academic careers of the authors.

Spanning from the ‘theses and quaestiones’ of the 17th and 18th centuries to the current yearly output of student research, they include both the first Harvard Ph.D. dissertation (by William Byerly, Ph.D . 1873) and the dissertation of the first woman to earn a doctorate from Harvard ( Lorna Myrtle Hodgkinson , Ed.D. 1922).

Other highlights include:

• The collection of Mathematical theses, 1782-1839
• The 1895 Ph.D. dissertation of W.E.B. Du Bois, The suppression of the African slave trade in the United States, 1638-1871
• Ph.D. dissertations of astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (Ph.D. 1925) and physicist John Hasbrouck Van Vleck (Ph.D. 1922)
• Undergraduate honors theses of novelist John Updike (A.B. 1954), filmmaker Terrence Malick (A.B. 1966),  and U.S. poet laureate Tracy Smith (A.B. 1994)
• Undergraduate prize papers and dissertations of philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson (A.B. 1821), George Santayana (Ph.D. 1889), and W.V. Quine (Ph.D. 1932)
• Undergraduate honors theses of U.S. President John F. Kennedy (A.B. 1940) and Chief Justice John Roberts (A.B. 1976)

What does a prize-winning thesis look like?

If you're a Harvard undergraduate writing your own thesis, it can be helpful to review recent prize-winning theses. The Harvard University Archives has made available for digital lending all of the Thomas Hoopes Prize winners from the 2019-2021 academic years.

Accessing These Materials

How to access materials at the Harvard University Archives

How to find and request dissertations, in person or virtually

How to find and request undergraduate honors theses

How to find and request Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize papers

How to find and request Bowdoin Prize papers

• email: Email
• Phone number 617-495-2461

Related Collections

Harvard faculty personal and professional archives, harvard student life collections: arts, sports, politics and social life, access materials at the harvard university archives.

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I Sold My Undergraduate Thesis to a Print Content Farm

A trip through the shadowy, surreal world of an academic book mill..

Courtesy of Joseph Stromberg

If you’re an academic (or were once an aspiring academic), you may have once received an email just like the one I got at 6:10 on a sunny morning last August.

“As stated by the Washington University in St. Louis’s electronic repository, you authored the work entitled ‘Lands of the Lakota Policy Culture and Land Use on the Pine Ridge Reservation’ in the framework of your postgraduate degree,” Karen Holmes, an acquisition editor at LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, told me. She added that she worked for a “top international publishing group” and was interested in publishing my work as a book.

The email was slightly better quality than spam—she’d gotten my school’s name and undergraduate thesis title right, with the exception of a missing colon—so I hesitated ever so briefly before deleting it. On a whim, I Googled her company’s name. The first page of results contained links like “ Lambert Academic Publishing: A Must to Avoid ,” “ Why You Shouldn’t Publish With Lap Lambert, German Publishing House ,” and “ Lambert Academic Publishing (or How Not to Publish Your Thesis) .” The bloggers and academics who’d written these posts had gotten emails virtually identical to mine and wrote about how the company obtained the rights to tens of thousands of theses, dissertations, and other unpublished works for essentially nothing; sold copies of them as books to unsuspecting online buyers (who assumed they were purchasing proofed, edited work); and kept essentially 100 percent of the proceeds. LAP Lambert, I learned, is the print equivalent of a content farm: a clearinghouse for texts that generate tiny amounts of revenue simply by turning up in search and appearing to be legitimate, published works.

So, naturally, I replied to Holmes, telling her I was interested in hearing more.

I was struck with a zany idea: to sell away the rights to my thesis in exchange for the sheer pleasure of documenting and sharing the experience. For a brief time, in college, I’d thought about going into academics, but I’m now a working journalist, so my thesis isn’t doing a whole lot for me. It could be put to better use, I reasoned, as a way of exploring the blend of high and low tech that fueled this strange industry.

Holmes replied with enthusiasm, telling me that if I was interested, I should send her a PDF of my thesis and she’d let me know if they wanted to publish it.

