If there is anything in common among the papers we encountered over the course of the making of this issue, it is the time and effort that students have put in them. Beginning at the roughly fifty papers submitted, to the twelve papers which remained after two editing rounds, the enthusiasm and dedication towards this project that the students showed stood out. In the essays themselves, we encountered a spirit of critical reflection - papers that break disciplinary bounds, that challenge established modes of thinking, or that ask about the students’ own place in society and the world.
The process we followed in this journal was a double-blind peer review process. Selection of papers took place through two reviewers who had to reach a unanimous decision for acceptance, otherwise a third reviewer was consulted. The chief editor was personally responsible for assigning papers to the various editors and ensured that double blindness remained intact throughout the whole process. Editing was done in two rounds, whereby the authors of selected papers received feedback from two editors each time. In one case, anonymity could not be maintained, which led to the dissolution of the professional relationship between one of our editors and authors. Fortunately, this happened only after all the twelve papers were already selected. Nonetheless, we wish for this not to happen again, which is why we will conduct the editing process with greater stringency in the future.
This edition features papers from the social and behavioral sciences, the humanities and the life sciences departments. Although three departments are represented, we cannot say that the representation is equal. Three fourths of the manuscripts received belonged to the humanities departments and we hope that in future editions we will be able to publish more papers also from the other departments.
Disclaimer: Although the editors of the EUC Student Academic Journal have taken the utmost care in reviewing the papers in this issue, we cannot exclude the possibility that they contain inaccuracies or violate the proper use of academic referencing or copyright in general. The responsibility for these matters therefore remains with the authors of these papers and third parties that choose to make use of them entirely. In no event can the editorial board of the EUC Student Academic Journal be held accountable for the contents of these papers.