Leveraging a University Institutional Repository to Host a New Open Access, Peer-Reviewed Student Biomedical Science Journal at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University

Background: In the Spring of 2018 the library of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) was approached by a clinical faculty member and two medical students who expressed interest creating a legitimate, peer-reviewed journal that could publish student research from around the world. Problem: The CMSRU library took on the challenge of facilitating this project. Their advice ensured the journal would be Open Access (OA), publish with a CC-BY license, have an ISSN, issue DOIs, and follow ethical publishing guidelines to ensure the journal could eventually be included in indices. Approach: The CMSRU library already had an existing Digital Commons institutional repository (IR) which could be utilized as a hosting platform, facilitate peer review, and index articles in Google Scholar for discoverability. The journal officially launched in the Fall of 2018 and is actively peer-reviewing submissions. Conclusions: This poster will highlight the unique challenges of hosting OA journals on IRs. The poster will also provide best practices on starting peer-reviewed journals that are partially student operated. It also will include information on how this project can fill the niche of providing early-career scholars a home to highlight their scholarship while learning the best practices of scholarly OA publishing.