I did so, and for four days, I waited with bated breath. Then: jubilation. “We assessed your work with great pleasure and confirm our interest in publishing it,” Holmes told me, attaching the terms and conditions of the sale, along with formatting guidelines. The contract told me—as I’d already learned from the blog posts—that I’d transfer the exclusive right to print my thesis to AV Akademikerverlag GmbH & Co. KG, the German company that owned LAP Lambert. (I could still let people download the thesis digitally, if I wasn’t making a profit.) They’d pay for all publishing costs, and I’d get 12 percent of the book’s royalties, but only if they cleared 50 euros per month for a calendar year—otherwise, I’d just get credit to use in buying other LAP Lambert books. I was responsible for making sure the text didn’t contain plagiarism and that I had the right to sell it in the first place. They would set the retail price and could suggest corrections to any grammar or spelling errors they came across. I clicked on the link she’d sent, digitally signed the agreement, and was told to start uploading my thesis.

At this point, I did a bit more research into LAP Lambert and found that it’s really just the tip of the book-mill iceberg. Both it and AV Akademikerverlag GmbH & Co. KG are part of an enormous German publishing group called VDM that publishes 78 imprints and 27 subsidiary houses in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Russian, and plans to soon open up shop in Turkey and China. It has satellite offices in Latvia and Uruguay, but the majority of its English- and French-speaking staff are based in the tax haven of Mauritius, off the coast of Madagascar. Founded in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2002 by a man named Dr. Wolfgang Philipp Müller, the company is notorious for using on-demand printing technology to package all sorts of strange content in book form and selling it online. The company declines to release financial data but claims to publish 5 0,000 books every month, making it, by its own accounting, one of the largest book publishers in the world.

How can it possibly churn out this many titles? Although a huge number are academic texts, hundreds of thousands result from an even stranger process: They’re built entirely from text copied from Wikipedia articles. On VDM’s own online bookstore, Morebooks.de , the listings for books like Tidal Power , Period (number) , and Swimming Pool Sanitation (published by VDM’s Alphascript and Betascript imprints) directly acknowledge this fact. Thousands are listed for sale on Amazon , all with the same cover design (albeit with different stock photos swapped in) and the same three names (Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, and John McBrewster) listed as the “authors.” Some go for as much as $100. Though the practice is technically legal—most Wikipedia content is published under licenses that allow it to be reproduced —critics say that it’s unethical and deceitful for the company to profit from content freely available on the Web.

Apart from publishing my book with LAP Lambert, I spoke on the phone with VDM’s CEO, Thorsten Ohm, to ask him about this and other criticisms, and he defended the practice. “We think there are people that are not interested to read on the Internet,” he said. “They want to sit at the beach, or somewhere, and have the complete article on a topic.” At the same time, he admitted that he was skeptical about the idea when he first joined VDM in 2011, and he said that the company had discontinued it, although a quick search through their online bookstore shows dozens of new Wikipedia-derived titles that have gone on sale since the start of 2014. At one point, describing his earlier doubts, he even asked the key question posed by VDM’s harshest critics: “Why should I buy a book when I can go to the Internet and get all this for free?”

That description, of course, also fits most of the academic books published by LAP Lambert. (A PDF of my thesis, for instance, was already published on my college’s website .) “The basic idea is that they bulk email people who have written a master’s or Ph.D. thesis and invite them to publish it,” Matt Hodgkinson, an editor for the Public Library of Science who’s written about LAP Lambert on his personal blog , told me. “There’s no selection process, there’s no editing—the thesis is essentially published unchanged but called a book.” Ohm admitted this without hesitation. “The editors just do a quick check,” he said. “We don’t do proofreading.” (Karen Holmes declined to comment on LAP Lambert’s editing practices for this article.) The company presumes that because most books have met the standards of various universities, they’re already publication-quality. By stockpiling the rights to a huge variety of works, automating the entire publishing process, and printing books only if they’re purchased at marked-up prices, the company can cut overhead to a negligible amount and generate significant profits, even if they sell few copies.

From the blog posts I found (and the hundreds of comments posted on some of them), I saw that many authors came away from the deal less than satisfied. Some naive academics think publishing will add cachet to their C.V., but they find that having the Lambert name on it is an embarrassment. Meanwhile, the contract stripped them of the right to publish it elsewhere or even publish chapters of it in an academic journal. “The authors may expect to receive royalties, but because the sales volumes are so low, all of the money generally goes to Lambert,” Hodgkinson told me. Michigan Tech , Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology , and Charles Sturt University are among the schools that advise students to think carefully before publishing with VDM imprints, largely because of the lack of peer review. “Do not publish with Lap Lambert or other self-publication schemes,” wrote Jonathan Sterne , a French-Canadian blogger and communications professor. “It won’t help your career, it won’t impress hiring or postdoc committees, and it won’t get you read by your peers.”

