Undergraduate Research
Office of Undergraduate Research
Objectives of the Office of Undergraduate Research
The University College and, subsequently, the OUR recognize that without faculty interest in and engagement with research, undergraduate students have few opportunities to participate in research. While the OUR aims to increase undergraduate students' familiarity with and participation in research, it also recognizes that achieving this mission requires ongoing attention to faculty attitudes toward research, familiarity with research practices and incentives to conduct research.
The objectives below intentionally center both faculty and students. They are organized around the core belief that faculty familiarity with and enthusiasm for conducting research directly influence students' access to research opportunities and, in turn, their ability to develop marketable research experience and skills.
- Cultivate a campuswide culture of research among both students and faculty.
- Assess research activity among Lincoln University faculty to better understand how research is defined, conducted and made accessible to students both inside and outside the classroom.
- Identify institutional barriers that limit faculty opportunities to conduct research, teach research-focused courses and introduce students to research participation, regardless of discipline, department, major or college.
- Develop internal and external resources to support faculty who wish to conduct research and contribute to knowledge creation in their respective fields.
- Promote, celebrate and recognize research activity among university faculty.
- Expand research opportunities for undergraduate students, recognizing them as a critical component of high-impact teaching practices (HITPs).
- Collaborate with campus offices and resources — including Grant Sponsored Programs, Title III, the Human Subjects/IRB Committee, the Honors College, the Office of International Travel and Study Abroad, the Office of Institutional Research, the Student Travel Funding Initiative, the Student Career Center and the Office of Student Engagement — to identify research opportunities and resources for students and foster a universitywide culture of research.
- Ensure students understand the intrinsic and broad value of research, as well as the skills required to conduct it effectively, including how those skills translate to careers beyond research-intensive professions.
- Create on-campus opportunities that both encourage faculty participation in research and highlight student research accomplishments, such as faculty brown-bag discussions on research challenges and successes, undergraduate research conferences and student presentation opportunities.
- Encourage faculty to conduct research in their respective fields, particularly in ways that engage students as active participants.
Research is defined as...
- Projects in which university faculty serve as the principal investigator (PI) for official, Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved studies involving human participants.
- Projects in which university faculty study topics other than human participants, including scholarship in the humanities (such as creative writing and literary analysis) and creative disciplines (such as performance and artistic production).
- Mock or pilot studies that are not IRB-approved but introduce students to research fundamentals, including research questions, hypotheses, literature reviews, theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches (such as qualitative, quantitative, rhetorical, ideological, ethnomethodological and artistic methods) and ontological and epistemological paradigms (such as postpositivism, interpretivism and critical theory).
- Classroom assignments, such as term papers, presentations and annotated bibliographies, that emphasize key components of the research process.
- Studies designed to explore issues that are particularly relevant to Lincoln University, including its history, mission, students and faculty, as well as topics related to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Black and African American culture, Midwestern culture and regional identity, and higher education.
- Work that produces scholarly output, including conference presentations and publications in peer-reviewed outlets such as refereed journals, edited volumes, monographs and other professional venues relevant to a faculty member's field of expertise.
Student participation is defined as...
- Serving as co-authors on official or mock research projects in which faculty mentor students and meaningfully incorporate them into the design, execution and dissemination of research, including creative works, monographs and qualitative or quantitative data analysis.
- Contributing to specific aspects of a research project's design and implementation, either independently or in collaboration with faculty. Examples include helping define research questions, populations and protocols; developing surveys or measurement instruments for quantitative studies; and co-developing interview guides or co-facilitating interviews and focus groups for qualitative studies.
- Participating as research participants in faculty-led studies, including projects conducted by Lincoln University faculty and external researchers, to gain firsthand experience with the research process through activities such as surveys, questionnaires, interviews and focus groups.
- Producing original papers, posters, pilot studies, literature reviews or other scholarly or creative work, either as part of a course or independently, and presenting that work to relevant audiences, such as academic conferences, community organizations or businesses, or publishing it in appropriate venues, including journals, blogs, online platforms or university-affiliated outlets.
- Engaging with published scholarly research as part of the curriculum in ways that deepen students' understanding of research literacy, research methods and the research process.
Contact Us
COORDINATOR OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
Mick B. BrewerAssociate Professor of Communication Studies
E: brewerm@lincolnu.edu
P: (573) 681-5233