A group of devoted students and faculty members have joined together to produce Visions magazine, a new production that will be released next fall.

The bi-annual environmental magazine will “bridge the gap between a journal and a magazine,” said Dr. Sharon Spray, the faculty adviser to Visions.

The magazine’s main purpose,Spray said, is “to provide students a place to get their research published.”

Visions will have content primarily from the environmental studies program, but will also draw on material from other departments, including the political science, communications, art and English departments.

The editorial staff behind Visions hopes to provide an outlet for student research and other students’ work.

For example, an English major may write a short story or a poem centered on the environment, or a political science major may write about new legislation that endangers wildlife.

“This is supposed to be an outlet for students who are interested in the environment but not necessarily involved in the environmental science program,” said Ashley Leasure, Vision’s lead student editor.

“We’re trying to be very selective in our articles,” Spray said, “to keep the content up to good standards.”

Spray added that “one of the unique things is that [the content] goes through blind peer review,” meaning that all submitted materials are revised without the editor knowing the author’s name. The blind review process provides a particularly interesting dynamic to the magazine.

“The reviewers don’t know whose piece they’re reading. They can then accept it or not based on the content,” Leasure said. The blind peer review allows for non-bias editing just like real scholarly journals do.

Spray described Visions as different from other campus publications, as it will be “a collaboration between students and faculty.”

A student editorial team along with eight faculty members will run the magazine and its production.

“The idea was brought up last summer,” said Leasure. “We’ve been meeting every week since the fall and started looking for submissions in the spring.”

Spray added that “this is a very talented group. We are very proud of the work they’ve done.”

Visions will be available in both hard copy and online.

“We’re hoping to have it available in the library,” Spray said.

Leasure also said that they’ll probably be available in McMichael too.

At first, Visions will have a low circulation, Spray said, adding that “once we establish ourselves, we hope to maintain a large circulation.”

Reporter: David Koontz - 04/26/07