Some of the blog posts were also filled with angry comments from customers, who bought Lambert books thinking they were edited, full-length works, only to discover they were amateur-quality and riddled with typos. (One 72-page tome, for instance, is titled “ Lease Financing ; Hindrarnces to adoption By Business Enterprisses .”) Most infuriating for them is the fact that, in most cases, the same content is available to download for free from university repositories.

Moreover, Hodgkinson and other critics point out, it’s simple for an author to upload an e-book to one of a number of open-source sites if she wants to make it widely available. If the author’s hell-bent on a hard copy, there are self-publishing services that offer much better terms (in terms of the percentage of royalties paid to the author) and allow authors to retain copyright.

When I mentioned these charges to Ohm, he noted that a handful of discontented authors are inevitable when you publish tens of thousands of works and highlighted his company’s chief selling point. “We promise the authors that they don’t have to pay anything for their publication,” he said. “This has been our idea from the start.” Technically, he’s right. If I want to pay nothing to turn my thesis into a “book”—albeit only in a metaphorical sense, unless someone actually buys it—LAP Lambert is the way to go.

But plenty of people consider the company’s strategy predatory—and in his research, Hodgkinson uncovered a curious pattern that lends credence to this view. He found that the Facebook profile of Kevin Woodmann, one of the acquisition editors, featured a “low budget royalty free” stock photo entitled “ Confident middle aged man sitting and smiling in front of white background .” (The photo has since been removed from the Facebook profile.) Other acquisition editors used stock photos for profile pictures as well.

Ohm told me that after Hodgkinson’s article alerted him and other LAP Lambert management that their editors were using stock photos, they were instructed to immediately discontinue the practice and haven’t done it since. His explanation for the strange pattern is benign. “I know that not all editors, especially females, want to have their picture on Facebook,” he said. “This is especially a matter in some of our sites—for example, Mauritius—where we have Muslim and Hindu employees.”

But Hodgkinson thinks the editors’ use of stock photos—along with suspiciously Anglo-sounding names for staff that are largely based in Mauritius—are part of something more nefarious: a deceptive effort to seem more prestigious, especially for the large number of authors based in Africa, India, and other regions of the developing world. LAP Lambert doesn’t publish data on the countries of authors, but a casual search of its online bookstore and comments on blog posts reveals that a huge amount of authors appear to live in these areas. “Especially at many universities in developing countries, there are expectations or requirements that graduate students need to publish to receive a degree,” Hodgkinson told me, “and that pressure is leading them into the arms of these disreputable publishers.”

Upon logging in to LAP Lambert’s online publishing platform to upload my work, I was greeted with an utterly cryptic message. “Dear valued author, we would like to share some exciting news with you,” it read. “The AV Akademikerverlag GmbH & Co. KG will change its name into OmniScriptum GmbH & Co. KG. This move reflects our ongoing endeavor to open ourselves internationally and beyond the academic borders.” The company’s excitement was contagious.

I proceeded through the publishing process, filling in fields for the title, subtitle, and summary that would appear on the front and back cover. The actual cover design was predetermined—blue and white, with an unsightly red stripe across the bottom—and I was forced to choose a piece of cover art from a gallery of a few hundred clip-art images and stock photos. I searched for anything that might be even slightly relevant to my thesis, like a picture of a prairie (it was about how federal land policies affected a Native American reservation in South Dakota), but found nothing. In the end, I chose a black-and-white drawing of a bison, with sad, cartoonish eyes.

The cover complete, I was instructed to upload a PDF of the book itself, with guidelines for the page size, table of contents, page numbers, and other design elements. Reformatting the original Word document took some time, and I did so with the strange awareness that, in all likelihood, no one would ever see it printed on paper unless I bought a copy myself. Upon submitting the text, I got an email from Holmes, telling me it would soon undergo a “technical verification.” My book was assigned its own unique ISBN: 978-3-659-46676-2. I had finally achieved my lifetime dream of becoming a published author.

About a month later, I heard from Holmes again. My book was on the verge of being published, and I had a very special opportunity: If I acted now, I could buy multiple copies of it at deeply discounted prices. The standard price for the 128-page book was 49.90 euro (about $68), but I could get five copies for 32.90 euro each, or 20 copies for 29.90 euro each, and if I was prepared to buy 200 copies, I could have each for 22.90 euro. As part of the prepublication deal, if I bought a number of copies at any one of these levels, all future retail shoppers would get to purchase the book at the same price I’d paid, even if they bought just a single copy.

