Volume 8 (2016)

With this volume, The Journal of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research (JIUR) enters its eighth year of publication. From the inception, our intent has been to make this journal interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in approach, publishing original and review papers, including literature reviews, book reviews, film reviews, position papers, empirical work, experiential reflections, and original quantitative and qualitative research. By offering undergraduates the chance to express their ideas to a broader audience, we seek to demonstrate the strength of undergraduate scholarship at Southern Adventist University and our continuing focus on academic excellence.

Beyond Southern Adventist University, our journal is distributed to academic libraries, universities, individual subscribers, and through Knowledge Exchange, which is an online website used to collect and showcase the intellectual work of students and professors on campus to a worldwide audience. Above our expectations, volumes one through seven have been accessed tens of thousands of times around the world. To view this journal online and previous publications of our journal, please go to knowledge.e.southern.edu.

The compilation of this journal would not have been possible without my graduate assistant, Hayley Baker. This year she has built upon past experience and has been instrumental in producing this eighth volume which reflects the scholarship and quality that makes our university proud. Utilizing the knowledge and experience from publishing Volumes 7 and 8, Hayley has also played a critical role in the first publication of The Journal of Interdisciplinary Graduate Research which provided the opportunity for our graduate students to submit research for publication. As a result of dedicated work, Volume 1 was published August of 2015 and we are currently taking submissions for Volume 2. Thank you, Hayley, for consistently high quality work.

Because our journal is interdisciplinary, I am afforded the special privilege of working with an outstanding editorial board that reflects the immense talent we have on our campus: Dr. Linda Crumley, Journalism and Communication; Dr. Keith Snyder, Biology; Dr. Rick Norskov, Biology; Dr. Mark Peach, History and Southern Scholars; and Dr. Ruth Williams, Psychology. I, too, am pleased and grateful for our university, especially the School of Education and Psychology, for continued support, encouragement, and most of all the commitment to academic excellence that affords this publication.

If there is a contingent within your university that is interested in producing such a journal, our step-by-step manual would serve as an invaluable guide. I would gladly share it with you for the asking (rcoombs@southern.edu).

Robert S. Coombs, D.Min., Ph.D.

Editor-in-Chief