As a CIPA fellow, you have the opportunity to be involved with the student-run academic journal, The Cornell Policy Review. Many of our students are looking for a venue to showcase their research, and the Review is a natural outlet for that. In this post, Peter Fiduccia, 2nd year CIPA fellow and Editor in Chief of the Cornell Policy Review, speaks more about his experience on the Review and CPR’s presentation at a recent conference.
I served on the Review as an associate editor during my first year at CIPA and can say, without question, my writing skills were enhanced tenfold. Having the extraordinary fortune of working with the Review’s skilled copy editor, your content is critiqued, your writing style augmented, and your knowledge of technicalities blossoms.
Over winter break, I traveled with four other staff members to the University of Virginia for the 5th annual National Journal Conference. Though, in previous years, the sitting executive board and executive board members-elect usually attend, changes in our application processes allowed us to open up the conference to any member of the Review this year. Our participation was three-fold, taking the form of general attendance at the conference (participating in workshops, Q&A sessions, and guest lectures), a special panel for the Editor’s-in-Chief of participating journals (on which I sat), and our own hour-long, interactive panel session–a first for the Review, designed to highlight our transition from a print to a digital publication. This was not only a proud moment for the organization (and myself), but also allowed us to solicit feedback from fellow journals, to critically evaluate our own progress, and set ambitious goals for future iterations of the Review. Additionally, as we strive to make the Cornell Policy Review one of the nation’s premier student-run journals of public policy & administration, the opportunity to present in front of peers, faculty, and industry experts is always a unique learning experience.
Senior Content Editor Harrison Speck and Senior Managing Editor Ana Cañedo joined me on the CIPA panel, speaking to the various organizational, technical, and personnel-based challenges we’ve faced in the past two years transitioning the Review from a print and media hybrid to an all-digital journal. We covered the previous board’s decision to make the transition, why print wasn’t serving us a continual benefit, the re-imagining of the Review brand, the overhaul of the website, and major changes to the internal workflow which allowed us to move into our current operating position. We also mentioned how these changes result in many unexpected challenges, even with regards to staffing. The end of the presentation allowed us time to answer many questions from the rest of the participants, and gave us plenty of new ideas about how to continue improving the Review moving forward.
During our presentation, Associate Editor Fjolla Kondirolli ’17 also spoke about her article, published last spring: The Syrian Refugee Crisis and the (In)humanity of the International Community. This was one of our strongest performing articles at the time, nearly tripling the average response on social media and engaging a deep level of conversation on our Facebook page. We used this example to highlight the power and, more importantly, the purpose of social media to the Review and how transitioning to a digital format has allowed us to leverage the many resources of our diverse staff in ways not possible in print. Finally, we highlighted our successes in raising the presence of the Review and, by extension, CIPA by sharing our website, social media, and individual article metrics.
The performance of my team members would have been reason alone to be extraordinarily proud and to call the conference a success. Our contribution was further validated, however, by several interactions which took place after our session.
David Marshall, NASPAA Director of Membership Development, complimented us on our presentation. I also spoke with each of the Editors-in-Chief of all journals in attendance and secured an initial agreement for post-sharing, our first step toward collaboration across publications. This would allow our articles and special editions to be published across multiple audiences, as well as giving our readership access to other journals’ work. This also included the Editor of the Virginia Policy Review and I making plans for a large-scale joint publication between UVA and Cornell journals, which might take place as early as fall 2017. Lastly, Professor David Schultz (Hamline and U Minnesota School of Law), Editor of the Journal of Public Affairs Education, approached us after our presentation and said he wants to work with us on our first podcast this Spring – and that he would be thrilled to be our first guest.
Our entire team was proud to represent CIPA, HumEc, and the University at the conference and we’re looking forward to capitalizing on the opportunities ahead. Looking forward, my Senior Editors and I are already putting together a ‘recap’ article which will feature photos from the conference, as well as links to participating journals.
Peter Fiduccia is the editor-in-chief of the Cornell Policy Review, CIPA’s online academic journal. He is a second-year CIPA student with a concentration in Social Policy, specifically education policy.