LAP Lambert’s real plan finally became clear: They make money not by selling arcane tomes to readers, but by selling the books back to their authors after they’ve already signed away the rights. The company isn’t technically a vanity press, because it doesn’t charge authors publishing fees, but its model is essentially the same. Getting an author to buy tons of copies (presumably to give or sell to family and friends) guarantees enough profit that it’s willing to sell the books at a lower price. I briefly considered buying a single copy, but ultimately declined, partly out of principle, and partly because I’m cheap.

Over the next two weeks, I got three more emails from Holmes pressuring me to buy, each more aggressive than the last. She used several strategies: guilt (“We agreed to provide you free ISBN, free cataloguing of your book in thousands of bookstores, free book cover, market coverage, support and assistance. We are now offering you the opportunity to support your project.”); optimism (“You can also purchase some copies and market them in your locality or maybe even sell them at your own price, thus not only generating profit, but also getting to know your target audience and perhaps establishing valuable contacts.”); and finally, hostility (“We would have thought that you would have at least liked to have some copies of your new published book and that is why proposed this offer to you in the first place. Maybe you have not realized the importance of having some printed copies of your book in hand?”). Each warned that my window of opportunity to take advantage of the deal was rapidly closing, but I declined repeatedly.

Soon afterward, I finally got the news I’d been waiting for: My book was published. I found it for sale at VDM’s online bookstore, surrounded by thousands of other books wrapped in identical covers with surreal stock photos or clip art. (At latest count, 84,253 have been published by LAP Lambert alone.) I spent an inordinate amount of time browsing them and wondering about the authors. Why did they sell their books to this strange company?

I waited, seeing if my book would sell. Apart from VDM’s site, it was listed by Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and other stores, but I seriously doubted anyone would buy a copy. It’s been almost three months, and so far I’ve been proven correct. Every time I’ve logged into my account on LAP Lambert’s site and checked for royalty statements, I’ve been greeted with the same sad message: “No credit notes at the moment.”

There was one sucker, though. Against my better judgment, I finally bought a copy shortly before finishing this article, finding the best price on Amazon ($61.20, plus free shipping with Prime). Somewhere, one of Amazon’s on-demand printing presses came to life and churned out all 128 pages of my thesis, binding them together between an ugly blue-and-white cover. In two days, the familiar brown Amazon box arrived at my house.

I flipped through the softcover book, reading the words I’d written four years ago, during my senior year of college, never thinking that they’d be reproduced on cheap paper and owned by a multinational publishing conglomerate. They looked exactly as they had in the original PDF of my thesis, just shrunken down onto A4-size paper and surrounded by page numbers and a title page printed in a different font. My thesis had been transformed into a mass-produced commodity.

Then, as I paged through the book, I remembered something funny I’d done when reformatting the text for submission. For kicks, I’d buried an errant phrase deep in the middle, partly to see if LAP Lambert’s editors ever actually read the thing. When I got to Page 86, I was gratified to find that they hadn’t noticed it. Right there on the middle of the page, amid talk of Oglala Lakota politics and tribal sovereignty was my insertion.

“Is any proofreader actually reading this book before it gets printed?” I’d asked. “Didn’t think so.”

This article is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among  Arizona State University , the  New America Foundation , and  Slate . Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, visit the  Future Tense blog  and the  Future Tense home page . You can also follow us on Twitter.

ScholarWorks @ CWU

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How to submit your honors thesis to ScholarWorks

Embargo requests, additional information about embargoes of student work, related guides.

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To submit your honors thesis to ScholarWorks @ CWU, please follow the instructions below. If you have any questions, you can contact us for help at [email protected] or call 509-963-1718.

• Undergrad Honors Thesis Submission Instructions

There are numerous advantages to publicly sharing your honors thesis via ScholarWorks @ CWU . More people can find and read your thesis, meaning that you will reach a larger audience and may garner more citations to your work. In addition, you will increase the visibility of Central Washington University and benefit academia at large with your research.

