The Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal is published annually by the Jean and Alexander Heard Library and distributed to an international scholarly audience. All published articles are annotated and indexed in the permanent Vanderbilt University archives.

The Journal welcomes submissions from any undergraduate student or collaborative team, particularly those students engaged in departmental honors work, independent study, research assistantship, or summer research. Prospective contributors are encouraged to submit articles for review after meeting with a faculty member. The Editorial Review Board automatically considers previously-recognized submissions, particularly those which have been awarded University prizes or departmental honors.

The Journal conforms to the highest standards of ethics, honesty, and integrity in the review process. Both sections maintain a blind, peer-review process that protects the scholastic value of academic research by verifying the methodological and content validity of submissions. Additionally, all faculty-student teams currently working on major research projects are invited to submit articles for publication.