Maastricht European Studies Papers (MESP) is the official interdisciplinary online journal of the European Studies programme (ES) at Maastricht University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASOS). It is a peer-reviewed journal run by ES-students and currently chaired by Dr. Marten Vink that publishes the best working papers written by ES students for the different bachelor and master courses on politics, society, and culture in an integrating Europe. The first paper has been published in 2006.
Purpose
editThe purpose of MESP is threefold. First, MESP gives students an opportunity to experience in practice what academic publishing is about, and gives both the student authors and the student peer reviewers valuable insights in the whole peer review process, from the submission to the publication of a paper. Second, MESP provides ES-students with a new incentive to excel in academic performance by publishing their work in an online journal. These publications will enrich the academic experience and accounts of ES students and can be considered a valuable asset when applying for (post)graduate and PhD programs. Third, from the faculty’s point of view, MESP represents the often high quality of work by students within the ES-program. Current students from the European Studies Bachelor and Master programs may use these papers as a frame of reference for their own work, and prospective students may use MESP to gain an impression of the kind of work that would be the product of their academic training in Maastricht.