Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ)

What Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ) does

Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ) operates as a student-run peer-reviewed academic publishing initiative within Stanford University, branded under the legal entity "Stanford University Student Journals." The organization is hosted on the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform maintained by Stanford's OJS infrastructure, providing a digital venue for Stanford students to publish interdisciplinary academic work including original research, academic papers, features, editorials, creative writing, and multimedia pieces. As of the input, the platform hosts at least two journals: the Journal for Human and Planetary Health (founded 2025, focused on climate/health, pollution/health, disease ecology, and food systems) and "Welcomed: Building Communities of Faith at Stanford."

The publishing operation is supported institutionally by Stanford University's Graduate School of Education, which provides oversight and administrative backing. SURJ functions as an academic and extracurricular publishing outlet rather than a commercial enterprise; the input data discloses no revenue model, no pricing structure, no app distribution, no paid customers, and no management team. Its sole stated customer segment is Stanford University students and researchers seeking to publish peer-reviewed academic work. The platform explicitly invites other Stanford student groups to leverage the publishing infrastructure, indicating its role as an institutional shared publishing utility rather than a revenue-generating product.

Business model details are absent from the source data: there are no funding rounds, no investors, no commercial pricing, no GTM motion, and no disclosed headcount compensation structure beyond seven total people associated with the entity. Founded in 2025, the journal platform is in an early-stage operating posture, dependent on Stanford institutional sponsorship and serving an internal university audience.

Name

Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ)

Legal name

Stanford University Student Journals

Website

https://ojs.stanford.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2025

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ) is a student-run, peer-reviewed academic publishing platform hosted on Stanford University's Open Journal Systems, serving Stanford students and researchers by publishing interdisciplinary scholarly work under the institutional support of the Graduate School of Education.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Publishing

NAICS

Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (519), Libraries and Archives (51921)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Open Educational Resources (OER) & Open Access Academic Publishing (MPAJABAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Open Access Scholarly Journals & Monographs (EDAGAFAJ), Open Courseware & Course Modules (OCW) (EDAGAJAB), OER Repositories, Discovery & Metadata Services (EDAGAJAL)

Keywords

• Academic publishing
• Peer-reviewed journals
• Open access publishing
• Scholarly journals
• Student research

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D

Distribution channels1 record

Core offering

SURJ operates an open-access, peer-reviewed academic publishing platform for Stanford University students, built on Open Journal Systems (OJS) and hosted at ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/. The platform enables students to publish, peer-review, and disseminate scholarly journals across multiple disciplines, with operational support from the Stanford Graduate School of Education.

Product overview

Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ) is published through Stanford University Student Journals, a peer-reviewed academic publishing platform built on Open Journal Systems (OJS). The platform hosts multiple student-run journals including the Journal for Human and Planetary Health (founded 2025) and other publications. The system is operated by Stanford University students with administrative support from the Graduate School of Education.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Stanford University Student Journals (SURJ Platform) Open-access, peer-reviewed publishing platform for Stanford University student-produced scholarly journals, built on Open Journal Systems and supported by the Stanford Graduate School of Education.
• Journal for Human and Planetary Health Peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal published on the SURJ platform, covering research on human and planetary health topics; intended for Stanford undergraduate authors and global academic readers.
• Welcomed: Building Communities of Faith at Stanford Peer-reviewed, open-access journal published on the SURJ platform addressing the building of faith communities at Stanford University; intended for student authors and academic readers interested in religious and community studies.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Stanford Graduate School of EducationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProvides institutional support and oversight for the Stanford University Student Journals platform, enabling students to publish peer-reviewed academic work.

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Direct peers

• MIT Undergraduate Research Journal: An undergraduate research journal at MIT providing a directly comparable model of student-run, peer-reviewed academic publishing at a peer institution.
• Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal: A peer-reviewed undergraduate research journal at Harvard, directly comparable as a top-tier university-affiliated student publishing platform that publishes original interdisciplinary research.

Broad incumbents

• University of California Press: A large academic press operating open-access and subscription journals across disciplines. Comparable as a university-affiliated scholarly publisher but with established professional operations.
• Public Library of Science (PLOS): A leading open-access scientific publisher. Comparable as an open-access academic publishing platform but at vastly larger scale and with established indexing and editorial infrastructure.
• SSRN (Social Science Research Network): A large open-access repository for social science research. Comparable as an open-access scholarly publishing platform serving academic researchers, though with broader scope and established indexing.
• Stanford University Press: Stanford's own university press operating scholarly publishing at scale. Comparable as a Stanford-affiliated academic publisher but operates as an established professional press rather than a student-run platform.

Others

• PKP (Public Knowledge Project): The developer of Open Journal Systems, the exact software platform SURJ runs on. Comparable as the enabling infrastructure provider for SURJ's publishing operations.
• arXiv: A major open-access preprint server widely used in academia. Comparable as an open-access scholarly communication platform, though focused on preprints rather than peer-reviewed journals.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/stanford-undergraduate-research-journal-surj

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ)