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Publication Policy

SCIENTIA solicits abstracts, preliminary reports, notes dealing with work-in-progress, and full-length research reports. Abstracts of research by students at on-campus undergraduate and graduate research symposia are published following the smyposium. In addition, SCIENTIA expects to post notices of:

  • grants and awards available for student research

  • grants awarded for student research

  • student publications in traditional journals or technical bulletins

  • upcoming seminars and other announcements

SCIENTIA is locally sponsored and student reviewed and since authors will retain copyright priviledges, publication in the journal should not be a deterrent to subsequent publication in a traditional journal. Insofar as the freedom of authors to publish an identical or similar version of an article elsewhere, publication in SCIENTIA is comparable to the presentation of a poster or paper at a meeting or symposium. Authors who expect to publish their work in both SCIENTIA and in a traditional journal may wish to consider submitting an abridged or preliminary report to SCIENTIA and a more comprehensive report to another journal. Faculty advisors are encouraged to include their names as authors on papers and abstracts: however, the research described must be primarily the work of a student and, in all cases, a student must be listed as the first author.

Author Guidelines

  1. Publication in SCIENTIA is reserved for full-time students and faculty authors at MTSU from the College of Basic and Applied Sciences at MTSU. Since the journal features student research, the primary author must be the student.

  2. Submissions are expected to be original work.

  3. Authors should use reputable and reliable sources only. Credit your sources whenever necessary.

  4. Facts included in the submission must be accurate and the writing style must be organized with smooth transition between topics.

  5. Papers must be grammatically correct without typographical errors.

  6. Types of material published in SCIENTIA will include:

    • research which is empirical in nature

    • research which demonstrates new methods of serving, new ways of applying existing knowledge

    • work which involves replication of previous work will be published when executed in a thorough scholarly manner

    • the following only in instances that show exceptional quality: review articles, essays, abridged versions of term papers, or other contributions based solely, or primarily, on library research (consult editor prior to submitting)

    • short "critical notes" that demonstrate viewpoints or insights related to previously published work

    • Abstracts of papers (to be) presented at MTSU Symposia on Graduate or Undergraduate Research.

  7. If the research involves human subjects, the author(s) must have had appropriate prior approval and this should be described in the text.

  8. To submit your article for review, an electronic version (email attachment or on disk) is to be sent to the journal editor. If your paper is accepted for publication, the publication submission guidelines listed below must be followed.

  9. References and citations should be formatted using an approved style in the discipline (see the faculty facilitator for more information) or using the following suggestions:

    Arrange the reference list in alphabetical order by author.

    For a journal article, include the author’s name, date, title of the article, journal name, volume number, and page range. For example:

    Belady, L. A. , 1966, A study of replacement algorithms for a virtual storage computer, IBM Systems Journal, Volume 5, pages 78-101.

    For a reference to a book, include the author’s name, date, title of the book, publisher, and total pages in the book. For example:
    Fosner, R., 1997, OpenGL Programming for Windows 95 and Windows NT, Addison Wesley, 325p.

    To cite a reference, refer to the article or book by Author, Year. For example:
    Tips for getting maximum performance from your program include (Fosner, 1997) ....

  10. In the submission, the title of the article should appear first and should be immediately followed by the name(s) and department(s) of author(s) with an address and telephone number at which the author(s) may be reached.

  11. Papers should include a brief abstract (or summary) stating the purpose, methods, results and conclusion. This summary should be no more than 250 words.

  12. The rest of the paper should follow the standard format of introduction, methods, results, conclusions. Submissions should normally be no longer than 10,000 words.

  13. All papers will be student reviewed (see the reviewer’s evaluation form). Author(s) will be notified of the paper’s status as soon after review as possible. The paper may be accepted with no revisions, accepted with revisions, or rejected. Thus, you may be asked to make modifications for the paper to be published in SCIENTIA.

Final Publication Submission Guidelines

Guidelines for final article submission are as follows:
  1. Articles must be submitted in electronic format, either as an email attachment or on floppy disk (3.5 inch).

  2. The 3.5 inch disk should be clearly labeled with the article, the authors, and the format of the article. The article should be the only file(s) on the disk. Submissions may be in the following formats:
    ASCII text
    Microsoft Word
    Microsoft Works
    WordPerfect
    HTML (version 2.0 or higher) document formatted using standard formatting codes.
    Any figures or illustrations should be either separate graphics files in a standard format such as GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PostScript, or bit-mapped image. If only a hardcopy of the figure or illustration is available, the image will be scanned in as a bit-mapped image. Figures or illustrations should contain a legend from which the figure may be understood and referred to in the text.

  3. If the article contains special features such as formulas, graphics, graphic images, diagrams and so on, the journal web site team will assist the contributors as much as possible in their submissions.
Submit your manuscript to SCIENTIA:
As email attachment to: scientia@mtsu.edu
On disk to:
Editor
SCIENTIA
P.O. Box 85
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, TN 37132

Preface to Author's Agreement

At the time of acceptance of an article for publication in SCIENTIA, authors will receive a "hard copy" of the following Author's Agreement which must be completed and returned to the Editor of SCIENTIA before the article will be posted on the Web site.
Author's Agreement
Title of the Work:

Author(s):

Date:

It is agreed that:

  • The author(s) has created the work whose title is listed above.

  • The author(s) retains the copyright to the work.

  • The author(s) grant to SCIENTIA the right to publish the work in SCIENTIA, the Electronic Journal of Student Research for Basic and Applied Science at Middle Tennessee State University, and in the journal archieves.

  • The author(s) warrant that s/he has the full power and authority to enter into this agreement and to grant the rights in this agreement.

  • The author(s) agrees to indemnify and hold harmless SCIENTIA and Middle Tennessee State University against claims of third parties relating to any copyright or patent issues resulting from publications of the above referenced work in SCIENTIA.

Author(s):

________________________________

________________________________

SCIENTIA, the Electronic Journal of Student Research

BY: ____________________________