Submission Guidelines

The UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal accepts submissions from all disciplines and encourages undergraduate students who have done research or are currently working on research with either a faculty member, or graduate student. Former/current coursework and independent research are also acceptable for submission. Our process requires faculty or students to complete and submit a required submission form. This submission form serves as a coversheet for your work. After completing the submission form, please email your research paper to our central email account at ucmurj@gmail.com.

All submissions will be processed by the Senior Editor who will code and distribute submissions for anonymous review. Undergraduate students who wish to submit a paper outlining the process and results of their faculty-mentored research or independent scholarly/creative activity for possible publication in The UCM Undergraduate Research must do so by no later than November 8th, 2013.

For formatting requirements and other details on how to prepare a paper for submission, please review the Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab's guidelines for Research writing.

To be eligible for the Journal, student authors must have either completed their projects while under a UCM faculty mentor or as a UCM undergraduate student. Please Note: Transfer students who did research at a different College/University may not submit their work.

Whether it is for an individual or group project, please use a single submission.

Submission Criteria includes:

• The purpose and significance of the research is described clearly for the Journal's multidisciplinary audience.
• The research is original and relevant to its field.
• The research project was well designed andexecuted.
• The research is done on factual basis.
• Innovative, engaging, and/or a creative voice.
• The results are thoughtfully interpreted andthoroughly analyzed.
• Conclusions are logically supported through results and cited sources.
• Supporting materials--including illustrations, graphs, and references--reinforce the descriptions and claims made in the text.
• The paper is well written, efficiently organized, and easy to follow.
• The paper is free from spelling, punctuation, grammatical, and other writing errors.

Page length

It is recommended that work from all subjects of research fit the following formats. Some exceptions will be allowed, mainly in areas of creative writing.
Abstracts: between 250 and 500 word count
Research Paper: between 2000 and 4000 word count
Documentary Narrative: between 750 and 4000 word count
Creative Writing (poetry, fiction, etc.): between 750 and 4000 word count

Format Specifications

Submissions should be double-spaced, in 12 pt. Times New Roman, with a 1" margin all around. Please save all files in .rtf format. For citations use the format that is suitable to your work, we recommend: MLA, APA, or Chicago

Deadlines

Fall submissions are due by November 7th, 2017, and spring submissions by April 7th, 2018.
The sooner a project is submitted, the more likely it will be closely considered for publication.

To submit your research, please contact:

• faculty administrator Susan Varnot, Merritt Writing Program faculty, UC Merced (svarnot@ucmerced.edu) or
• faculty advisor, Dr. Iris D. Ruiz (iruiz4@ucmerced.edu or ucmurj@gmail.com)

*Please note that the UC Merced URJ only publishes undergraduate research done during enrollment at UC Merced. For example, if you are a transfer student that has completed research work for a class in a previously attended college, it will not be considered for publication.