The UBC Student Journal Community of Practice (UBC SJCoP) was formed in February 2025 through a series of conversations and collaboration on a panel at the Student Journal Forum. Created by members of The Garden Statuary, the community of practice brings student editors and alumni together to share solutions to common problems, attend workshops, and discuss new possibilities and curiosities about our common interest in undergraduate student publishing.
The UBC SJCoP began with four members representing six journals on campus. In the following year, the community expanded with various members joining from across campus, representing the following journals:
- The Garden Statuary
- Logos Journal
- The Ethnograph: Journal of Anthropological Studies
- The UBC Journal of Historical Studies
- The Undergraduate Journal of Art History & Visual Culture
- Trail Six: Undergraduate Journal of Geography
- Canadian Journal of Undergraduate Research
- Mantle: The Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Research
- UBC Journal of Political Studies
- Wreck: The Graduate Journal of Art History, Visual Art and Theory
- IONA Journal of Economics
Founding Members
CJ McGillivray, Amy Ng, Jenykha Sangha and Freya Woolgrove.
Guiding Questions
- What happens when editors from multiple journals come together across a campus and compare notes?
- What unique insights and collaborative solutions can be discovered?
- And how can interdisciplinary perspectives complicate or enrich the editing process for undergraduate student journals?
Guiding Principles
The UBC SJCoP was formed in response to challenges around knowledge transfer, high turnover and maintaining consistency. Journal team members regularly graduate, and the students stepping into leadership roles often face a steep learning curve. The UBC SJCoP responded to these issues by exploring how undergraduate journals can support and learn from one another on a broader scale, sharing best practices and solutions to common problems. Our hope was to combine the strengths and successes of each journal involved in our community, and compile resources into useful documentation that can be passed down to future members or even shared beyond the UBC campus, providing a blueprint for other universities and colleges to launch similar communities.
Getting Involved
Please note that while the UBC Student Journal Community of Practice is not currently active, there are always opportunities for incoming editorial teams and executive team members to restart the conversation! If you are a current student or alumnus interested in joining or reviving the community of practice, you can connect by joining our established group chat and encouraging team members from other student journals to join you too!
What are Communities of Practice?
Have you ever wished you could connect with others on campus who are doing work similar to yours? Do you have a great idea or approach that you’d love to pass along? Communities of practice are a great way to share with and learn from others on the UBC campus and beyond. Within a community of practice, group members come together to share solutions, ideas and curiosities about a common interest or passion. The goal is to learn from one another and improve how we do things.