Despite these advantages, in some cases, you may wish to embargo, or temporarily restrict access to your honors thesis. Three primary reasons for embargoing include:

• Your honors thesis has commercially sensitive content. Perhaps you need time to bring a concept to market or seek a patent.
• You wish to publish all or part of your honors thesis using a traditional press that regards open access publication in an institutional repository as "prior publication." Most publishers do not operate in this way, but some may. Please do some research before choosing to embargo for this reason.
• Your honors thesis contains sensitive data or information.

Please consult your committee chair and committee members when making the decision to embargo. The Scholarly Communications Librarian can also offer advice about embargoing your honors thesis.

In order to embargo your honors thesis, you must fill out the form below.

Embargo Request forms must be returned to the Scholarly Communications Librarian via email at [email protected].

• ScholarWorks @ CWU Undergraduate Honors Thesis Embargo Request

Students may choose to request a one-, two-, or five-year embargo to protect their ability to publish or patent their work in the near future. An embargo provides a temporary, delayed public release of the work via ScholarWorks @ CWU. Embargo requests must be received at least one month prior to the posting of the honors thesis to ensure sufficient processing time.

You may find the following studies and articles helpful when considering whether or not to embargo your work:

• Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Sciences?
• Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities? Findings from a 2011 Survey of Academic Publishers
• An Embargo on Dissertations Will Not Solve the Bigger Problem
• Embargo or Perish
• You've Spent Years on Your Ph.D.: Should You Publish It Online for Free?
• Can't Find It, Can't Sign It: On Dissertation Embargoes
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Citation guides

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How to cite an undergraduate thesis in APA

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To cite an undergraduate thesis in a reference entry in APA style 6th edition include the following elements:

• Author(s) of the thesis: Give the last name and initials (e. g. Watson, J. D.) of up to seven authors with the last name preceded by an ampersand (&). For eight or more authors include the first six names followed by an ellipsis (…) and add the last author's name.
• Year of publication: Give the year in brackets followed by a full stop.
• Title of the undergraduate thesis: Only the first letter of the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.
• URL: Give the full URL where the document can be retrieved from.

Here is the basic format for a reference list entry of an undergraduate thesis in APA style 6th edition:

Author(s) of the thesis . ( Year of publication ). Title of the undergraduate thesis (Bachelor's thesis). Retrieved from URL

If the thesis is available from a database, archive or any online platform use the following template:

• Author(s) of the thesis: Give the last name and initials (e. g. Watson, J. D.) of up to 20 authors with the last name preceded by an ampersand (&). For 21 or more authors include the first 19 names followed by an ellipsis (…) and add the last author's name.
• Publication number: Give the identification number of the thesis, if available.
• Name of the degree awarding institution: Give the name of the institution.
• Name of Platform: Give the name of the database, archive or any platform that holds the thesis.
• URL: If the thesis was found on a database, omit this element.

Here is the basic format for a reference list entry of an undergraduate thesis in APA style 7th edition:

Author(s) of the thesis . ( Year of publication ). Title of the undergraduate thesis ( Publication number ) [Bachelor's thesis, Name of the degree awarding institution ]. Name of Platform . URL

If the thesis has not been published or is available from a database use the following template:

• Location: Give the location of the institution. If outside the United States also include the country name.

Author(s) of the thesis . ( Year of publication ). Title of the undergraduate thesis (Unpublished bachelor's thesis). Name of the degree awarding institution , Location .

If the thesis is not published, use the following template:

Author(s) of the thesis . ( Year of publication ). Title of the undergraduate thesis [Unpublished bachelor's thesis]. Name of the degree awarding institution .

APA reference list examples

Take a look at our reference list examples that demonstrate the APA style guidelines for an undergraduate thesis citation in action:

A bachelor's thesis from an online platform

Parekh, P., & Pishchenko, V . ( 2013 ). Factors influencing the choice of bank – An international student perspective ( Bachelor's thesis ). Retrieved from https://www.divaportal.org/smash/get/diva2:653388/FULLTEXT02.pdf

Parekh, P., & Pishchenko, V . ( 2013 ). Factors influencing the choice of bank – An international student perspective [ Bachelor's thesis , Dalarna University ]. Diva Portal . https://www.divaportal.org/smash/get/diva2:653388/FULLTEXT02.pdf

An unpublished undergraduate thesis

Baslow, W . ( 2015 ). The applicability of the qualitative system analysis as decision-making tool in public administration by the example of the municipality Ludwigsburg ( Unpublished undergraduate thesis ). Leuphana University of Lüneburg , Lüneburg, Germany .

