Frequently Asked Questions: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region

What is this Journal?

The Journal seeks to publish the best of undergraduate research from across the NKU campus. It aims to provide an outlet for contributions from those fields lacking in discipline-specific venues or research that spans several disciplines, research from all fields that is smaller in scope but still tells a complete story, and the contributions of students in all fields. The inaugural issue will be released in Fall 2018.

Who can submit articles to the Journal?

Any current student or recent graduate (within six months) can publish in the Journal. Both the student author(s) and their faculty mentor will have to sign off on the work prior to the submission. Faculty don’t appear as authors, but will be listed as ‘faculty mentor’ on the work. Multiple student authors are welcome, but their contributions should be delineated.

What does the Journal publish?

The Journal wants to publish the best of (primarily) undergraduate research at NKU. Any field is accepted, but it should be research focused- it should have a hypothesis it seeks to test or a question it wants to answer. The Journal publishes Articles (2000-5000 words), Communications (1000 – 1500 words), and Reviews (literature and otherwise). We hope to expand to other formats in the future.

Do you have formatting requirements?

Of course, but they are fairly broad. See the Call for Papers for details. Also, remember that the Journal is university-wide, so the writing should be understandable by undergraduates.

What happens after I submit?

A faculty member of the editorial board will do an initial screening of the work to ensure it is suitable for publication. If it is, they will send it for review to an NKU faculty member and a student in the field for double-blind peer review. The reviewers will return their comments within two weeks, and the editorial board member will decide to publish, publish with revisions, or not-publish the article. At this point, the authors and faculty mentor will be contacted with the decision and the reviews will be returned. We will do our best to complete the review process in two months, but occasionally we run into complications. Our editorial board will keep you apprised of your submission’s status. If the work is to be published, the editorial board member will work with the authors and mentor to revise and publish the work

Other than submitting work, how can I get involved?

We want to build a pool of student reviewers and potential student members of the editorial board. If you are interested, send your information to Dr. Patrick Hare, editor at nysa@nku.edu

What’s the deadline for submission?

Submissions should be received by May 25, 2018. Submissions can be made at the Journal’s website nku.edu/journal

Frequently Asked Questions