Policies
Review Policies
Information for Authors
Other Policies
REVIEW POLICIES
The Editorial Board sends all submissions that adhere to the journal’s basic requirements through a blind peer-review process involving at least two peer-reviewers selected for their expertise on the topic and/or methodology of the submission. Peer-reviewers are drawn from several institutions and organizations and can be undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, or professionals.
INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS
Policies & Guidelines on Submissions
Types of content accepted: Crossing Borders accepts text-only submissions or submissions combining text and static images (figures, photos, charts, tables). All submissions must be original: they can not have been published elsewhere. Crossing Borders accepts two types of submissions: articles and book reviews/field notes. The Journal has no article processing or submission charges
Articles Crossing Borders invites current or recently graduated (within 6 months of graduation) undergraduate authors to submit interdisciplinary articles. The articles can be original case-studies or reports of original research or creative activity.
Book Reviews and Field Notes Crossing Borders invites current or recently graduated (within 6 months of graduation) undergraduate authors to submit book reviews and field notes providing insights on the practice and connections of scholarship. We welcome reviews and essays that highlight any aspects of the undergraduate research process: field work, archival and photographic collections, digital tools, primary sources, research methods, laboratory work, and humanities projects, to name a few. Book reviews and field notes should also include surveys of current scholarly trends, new collections, or emerging research areas.
Book Reviews can survey one or more books that span scholarly, intellectual, or cultural borders. Please make sure to include a discussion of the book’s content and effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses.
Field notes can be essays about field work, archival and photograph collections, current exhibitions, digital tools, primary sources, or humanities projects. Field notes can also survey educational, scholarly, or scientific resources. The essay should address content, effectiveness, and application. For an example, please see David Vail’s field note essay, "Dry and Dusty Lands: Exploring the Dust Bowl through Kansas State Agricultural Experiment Station Reports, Photographs, and Posters."
Eligible authors:
- Without exception the first author must be a current or recently graduated (within 6 months of graduation) undergraduate at the time of submission.
- Student author(s) should have a primary contribution to the scholarship and research and/or analysis.
- Co-authors may be students, community members, post-docs, or faculty mentors. Please ensure and include a statement that all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
- For research articles with several authors, a short paragraph specifying their individual contributions must be provided.
- For example, the following statements can be used “Conceptualization, X.X. and Y.Y.; methodology, X.X.; formal analysis, X.X.; investigation, X.X.; resources, X.X.; writing—original draft preparation, X.X.; writing—review and editing, X.X.; supervision, X.X.; project administration, X.X.; funding acquisition, Y.Y.”
Editorial Process
Crossing Borders is affiliated with Kansas State University’s Department of English, The interdisciplinary and inter-institutional Frontier program, Kansas State University’s Honors Program, and Kansas State University Libraries. The Editorial Board consists of editors and a managing editor.
A unique feature of the journal is that the Editorial Board works closely with a group of student writing tutors. Authors submitting manuscripts will be referred to these tutors at various points of the submission process. Authors are highly encouraged to avail themselves of this opportunity to improve their manuscripts and their overall writing ability.
Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. There are no author or submission charges associated with the Journal.
Publication Information
Crossing Borders is published twice annually, once in the spring and once in the fall. It is published as an open access journal by New Prairie Press using the Digital Commons platform.
Formatting Requirements
General requirements:
Manuscripts should follow the format outlined in the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. All text must be double-spaced in a clear, easy-to-read 12-point typeface. Citations should follow the Notes and Bibliography documentation system. Text should be left justified with one-inch margins.
Where available, DOIs (digital object identifiers) for citations must be provided and hotlinked in the Word document. As a member of CrossRef, our publisher, New Prairie Press, is required to include DOIs. Use the free DOI lookup on CrossRef's website to check your citations.
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically in Word (.doc or docx file format). Any illustrations should be submitted as separate .jpg or .gif files, not imbedded in the text of the manuscript. Please make sure that personal identification does not appear on the manuscript itself. Manuscripts should be original and not previously published.
When the journal is accepting manuscripts, acknowledgement of receipt of your manuscript will be sent by email. Then your manuscript will be sent anonymously for review. You will be notified of the results and a copy of the comments will be sent to you. Please note: The author must secure any necessary permissions for copyrighted material for print and electronic reproduction. Permission fees are the responsibility of the author.
Specific requirements for articles:
Articles are not to exceed (25) twenty-five double-spaced pages, including endnotes and Bibliography pages. Illustrations or other images (graphs, charts) should be counted as occupying half a page of text.
Specific requirements for book reviews:
Book Reviews should be approximately 500 words. At the top of the review please include citations with the following information about the book or books being reviewed: title, author, publisher, date, and pages. Examples are provided below:
Citation for a review of a single book: Frontier Manhattan: Yankee Settlement to Kansas Town, 1854–1894. By Kevin G. W. Olson. Lawrence. University Press of Kansas, 2012. 284 pp.
Citation for a review of multiple books: Mount Rainier National Park. By Donald M. Johnstone. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, Postcard History series, 2013. 128 pp. Eagle River. By Zane Treesh. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, Images of America series, 2013. 127 pp. Schafer State Park. By Peter Schafer Reid and Barbara Seal Ogle. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, Images of America series, 2013. 127 pp.
Specific requirements for field note essays:
Field Note Essays should be approximately 600–800 words. Please include your name as author, title of the piece, “Field Notes,” “Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship,” and “Date” at the top of your submission. An example is provided below:
David Vail, “Dry and Dusty Lands: Exploring the Dust Bowl through Kansas State Agricultural Experiment Station Reports, Photographs, and Posters,” Field Notes for Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship (2015).
OTHER POLICIES
Open Access Policies
Crossing Borders provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of information that leads to knowledge and progress.
Copyright
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
Archival Policy
Contents of the Journal are archived for perpetual access through New Prairie Press' participation in CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and Portico, managed through the Digital Commons Publishing platform. New Prairie Press also participates in LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe).
