January 20, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Inquiro, UAB's undergraduate research journal, will launch its third edition during a reception scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 22 in the UAB Spencer Honors House, 1190 10th Ave. South. The event is open to the public.

Inquiro is an annual publication of unique UAB interdisciplinary research conducted by undergraduates. The journal employs a blind, peer-review process conducted by UAB faculty and researchers who review student submissions and guide them on editing, journal style and other elements of professional research publication.

Shweta Patel, the journal's co-editor and a junior biology major, says Inquiro builds on UAB's reputation for breaking the mold of the undergraduate student experience with this innovative outlet for expressing the exceptional research opportunities provided them.

 "Inquiro is a significant outlet for UAB's undergraduate students who want to gain experience in the process of having their work published in a peer-reviewed journal," Patel says.

"Undergraduates are given so many opportunities to work with leading researchers at UAB, and it is important to have the journal so those experiences can be shared," she says.

Several other undergraduate research journals are published at major research universities, but Inquiro goes beyond its traditional research-publication roots to make the journal more accessible to more people. Patel's co-editor Andrew Buie, a junior chemistry major, says news briefs, first-person stories and narratives open up the research featured in the publication to a broader audience.

Inquiro. Download image.

"We wanted to make the third edition of Inquiro bigger and better than ever and open it up to the entire UAB community," Buie says. "We have included a number of articles and narratives that inform and educate - and also tell great stories and make for enjoyable reading."

Copies of the third edition of Inquiro will be available at the Jan. 22 launch reception or can be obtained by reaching the journal's editorial staff at sciencejournal.Inquiro@gmail.com.

About UAB

Known for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center and the state of Alabama's largest employer. For more information, please visit www.uab.edu.