Library Faculty Scholarship

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

9-24-2026

Abstract

Objective: This poster will describe a school-hosted open access medical journal that was recently founded at our institution to provide an outlet for medical student and faculty scholarly and creative works. We will describe how the journal was developed, for what purpose, what kinds of works have been published in the first two issues, some challenges we have encountered thus far, and the benefits for our students and faculty.

Methods: We established an open access journal to provide a supportive platform for emerging scholars, primarily our medical students.  We embrace the college’s whole person approach to healing, and as such, encourage submissions that reflect the diverse fields of health, medicine, and the human experience, creating a space where both scientific and humanities-related works are valued. Our whole-person approach informs everything we do, from teaching and learning, to scholarship, to the well being of our students, faculty, and staff. A medical journal encourages students to inquire, to explore, create, and share their scholarly and creative works. It also highlights our faculty’s commitment to contributing to professional identify formation for our students, which will prepare them for success later on. One library faculty member and one basic science faculty member from the medical school worked together to co-found an open access journal. Initially, the journal would be open to submissions from students, faculty, and staff from the medical school, with a longer-term goal of opening up to other health-related colleges at our institution, then state-wide, and possibly broader. An editorial board was formed with faculty from the medical school, and we worked together to establish the scope of the journal and to identify a wide range of publication types accepted that would reflect the college mission and vision. Submission types include research articles, reviews, case reports, medical education articles, medical arts and literature, medical and scientific media, history of medicine, faith and medicine, service-learning reflections, research precis, and opinions and reflections.

Results: We have published eight articles since January, 2026, which are already reaching a wide audience per Digital Commons metrics. Students have had the opportunity to experience the submission, review,  and publication process of an academic journal, we hope, increasing their confidence and motivation to continue to develop scholarly works.

Conclusions: The library’s work on the journal contributes to the goals, vision and mission of the college of medicine and to students’ journey to becoming physicians. The journal was built on the existing Digital Commons platform, hosted by the university library and the librarians’ expertise and experience with academic publishing made the journal possible, all showing the value of the library. There are challenges including workload, especially if we want to expand the journal beyond our institution, which is the goal but our community is enthusiastic about the journal’s potential, especially in areas most closely related to our vision and mission, such as medical education, medical arts and literature, and faith and medicine.

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