An Opportunity to Grow:  Undergraduates Published in Scientific Journals

Every year, nearly 2 million college students graduate with a bachelor's degree in the United States. As these individuals compete for spots in graduate programs, being published in a peer-reviewed journal can give them an edge.  Charis Chen and Kira Waltz, who graduated from Cedarville University in 2024 with degrees in psychology, know this firsthand.   

Chen is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in school psychology at Northern Illinois University, while Waltz is completing a master’s degree in counseling at the University of Cincinnati. Both students published work with Dr. Chao Liu, assistant professor of psychology at Cedarville. Liu gives undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing an advanced degree the chance to be published.  

Chen contributed the abstract for Liu’s article, “Text Mining and Sentiment Analysis: A New Lens to Explore the Emotion Dynamics of Mother-Child Interactions,” published in Wiley Online Library. Waltz contributed the abstract for “Unveiling the Tapestry of Mother–Child Interactions Through Text Mining and Sentiment Analysis,” published in Sage Journals.  Both Chen and Waltz point to their research opportunities with Dr. Liu as a major factor in successfully applying to graduate programs. 

“I wanted to position myself well for whatever came after college, particularly applying to graduate schools,” said Chen. “Having research experience is something that graduate schools look for. Cedarville gave me opportunities to gain that experience.” 

Similarly, Waltz noted how the opportunity provided by Liu advanced her application through the graduate school admissions process. 

“Telling graduate schools that I've already had my name published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal gave me a leg up,” said Waltz. “I felt so prepared by the professors in Cedarville’s psychology department. They’ve cared for me, taken the time to know my goals and ensured I was equipped to reach those goals.”