Inquiry journal is the online, multi-disciplinary undergraduate research journal of the University of New Hampshire. It is published twice a year at www.unh.edu/inquiryjournal. The journal accepts submissions for research articles, commentaries, and briefs about undergraduate research from current and recently graduated students of UNH only. Inquiry was made possible by a generous endowment from Mr. Dana Hamel.
Inquiry was created to support the academic mission of UNH as a research and public service university. It offers undergraduate researchers in all the disciplines at the University the opportunity to communicate their experiences and results to general as well as academic audiences worldwide—the final and very important step in the research process.
The journal has four interrelated goals: (1) to share the research conducted by UNH undergraduates with academic and educated general readers; (2) to provide student researchers the opportunity to learn to communicate with this wide audience; (3) to offer the opportunity for student editors to participate in the editing and producing of such a journal; and (4) to inspire undergraduates to undertake their own research projects.
Inquiry articles are based on undergraduate research done for a course or project under the direction of one or more faculty mentors. These faculty members go out of their way to support the students’ research and are closely involved in the writing of the Inquiry article as well. Short biographies of authors and mentors are included in each issue. In the 2010 issue, we began a Mentor Highlights section, where we profile faculty members who have been especially active in promoting undergraduate research and mentoring Inquiry authors. In 2021, we added a fall issue and transitioned from being an annual, spring-only publication to biannual publication. That same year, we created the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research Blog at www.unh.edu/undergrad-research/blog.
Inquiry’s staff currently is made up of one part-time senior editor, Brigid Carroll Casellini. She guides a volunteer student editorial board made up of undergraduates from all disciplines. The publisher is Dr. Paul C. Tsang, Faculty Director of the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research and Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Sciences.
The first issue appeared in 2005. Past issues can be accessed through the website and the UNH Scholars Repository. Inquiry is indexed by EBSCOHost.
