Trinity Student Scientific Review Up and Running

Posted on: 12 January 2015

Undergraduate students at Trinity College Dublin have combined to form the Trinity Student Scientific Review (TSSR). The TSSR will take the form of an online and print journal, published once a year, which will feature the top 20 science review articles written by undergraduates.

The TSSR, which was inspired by the similarly minded Student Economics Review journal, will allow students to gain first-hand experience of the publishing process before completing their degrees.

Very few undergraduates have the opportunity to conduct scientific research at university, but wish to gain experience in scientific writing and in approaching journals with material for publication. For this reason, the TSSR will focus on review articles as these will provide the best vehicles to enable students to engage with the topics that interest them.

The publication aims to ensure that a student at any stage of their undergraduate degree from first to fourth year has the information and platform to do this.

Two student general managers will oversee the day-to-day running of the publication, while three student editors will be responsible for overseeing submissions in the three science streams featured in the journal (physics, chemistry and biology). Their work will be guided by academic advisors who are active at Trinity, and whose research expertise lies within these streams.

Each year, the journal will feature the best five review articles in physics, chemistry and biology, with the remaining five spots reserved for the best freshman article, the best third-year submission from each stream, and an overall best article.

General Manager and current third-year Trinity undergraduate in Business and Economics, Jonathan Deane, said: “This is a very exciting opportunity for Trinity science students to be published during their undergraduate degrees. We hope this will provide a platform for students to showcase their interest in their respective fields, while helping them to refine the research and writing skills they require for a successful academic career in the future.”

Assistant Professor in Chemistry at Trinity, and one of the Academic Advisors, Dr Mike Southern, added: “This is a great student-led initiative that will provide those published with something to help make their CV stand out and give them something easy to talk about in interview situations.”

“Science students don’t get a high degree of exposure to research prior to their fourth year, but during that final year they undertake a research project, which is full time and 3 months long in the case of chemistry, with similar approaches taken in other schools.”

For more information, and to read submission guidelines, see the TSSR website.