Submissions

Author Guidelines

Types of Submissions & Guidelines

This journal accepts research articles composed by undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who conducted the research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Submissions from multiple disciplines are accepted for review. The research article must meet the following criteria:

1. 1. 1. Conduct novel work that contributes to the researcher’s field of study.
      2. Contain an abstract that is no more than 250 words.
      3. If used, illustrations, figures, and tables must be referenced properly in the text of the article, and numbered chronologically. They must also be placed within the text where appropriate.
      4. References that are cited and listed properly using APA formatting throughout the document. Do not include footnotes.
      5. Journal submissions should be submitted online as a Word document. To facilitate a double-blind review process, one version of the manuscript with author identifiers must be submitted, as well as a version of the manuscript without author identifiers.
      6. Submission of a manuscript is a representation that the paper is not being considered or reviewed for publication elsewhere.
      7. The faculty mentor must provide approval of the authors’ manuscript submission to this journal.
      8. If research involved vertebrates, the research project must meet protocols as set forth by UNCC’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)
      9. If the research involved human subjects, the research project must meet protocols as set forth by UNCC’s Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Manuscript Format

Font- Times New Roman, size 12
Spacing- Double space
Number of words- A maximum of 4,000 words will be accepted. This includes the abstract and body. References are excluded from the word count.
Tables and figures- Cite properly within text, and place at appropriate locations within the text, accompanied with captions. Please do not place figures and their captions on separate pages.
Manuscript must be saved as a Word document for submission.

Manuscript Layout

1. Abstract
   1. No more than 250 words
   2. Include several key words under your abstract.
2. Introduction
3. Materials & Methods
4. Results
5. Discussion
6. References
   1. References must be cited properly using APA format throughout the manuscript
   2. The list of references must be at the end of the manuscript and in APA format, in alphabetical order.

Faculty Approval Form

In order to complete the submission process, the student’s faculty mentor must sign the Faculty Approval Form in order to acknowledge the mentor’s approval of the author’s manuscript submission to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Undergraduate Research Journal.

Copyright Acknowledgement Form

Both faculty mentor and student must sign a form acknowledging that they read the journal’s copyright policy.

Copyright Notice

I. Warranties:

1. Author is legally authorized and possesses full power and authority on behalf of my co-authors [list names] to enter into this Agreement.
2. Author warrants, on behalf of all article authors, that:
1. The article is original, has not been formally published in any other peer-reviewed journal, is not under consideration for publication by any other journal and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights;
2. The named authors (above) are the sole author(s) of the article. Any co-author not signing this Agreement personally has granted full authority to [named author in I.A.] to enter into this agreement of his/her behalf and to grant the following rights to University of North Carolina at Charlotte Undergraduate Research Journal set forth below.
3. The article contains nothing that is unlawful, libelous, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract.

II. Copyright

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Author(s) shall retain copyright to the article but grant the Journal right of first publication (subject to the institutional repository deposit requirement in II.b. below), and the irrevocable right to perpetually disseminate the article as part of the Journal subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Upon publication of the article, Author agrees to deposit a copy of the published version of the manuscript in J. Murrey Atkins Library’s institutional repository, Niner Commons.
3. Beginning one year after the date of formal publication of the article, Authors may enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work and subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License (e.g., publish it in a book), subject to a proper acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal: This article was originally published in the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Undergraduate Research Journal (Vol., Issue, Year).

III. Indemnification.

Author shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Journal from any and all claims, liabilities, damages, expenses, including attorneys fees and expert costs, penalties, fees, if any arising from enforcement of this Agreement and/or related to claims of infringement of copyrights or proprietary rights allegedly contained in the Article, or resulting from a claim of defamation, obscenity, or invasion of privacy based upon or arising out of the publication of the Article or any other breach of warranty as set forth in No. 1.

Manuscript Submission Cover Letter

In your cover letter, please include the title of your manuscript, all coauthors, the purpose of your study and/or hypothesis tested, brief overview of methods, results, and overall significance of your project’s findings. 

Ensuring a Double-Blind Review

This journal implements a double-blind peer review process. Thus, author identities are kept from the reviewers, and vice versa. To ensure this, we request authors to submit two manuscript files: one with author information, and the other without author identifiers.

Short Bio & Headshot

If your manuscript is chosen for publication, your headshot and bio will be included on the first page of your published work. All authors (undergraduate students AND faculty mentors) of all submission must include a business casual headshot and a bio. Below are some guidelines for the bio and headshot:

Bio- Please include your name, major, minor (if applicable), or area of study, and a brief description of who you are.

Headshot- Your photo will be included in the journal, should your article be published. Please make sure you are dressed in business casual. For example, you could wear a dress shirt and blazer.