Winter 2025

Greetings and welcome to the Winter 2025 issue of Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research. This issue covers a wide range of topics affecting undergraduate research, including interdisciplinary research, mentoring, and a scaffolded approach to responsible and ethical conduct of research training.

Thank you! It was nearly five years ago that I had the honor of becoming editor in chief of Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research (SPUR). I was so humbled and honored to continue the work of the journal’s founding editor, James LaPlant, in advancing the quality of undergraduate research scholarship in SPUR. As the final year of my term as editor in chief of Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research comes to an end, I want to express my sincere thanks to everyone who has engaged with SPUR in any way over this time period. It has been the greatest joy and privilege of my career to serve you and the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) in this role. I hope that you have found SPUR’s content during my tenure inspirational, educational, and impactful. I hope we have informed your personal practice of mentored undergraduate research, challenged you, and made your work with your students more effective.

Undergraduate research experience is a high-impact practice that increases students’ research skills, confidence, and sense of belonging. Externally funded formal research training programs provide structured experiences and financial resources that support students’ pursuit of research careers. Although impactful, these programs are expensive, competitive, and geared toward students from specific disciplines and career goals, excluding large segments of the campus population. To address this gap, the Office of Undergraduate Research Services Research Certificate Program was developed at California State University, Long Beach as a cost-effective, semi-structured research program. Program evaluation findings indicated that Research Certificate students reported higher professional development and connection with faculty and peer mentors than non–Research Certificate students. Key aspects of program development and implementation are discussed for institutionalization.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) engage science, technology, engineering, and math undergraduates in authentic research experiences. CUREs provide an opportunity to infuse training that is essential for future researchers. As responsible and ethical conduct is central to research and scientific practice, the incorporation of responsible and ethical conduct of research (RECR) in CUREs is an exciting learning target. This exploratory research reports on the use of RECR in a lower division introductory course, an upper division advanced course, and a culminating capstone experience in marine science. Students successfully created student-generated research questions, identified appropriate data sources to answer those questions, and generated figures with accurate conclusions. Through CUREs, students engaged in scientific explanations in a research presentation with a focus on the responsible conduct of research.

This study explores the evolution of faculty perceptions of interdisciplinary undergraduate research (IDUR) over the past decade, with particular attention to methodological diversity. Building on the 2013 survey of Ülkü and colleagues, this 2023 follow-up reveals a shift from defining interdisciplinarity primarily as disciplinary boundary–crossing to valuing multimodal approaches within and across disciplines. Faculty increasingly regard methodological diversity—integrating qualitative, quantitative, computational, and design traditions—as part of fostering integrative thinking and transferable skills. However, declining student interest poses recruitment challenges. To address this, the authors recommend embedding methodologically diverse research experiences in course-based undergraduate research experiences. This approach aims to enhance student engagement, align with career readiness competencies, and provide institutions with a more inclusive strategy that supports innovative pedagogies and broadens participation in IDUR.

This classic book, now in its fifth edition, is a pleasure to read. It is a helpful companion to the academic writing process, including planning for a research project, making good arguments, and telling the story clearly and ethically. Written in a conversational voice, this guide includes helpful analogies and direct prompts for readers to practice their skills, as well as templates. It is part of the renowned Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing series. The authors of the book state that “so far as we know, no other guide gives the same balanced attention to the processes of research, argumentation, and communication, as well as to how these processes influence each other.”