Baslow, W . ( 2015 ). The applicability of the qualitative system analysis as decision-making tool in public administration by the example of the municipality Ludwigsburg [ Unpublished undergraduate thesis ]. Leuphana University of Lüneburg .

This citation style guide is based on the official Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association ( 6 th edition).

More useful guides

• APA Referencing: Theses
• APA 6th referencing style: Theses
• APA 6th Edition Citation Style-Dissertation/Thesis

More great BibGuru guides

• MLA: how to cite a translated book
• MLA: how to cite a master's thesis
• Harvard: how to cite a report

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GU Graduate Wins Presidential Undergraduate Prize for Thesis

The American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) awarded Dominic Pham (CAS ’23) with the presidential undergraduate prize at the organization’s annual conference in Montreal, Canada from April 14 to 17. 

Full disclosure: Dominic Pham served as The Hoya’s Senior Design Editor in Fall 2020, Managing Editor in Spring 2021, Creative Director in Fall 2021 and Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Spring 2022.

The award recognized his honors thesis, titled “The Struggle Continues: Cosmopolitan Encounters and Spatial Disjunctions in Singaporean and Vietnamese Literature,” which focuses on cosmopolitanism in Vietnamese and Singaporean literature. An Asian American Literature class Pham took his freshman year and a class he took on Singaporean literature as a junior studying abroad in Singapore inspired his thesis, which was completed last year. 

Pham, who is now pursuing a Ph.D. in biophysics at Stanford University, said that the decision to focus on Vietnamese literature came in part from his family’s experiences as refugees.  

“Ultimately, I went back to my personal identity and the fact that my family are Vietnamese refugees,” Pham told The Hoya. “I think growing up, I, always in the back of my mind, was interested in these issues of migration, how people move and how people are displaced. And doing that in the context of Southeast Asia made sense so that I could explore my own personal identity at the same time that I was writing this academic piece.”

Pham’s research centered on the issues of migration and identity in the 20th century, examining the idea of a global, cosmopolitan identity connecting others through more than nationality or culture. 

Pham added that his findings did not indicate a universal human experience among the four books he analyzed.

“The argument is like, you can be cosmopolitan, you can have different ties to a lot of different cultures, but that doesn’t mean that you will connect with every single person on a universal level,” Pham said. “And the second finding is that literature helps us fill in that void by allowing us to imagine a world where people are more connected than they actually are.”

Nicoletta Pierddu, the director of the global and comparative literature program, and Philip Kafalas, an associate professor in the department of East Asian languages and cultures , served as Pham’s mentors as he developed his thesis.

Kafalas, who worked with Pham during the first half of his research process, said that Pham’s experience in the biology field was evident as he researched, a fact that set him apart from other students. 

“He worked on trying to refine the theory of cosmopolitanism in view of what he was seeing, and I never really asked him about this, but I always had a hunch because he’s also a biochemistry person,” Kalafas told The Hoya. “And this is what scientists do all the time, right? You always question the theory.”

Pierddu, who worked with Pham during the second half of his thesis, said his research is unique in the way it not only compares two post-independence Singaporean novels with two Vietnamese novels written during the Vietnam War but also looks into the complexities of globalization.

“So it’s not only one way of addressing this issue of globalism but rather he delves into the problematic relationship between different nations, between different ethnicities, colonization, political ideologies, cold wars, created fractures,” Pierddu told The Hoya.“He really asks, ‘What kind of cosmopolitanism can individuals construct when they try to transcend these difficult conditions?’”

Pierddu is active in the ACLA and nominated Pham for the prize along with Kafalas and Nicole Rizzuto, an English professor. She organized a seminar that took place at the ACLA conference and was able to be there when Pham received his award.

“It was all the more touching, to be there to support your student who’s being recognized at the national level,” Pierddu said. “So we were all thrilled and proud.”

Pham added that being recognized by the ACLA and attending the conference was a special experience for him. 

“It was great to have recognition from a larger audience than just me and my committee members,” Pham said. “And I felt very proud of the work I had done my senior year.”

