URNCST Journal Mentored Paper

The URNCST Journal team prides itself on its commitment to advocate for undergraduate STEM research. In our endeavours to promote undergraduate research, we have published a number of papers from undergraduate research competitions and case competitions. From these ventures, we have identified a couple of themes that were found to recur independently as follows: 1) undergraduate students are extremely keen to use their critical thinking skills to participate in research endeavours that recognize their valuable work and 2) there exists a subset of students who desire to contribute to undergraduate STEM research but due to one reason or another are unable to take part in such research or feel as if they may need closer guidance during the writing process. Despite this, many thousands of undergraduate students across the globe play crucial roles in making new discoveries every single year.

In an effort to provide undergraduate students with the opportunity to contribute to STEM research literature, we have established our novel Mentored Paper Initiative. Students that are selected to participate will have the opportunity to be partnered with a graduate student as they write a manuscript that is of peer-reviewable quality in the URNCST Journal. The topic of the manuscript will be in the graduate student’s area of expertise to allow them to more effectively guide the students throughout the writing process. Students will be mentored from the design stage to write up, and the final manuscript will be peer-reviewed by another graduate student, to allow the students to experience external-feedback. This opportunity provides undergraduate students with the chance to improve their scientific writing skills and experience the entire process of writing an academic manuscript, while working under the supervision of a graduate student. Those wishing to learn more about how the URNCST Journal Mentored Paper initiative was developed can read our published editorial.

Eligibility to Participate: The mentored paper is open to students who are enrolled in an undergraduate (i.e. BSc, BEng, BA, etc.) or professional-undergraduate (i.e. MD, DDS, PharmD, OD, RN, etc.) degree program.

About the Initiative: Undergraduate students participating in the URNCST Journal Mentored Paper are required to draft and submit an abstract on a topic that is of interest to them based on the questions provided below. This abstract must be in the format of either 1) a research protocol (i.e. a plan to conduct a study) OR 2) a review (i.e. a review of the currently existing literature); it is not acceptable to simply summarize a single study already published in the literature by an academic journal. Students may submit an abstract alone or in teams of up to 3. These abstracts will be reviewed for suitability (i.e. understanding of topic, writing ability), and accepted students will be paired with the graduate student who proposed the topic and will mentor the undergraduate (team) in drafting a manuscript that is of suitable quality to undergo peer-review by the URNCST Journal. As participants will be under the guidance of a graduate student, they are not required to have a complete understanding of the topic, but should have done their due diligence in reading about the topic online and have the motivation and dedication to learn from the mentoring graduate student.

Topics Available: Please see below for a complete list of the available research topics for the manuscripts. Please note that these are the only questions accepted students should write on and they are not subject to change.

Deadline to Submit Abstract for Consideration: Wednesday, March 18, 2026 @ 11:59PM EST

Mentorship Period: Summer 2026 (January-April)

Update: The URNCST Journal's call for abstracts for the 18th Mentored Paper Initiative is now closed. Those who applied in advance of the Wednesday, March 18, 2026 @ 11:59pm EST deadline should expect to receive an outcome on their submission by late-April. Should you have any questions about participating, please contact us at [email protected]. For those who did not have the chance to participate, please stay tuned for the 19th Mentored Paper Initiative (Fall 2026) for which we anticipate our call for abstracts will open in Summer 2026.

For Graduate Students: We are always interested in identifying new mentors who are able/willing to help keen undergraduate researchers design, develop, and write a full-length study protocol or review. Eligible mentors must be enrolled in or a graduate of a graduate program (a Master's level degree at minimum) in any natural or clinical science or technology discipline. Please apply to be a mentor here.

After selecting a topic, please click "Learn More & SUBMIT ABSTRACT" below and follow the instructions provided.

Topics

MPI 18.1: Skeletal muscle angiogenesis in response to hypoxia, considering environmental and exercise conditions (literature review)

MPI 18.2: What is the role of histone modifications in mediating skeletal muscle adaptation to exercise (literature review)

MPI 18.3: What role do environmental triggers (such as viral infections, diet, or early-life microbiome changes) play in initiating autoimmune responses that lead to Type 1 diabetes?

MPI 18.4: How do failures in central or peripheral immune tolerance lead to the destruction of self-tissues in autoimmune diseases?

MPI 18.5: Can early biomarkers (genetic, immunological, or metabolic) reliably predict the development of Type 1 diabetes before clinical symptoms appear?

MPI 18.6: How do experiences of maternal health care differ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women in Canada, and what are the implications for health outcomes and healthcare delivery?

MPI 18.7: How do marginalized youth in Canada navigate mental health barriers, and in what ways do cultural contexts and gender differences influence the accessibility of mental health services?

MPI 18.8: What are the similarities and differences in host immune activation between acute viral infections and chronic infections?

MPI 18.9: What are the key cytokine profiles that distinguish mild from severe COVID-19 infection?

MPI 18.10: What role do host transcription factors play in regulating viral gene expression across different viral families?

MPI 18.11: How does the expression of host-defense peptides (HDPs) differ between tissue types in animals?

MPI 18.12: How do secreted factors support innate immune defense in different mucous membranes (lung, gut, endometrium, etc.)?

MPI 18.13: Can Parkinson's disease be detected by smell?

MPI 18.14: How can we model plasticity?

MPI 18.15: What is the effect of the Earth's magnetic field on the human brain, if any?

MPI 18.16: To what extent will climate change uncouple trophic links due to phenological change? E.g. Timing of hibernation in the face of shifting seasonal food availability.

MPI 18.17: How do nutrients other than nitrogen and phosphorus affect (or limit) productivity in ecosystems?

MPI 18.18: What are the roles of RNA in DNA double-strand break repair pathways?

MPI 18.19 What are some of the possible biochemical mechanisms governing freeze tolerance in intertidal animals?