As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
Authors must be undergraduates or recent graduates (within six months of graduation) when the manuscript is submitted.
All required documents including the submission and an initial letter to the editor are included in my submission. Link to an initial letter to the editor template can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yfE_RIvqAy_vDVbYukcJyRprkqAFcM1NQtyGGzJLLpM/edit?usp=sharing
The instructor has emailed a note to the editor (ujslcbr@uncw.edu) stating that the submission was written by the student(s).
Submission meets formatting and category requirements (see For Authors).
All submissions that cite sources must follow the American Psychological Association Style 6th Edition for documenting sources in the text and in the References page.
All authors/researchers utilizing human subjects in their research must have obtained informed consent from the participants.
By submitting a manuscript here you are affirming that it has not been or will not be published elsewhere, and it is not currently under review anywhere else.
By submitting a manuscript here you are affirming that you will complete or address the requested revisions and proposed copy edits within the alloted timeframe (usually one month from receipt of a revision request.) If circumstances change, and you are no longer willing or able to complete the revisions, you affirm that you will notify the journal staff immediately and your paper will be withdrawn from consideration.
Author Guidelines
Submissions
The Undergraduate Journal of Service Learning and Community-Based Research invites undergraduates to pursue their own intellectual projects and advance knowledge in service learning, community-based research, and all related curriculum- and/or research-based community partnerships. These go by many additional names, such as community-based learning, community-based writing, public scholarship, publicly-engaged learning/teaching, etc.
The journal is committed to undergraduate involvement in academic and community partnerships.
Note:
Community service and volunteer activities that are not directly linked with a course, independent study, senior or honors thesis, and/or research project mentored by an instructor do not fall within the scope of this journal. All submissions must adhere to the Submission Guidelines included below.
In each category, a published piece will contribute to existing knowledge in a particular subject area and/or in the scholarship on service learning, community-based research, and all related curriculum- and/or research-based community partnerships.
The journal will publish written work in English by undergraduates in the following six categories. Please note that the categories are meant to be a guide for various kind of intellectual and creative work. The editorial team realizes that the categories overlap. The examples provided below are among many, many possibilities. If you are uncertain about the category for your work, please talk to your professor and/or contact the journal co-editors, Jenn Vanderminden and Amelia Huelskamp, at ujslcbr@uncw.edu
If the editorial team believes your submission would fit better in a category different from the one you selected, we will let you know. We will never turn away a submission simply because we don't think the category selected is the best fit!
Review Process
The editorial team at Undergraduate Journal of Service Learning and Community-Based Research is committed to a professional, efficient, and fair review process. So you know what to expect when you submit a manuscript for publication consideration, we have outlined our procedures below.
All submissions will first be read by the editor.
The editor will send submissions that fit the journal's general specifications to a faculty mentor, a scholar-teacher familiar with service learning and community-based research. When possible, the editor will send a submission to faculty mentors in the student's discipline.
The faculty mentor will make one of four decisions: Accept, Accept with Minor Revisions, Revise and Resubmit, or Reject.
If a decision is Accept, the manuscript moves to the editorial stage. The author will be contacted with instructions.
If a decision is Accept with Minor Revisions or Revise and Resubmit, the author will have the opportunity to revise the manuscript in accordance with the faculty mentor’s revision feedback. Revise and Resubmit is a common response by reviewers, and even well-known scholars frequently receive this response. When resubmitting revisions, please include a letter to the editor with an overview of the changes that have been made to the submission.
Submitters should be aware that most published articles will undergo rigorous and deep revision before being accepted for publication.
All revisions must be completed or addressed in order to be published. We ask that revisions are completed within a month of receipt of a request to revise. Authors who do not complete or address requested revisions will NOT be published.
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