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Voiland College names 2024 outstanding students

Washington State University Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture recognized outstanding students at its annual convocation ceremony on April 11. The event was sponsored by the Boeing Company. Honored award winners included:

• Outstanding Sophomore: Rylee Gannon A chemical engineering major with a 3.8 GPA, Rylee Gannon is a research assistant for Professor Steve Saunders, where she synthesizes and characterizes nanomaterials for use as catalysts in oxidation reactions Gannon also works in the Frank Innovation Zone and is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers.
• Outstanding Junior: Ethan Villalovoz Ethan Villalovoz is a computer science student with a GPA of 3.99, specializing in data mining, machine learning, and data science. Some of his more notable achievements include being a CS Research Mentorship Program Scholar, a Generation Google Scholarship Recipient, and a Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar. He has also engaged in extensive extracurricular activities, including internships at Google and a research position at Carnegie Mellon University.
• Outstanding Senior: Katy Ayers A Fulbright Fellowship Award and Marshall Scholarship Semifinalist, Katy Ayers is the first WSU student to win the Udall Scholar in Environment award. Her thirst for knowledge has given her robust research experience around the country and the world. One of Ayers’ nominators said, “Although I have worked with many outstanding students in my 20 years of teaching at the undergraduate level, I don’t think I have met anyone with Katy’s experiences, accomplishments and passion. She is motivated, demonstrates curiosity and critical thinking and communicates incredibly well.”
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant for grading/office hours: Kutay Sesli Kutay Sesli’s nominators were impressed by his innovative approaches and genuine care for students this past year. Kutay recognized that that conventional ways to grade assignments might not provide a full picture of where students need improvement, so he took the initiative to develop an innovative, consistent, fair, and detailed grading system that helped students develop trust in the grading process and a better understanding of how to improve their performance throughout the semester. He approaches each task with the mindset of a true engineer, and the results left no doubt that his grading was done with meticulous attention to detail and with the best outcomes for students in mind. Among the feedback students have given include: “Kutay is the best TA all semester, excellent job!” and “Kutay is dope!”
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant — Teaching/Instruction: Chris Pereyda Chris Pereyda has served as teaching assistant in several courses, including Introduction to Computer Programming. In one of his courses there were more than 500 students. One of those students said of Chris: “He is one of the best TAs I have ever had the pleasure of learning from. Being a Computer Science student can be difficult, but his explanations and knowledge of the source material helped me grasp some of the concepts better and persevere.” One of his faculty members said, “Chris was one of my most reliable, impactful, and effective TAs during my twenty years of teaching at WSU. Chris is the ideal example of a lead teaching assistant. He is knowledgeable in the area, patient with TAs and students, flexible and adaptive to different TAs’ and students’ styles and paces. There is not a better example of a TA than Chris.
• Outstanding Research Assistant: Ali Mahmoodigahrouei As a PhD candidate at WSU, Ali Mahmoodigahrouei has shown an exceptional academic record and research skills. Since joining WSU in 2022, he has published 14 impactful papers with over 300 citations, earning several prestigious awards, including the David C. Goss Scholarship and the “UTC Outstanding Student of the Year Award.” His nominators feel he consistently goes above and beyond expectations, managing multiple projects simultaneously and with great success. He also excels as a mentor, effectively supervising undergraduate students while providing valuable assistance to other PhD students in his research group.
• Outstanding Dissertation: Lin Shao Lin Shao’s nominators say that he is a truly exceptional graduate student and has done excellent research on chemical recycling of plastic waste by aminolysis and utilization of the recycled compounds for preparation of new polymer materials. His thesis research has received a broad interest from researchers around the world. Shao, as one of guest speakers, was invited to give a seminar at the Royal Society of Chemistry and Chemistry World. His research was also featured by “The Voice of America.”

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Publishing | Graduate and Undergraduate Studies

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The Greg Younging Conversation 2024

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2024 marks the fifth anniversary of the passing of our dear friend and alumnus, Gregory Younging.

We are very pleased to host our esteemed guest Lorena Sekwan Fontaine , Head of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba and cousin to Greg who will be in conversation with SFU Indigenous scholar, Deanna Reder at this year's event.

Join us in person or online as Lorena talks about her ongoing work on the new edition of Greg's seminal work  The Elements of Indigneous Style .

Location: In-person at SFU Harbour Centre and Online via Zoom

Date: Wednesday, May 8

Time: 12:45-2:00 pm, Pacific Time

Online via Zoom

Dr. Younging was the first Indigenous graduate of the  Master of Publishing  program at SFU. 

Learn more about Dr. Younging, and the Greg Younging Publishing Award Endowment , which was established on May 5, 2021 to honour his legacy.