Faculty-Undergraduate Collaborative Research and Publishing
A CUR White Paper
February 26, 2003

The Council on Undergraduate Research is an organization dedicated to the promotion of undergraduate research as a means by which students of mathematics, technology, the natural and social sciences may participate in the intellectual life of our society. To this end, CUR encourages faculty and their students to collaborate as partners in their explorations of uncharted intellectual terrain. The symbiosis established between the faculty member and the undergraduate collaborator energizes and informs the faculty member's teaching and research while simultaneously introducing the student to the joys of discovery as well as to lessons in persistence, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Faculty conducting research with undergraduates benefit enormously by having undergraduate collaborators invested in the research enterprise help to advance the faculty research program. Undergraduate students benefit from the opportunity both to learn the breadth and depth of their chosen fields of inquiry as well as to contribute meaningfully to the expansion of knowledge. Presently, individual and institutional members representing over 800 colleges and universities from across the United States support the educational and research initiatives established by CUR to ensure that research partnerships between faculty and their students are encouraged and nurtured. A primary concern for CUR is that these partnerships facilitate the attainment of professional productivity and intellectual integrity at the standards of excellence consonant with those recognized by professional scholarly and research societies. 

The Council on Undergraduate Research herein provides the following recommendations to help institutions provide an environment within which faculty and undergraduate research collaborations would be supported and celebrated:

1. We urge colleges and universities to adopt policies that encourage student-faculty collaborative research leading to:
   1. publications in peer-reviewed scholarly journals; and
   2. presentations at regional, national, or international meetings of professional scholarly and research societies.
       
2. Academic institutions of higher learning should implement policies wherein teaching and research are viewed as activities of academic life seamlessly integrated to promote the intellectual well being of our society. Policies that pit one against the other undermine our efforts to create a coherent framework within which the Academy can both educate undergraduate students and expand knowledge, the hallmarks of higher education.
    
3. As a matter of intellectual integrity, faculty members are encouraged to include undergraduate students as co-authors on scholarly publications and presentations if the students have contributed to the scholarly and research activity at levels recognized by scholarly and research societies as earning the privilege of co-authorship.

Drafted by Drs. Julio Ramirez and Elaine Hoagland and endorsed by the CUR fellows and the CUR board as an official CUR White Paper.