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Policies

Review Policy

Information for Authors

Other Policies

Peer Review Process

Scholarly manuscripts are reviewed by at least two reviewers who will provide recommendations to the journal editor for publication. Reviewers' comments are made available to authors. If revisions are recommended, authors are strongly encouraged to revise the paper accordingly and note in detail how each suggestion was addressed in a separate attachment.

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Information for Authors

Who Can Submit?

Any undergraduate student can submit an original article to be considered for publication in the Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences provided the undergraduate student owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner(s) to submit the article.

The first author of the submission must be an undergraduate student currently enrolled in an accredited academic institution. Papers from graduate students will be accepted only if the work was completed as an undergraduate student. Additional authors other than the primary author may include other undergraduate students and the faculty mentor or supervisor. IMPORTANT: If there are multiple authors listed on a paper, each author must agree on the final version of the manuscript. This can be a critical issue in a case where an undergraduate student submits a manuscript and it gets accepted when the faculty member or a graduate student intends to submit it to a different journal.

Editorial Policy: Papers submitted to the Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences will be reviewed using a blind review procedure. Reviewers will not know the author(s) name(s), university, year in college, or any other personal information. Manuscripts are evaluated by two referees who are knowledgeable in the subject area.

Please note the Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences has no article processing or submission charges. Submissions are accepted for review on an ongoing basis (no specific deadline).

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General Submission Rules

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). In addition, by submitting material to Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences. If you have concerns about the submission terms for the journal, please contact the editors.

We accept manuscript submissions in the following categories:

  1. Research Manuscript – This can include either primary or secondary research (Creating an experiment and gathering data from it, or analyze existing data). It includes an abstract and clearly defined sections of the problem statement, methodology, data collection and analysis, findings, and concluding remarks.
  2. Review Manuscript – Also called an argumentative essay or literature review. Explores a topic, issue, or position to draw conclusions, make suggestions, and may propose hypotheses. This type of paper does not require research by the author but should address a problem or issue that will supplement or expand the literature.
  3. Other Manuscripts – Submissions in this category follow:
    • Poster Session Report – Includes (a) a written description that explains the research and (b) a digitized photograph of the Poster Board.
    • Creative Report dealing with design material – Includes (a) a brief introduction, (b) strong textual and digitized photographs and supporting materials, and (c) concluding comments.

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    Initial Submission Requirements

    The initial submission of the manuscript includes the following requirements:

    • No identification of the author or institution should appear on the pages of the manuscript.
    • The following sections are required in APA format for the Research Manuscript category:
      • The Abstract will be the first page of the manuscript and should contain no more than 150 words and five to eight keywords. The main purpose of keywords is to enable successful searching for the main message of your paper.
      • Introduction -- This section describes the problem, reviews the literature, and states the objectives and hypotheses of the research.
      • Methods -- This section includes the research design, the sample, data collection, procedure, and approach to data analyses for the research manuscript format.
      • Results -- This section presents the findings for the research manuscript format.
      • Discussion -- This section discusses the findings and their significance (distinguishing between facts and speculation/interpretation), summarizes, and gives recommendations.
      • References -- This section includes only the citations in the manuscript.
      • Appendix -- includes tables, figures, graphs, etc. (as necessary)
    • The following sections are required in APA format for the Review Manuscript category:
      • Abstract– This section summarizes, in an abbreviated way, all major parts of the paper.
      • Introduction– This section justifies the importance of the topic, issue, or position and describes the objectives of the paper.
      • Discussion– This section presents the literature review and draws conclusions.
      • Summary– This section reiterates the topic, issue, or position, gives recommendations, and may suggest hypotheses.
      • References– This section includes only the citations in the paper.
    • Submissions in the Other Manuscripts category includes:
      • Poster Session Report – a) a written description that explains the research and b) a digitized photograph of the poster.
      • Creative Report dealing with design material – a) a brief introduction, b) strong textual and digitized photographs and supporting materials, and c) concluding comments.
    • Attachments:
      • IRB statement (if applicable) – if human subjects are used, a statement must be included to indicate Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval of the research.
      • A sponsoring statement from the faculty supervisor who attests: a) that the supervisor has read and critiqued the manuscript and b) that the planning, execution, and writing of the manuscript represents primarily the work of the undergraduate student(s).
    • All manuscripts will be prepared using the latest edition of the APA style manual (https://apastyle.apa.org).
    • See the Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details on the formatting of your manuscript for final submission.

    Where available, DOIs (digital object identifiers) for citations must be provided and hot-linked 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.

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    New Prairie Press recommends the use of the Creative Commons license. The Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences requires authors to agree to Creative Commons Attribution and Non-commercial licenses. Authors who publish with the Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences 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-NonCommercial 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.

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    Open Access Policy

    This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

    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 and managed through the Digital Commons Publishing platform. New Prairie Press also participates in LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe). Once published, the contents are never changed.

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    General Terms and Conditions of Use

    Users of the New Prairie Press website and/or software agree not to misuse the New Prairie Press service or software in any way.

    The failure of New Prairie Press to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between New Prairie Press and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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