Introducing ASPIRE

On 21 May 2025 during the LJMU PGR Festival, PGRs Sarah Klingberg (School of Justice Studies) and Samantha Barker (Humanities and Social Sciences), with Cherene de Bruyn (School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Science/Forensic Research Institute) (in absence), officially introduced and lunched the APSIRE Journal.

ASPIRE stands for Assiduous Student Projects and Impactful Research Excellence – and captures the essence of student creativity, involvement, and the diligent pursuit of research excellence. The main ethos of ASPIRE is it’s PGR centred design, were every stage of the publication process from submission, review and editing is managed by a team of PGRs. This PGR lead journal hopes to provide PGRs with useful skills and knowledge of the academic publishing and peer review process, contributing to their development as researchers and writers.

As an open access, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary academic journal created by LJMU PGRs, for LJMU students the journal will feature original high-quality research in all its forms across the different LJMU faculties.

Call for Reviewers

We are inviting LJMU PGRs in their first to third year, to join the ASPIRE team as Reviewers. No experience is needed, as training and guidance will be provided. PGRs who are interested can register on the ASPIRE website.

Call for Papers

We are now accepting submission form LJMU undergraduate and master’s students for the first issue of the ASPIRE Journal. Students are invited to submit original papers for publication in the ASPIRE Journal (Visit the Submission page for guidance on structure and format). Authors are encouraged to read and follow the ASPIRE Author guidelines before submitting a paper. All students should also complete and upload a Supervisory consent form.

The deadline for submissions is 1 September 2025.

Have questions? Authors or reviewers, can contact the ASPIRE Editorial Team at aspirejournal@ljmu.ac.uk