Behavioural Sciences Undergraduate Journal

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Author Guidelines

Presubmission Checklist

Cover letter

include a cover letter in your manuscript before the title page:

-relevance of the research to the BSUJ, to the scientific community and to society in general

-disclosure of potential conflicts of interest (e.g., financial, personal, professional)

-name of ethics committee approving the study (if applicable)

-statement to the effect of copyright disclosure (e.g., permissions, similar publications)

-declaration of data upload and supplementary files (e.g., data-sets, research instruments)

-all correspondence information in accordance with Ensuring a Blind Review

-declaration of style used and corresponding discipline

Questions to Facilitate Manuscript Preparation AKA Preliminary Review

These questions are the same questions Editors ask during preliminary review of submissions. The preliminary review is used to decide if the paper will continue into the peer-review process. Therefore, preparing the manuscript with the preliminary review questions in mind will increase the likelihood of manuscript acceptance into peer-review.

Does the manuscript have:

Cover letter?

Style? Scientific language and format is used; a typical publication style is used properly, is consistent, citations match references and references match citations.

Rigor? The issue is researched thoroughly through thorough analysis and presentation of the need for the research, previous literature, similar research, definitions, examples, comparisons, contrasts, theory, practice, methods, evidence, multiple perspectives, synthesis, critical analysis, appropriate, credible sources, acknowledging limitations and implications, and advancing the state of the research by using all this support to add something new that distinguishes this manuscript from previous research.

Relevance? The research question fits the journal scope, the need for the research is explicitly stated and supported with evidence, the hypotheses, research questions, methods and discussion are related to the findings and the findings are related to the explicitly stated need for the research.

Coherence? English, grammar and scientific language use are sufficient. The thesis is threaded through the arguments, arguments are communicated in a logical manner, the manuscript is readable by a varied audience including researchers, undergraduates and general community members.

Originality? The work belongs to the author and as far as is known, there is no similar work in existence or similar works are disclosed; the work is not copyrighted under some other owner other than the author, previously published data is not submitted.

Quality material? The manuscript is only as it needs to be to communicate the point in a thorough yet concise manner, a researcher could replicate the study based on the manuscript alone, figures and tables are prepared in high-quality formats and are included to supplement and reduce bulky text, data is provided for examination, conclusions are relevant to analyses and do not reach beyond data, the author explains how the research can be used to advance the field. 

Authors will use the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 6th edition, 2012, or the current publication guidelines for their discipline, whichever style is appropriate for the manuscript preparation.

See Submission Preparation Checklist below for details on conflicts, ethics, data, blind review and more.

 

 

Submission Preparation Checklist

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.

1. Cover Letter & Ethics

   If the author used human or animal participants, the manuscript must have been submitted to ETHICS/HREB for approval.

   If human or animal participants were used, the authors must declare the name of the ethics committee approving the study, relevant considerations for vulnerable persons, and treatment of participants.

   Authors should be prepared to upload data for review and to disclose any potential conflicts of ethics (e.g., funding, relationships with journal, editor or reviewer, similar publications, locations of similar data, copyright permissions related to borrowed materials, and steps taken to resolve conflict) in a cover letter.

   The cover letter should contain authorship information and the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.

   Cover letter should include the following if applicable:

   -relevance of the research to the BSUJ, to the scientific community and to society in general

   -disclosure of potential conflicts of interest (e.g., financial, personal, professional)

   -name of ethics committee approving the study (if applicable)

   -statement to the effect of copyright disclosure (e.g., permissions, similar publications)

   -declaration of data upload and supplementary files (e.g., data-sets, research instruments)

   -all correspondence information in accordance with Ensuring a Blind Review

   -declaration of style used and corresponding discipline

   Contact the editorial office if you have any questions or concerns at bsujmru@gmail.com

    

2. Copyright Permissions

   The submission has not been previously published in a venue with restricted copyrights, nor is the manuscript being considered for publication in another journal with restricted copyrights.

   All submitted material is in accordance to the copyright laws used by the venue where the material has been submitted previously.

   Authors must obtain and provide all necessary permissions to reproduce in print and electronic form any copyrighted work (e.g., test materials, photographs of people, data for re-analysis). Send the permissions to the editor for review before final acceptance for publication.

   The author is prepared to hold their copyright under Creative Commons (CC), meaning the author retains copyright and agree to open sharing of their manuscript for educational purposes as per CC: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

    

3. Publication Style

   The manuscript adheres to the stylistic publishing requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines (APA, AAA, ASA etc.). Please consult your Library or the editorial office (bsujmru@gmail.com) if you need publishing style resources.

    

4. Basic Formatting

   The manuscript is 20 pages or less double spaced (not including cover, title, references, abstract); the abstract is 250 words or less, keywords are included, the title reflects the methods and the findings of the manuscript.

   Citations match reference list and reference list matches citations.

   Tables and figures are used where appropriate to reduce text and increase comprehension and ease of reference to material.

   Choosing between tables, figures and text:

   http://www.editage.com/insights/tips-on-effective-use-of-tables-and-figures-in-research-papers

5. Technical Aspects

   The submission files are in .doc, .docx, .tiff, .jpg, .txt, .R, .SPSS or compatible high quality sharable formats. Manuscript files are in .doc, .docx or a compatible, editable format.

   Authors are responsible for ensuring correct formatting of figures, tables and images.

   Please prepare figures, tables and images with optimal resolution settings. Do not use tab or space in table formatting as this distorts the table in typesetting. Instead use the insert table feature in your word processor. If inserting equations or mathematical graphics, please use a third party software to ensure conversion to high quality resolution, as typical Word math software does not produce high quality graphics.

   Some info and examples on prepping materials in high resolution for publication:

   https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/files/publications/style/chapter-05.pdf

   http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures

   http://www.somersault1824.com/how-to-set-up-the-correct-print-resolution-for-a-scientific-figure/

   Data files

   Please submit all data files used for re-analysis, to prepare tables and figures, or links to supplementary data.

   Links and Hyperlinks for Data and Sources

   Where available, please provide URLs, DOIs and hyperlinks for the citations, references and supplementary data. Links to references and supplementary data are embedded as hyperlinks in the manuscript and full links in references.

   Examples of supplementary data

   http://www.apa.org/pubs/authors/supp-material.aspx

    

    

6. Correspondence

   The author provides their institutional correspondence (e.g., hdfl552@mtroyal.ca) on their cover letter.

   In the event that the corresponding author moves institutions, or switches to an alumni correspondence, the author keeps their information updated with the Editorial Office (bsujmru@gmail.com).

   If the author is an independent scholar (no affiliated educational institution), an alumni email address or personal email address (at the author's own risk) will suffice for correspondence.

    

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ISSN: 2562-4687