Philippe Mineau is the editor of the Queen's Policy Review.

A new student-led journal is hoping to give extra exposure to the great work that gets done in classrooms and then normally never sees the light of day.

School of Policy Studies student Philippe Mineau and some classmates have just published the first issue of the on-line Queen’s Policy Review. The QPR is focused on publishing graduate student papers in the field of public policy and governance.

“It seemed like such a waste to have a student do so much work on a school paper and then never have the work seen by people outside the classroom,” says Mr. Mineau. “I knew nothing about how to run a journal, but I had ambition and goodwill. Sometimes it takes somebody with a good idea, not experience, to start the process.”

QPR editors put out a call to all policy students in Canada in late December and had roughly 20 students submit papers. Then a team of student editors and Queen’s Policy Studies faculty members trimmed the list down to six papers.

Topics in the first issue of QPR include a look at developing a fiscally responsible marijuana policy for Canada to developing a high-speed railway in the Quebec-Windsor corridor.

The main goal of the review is to help students learn about the review process and how to get published.
Julie Amoroso was happy to see her article about Canadian child care get published.

“I’m used to working on papers, getting them turned back with a grade and then having them disappear into a black hole of saved files on my computer. So it’s nice that it will have a more lasting role in academia,” says Ms Amoroso.

Perrin Valli, the student who wrote about high-speed rail, put a lot of effort into writing his paper so he is happy to share it with others.

“The QPR editorial team put together a really professional journal which makes having my paper selected feel even better. I am currently heading into my second year of law school at Queen's, and I am confident that having my paper published will strengthen my hireability as a (hopefully) future government lawyer,” says Mr. Valli.

Read the Queen's Policy Review.