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Frequently Asked Questions

Submitting to JMURJ

JMURJ accepts submissions from all current and recent JMU undergraduates across all our different fields of research and scholarship.

We invite you to submit research and scholarship that you have created and/or substantially revised during your JMU undergraduate career for a class, project, or thesis, or as an independent effort.

  • If you are relatively new to JMU, welcome. We do publish submissions created by JMU freshmen and sophomores.
  • If you have transferred into JMU and are still working on a project you started at your previous institution, welcome. Share the details in your submission email, and we'll work with you.
  • If you are graduating soon, welcome. We'll of course continue working with you on your submission after you graduate. Be sure to include your most-used, non-JMU email address with your submission so that we can stay in contact.
  • If you have already graduated, congratulations and welcome back! JMURJ accepts new submissions for up to 16 months after you've graduated (and we can stretch this limit in certain cases). Please include your @dukes.jmu.edu email address in your submission, even if it no longer works, along with your most-used non-JMU email address.

JMURJ's open, inclusive definition of research and scholarship means that we accept submissions created by students working in all JMU majors and minors.

Our General Submission Information page offers a quick list of the disciplines that JMURJ submitters have worked in. Our Faculty Review Board page offers a much longer list of the JMU experts we have enlisted in reviewing submissions.

JMURJ invites submissions that are empirical or interpretive and that involve the discovery or application of knowledge. We accept text-based submissions and media-based submissions.

Submissions should be accessible to a diverse academic audience, which means that some submissions will require supplementary material to be considered for publication:

  • Some media-based and artistic works (e.g., architectural designs, dramatic pieces and performances, musical scores and performances, art and photography, translations, and creative fiction/non-fiction) may require an accompanying research statement to be considered for publication. See JMURJ's Media-based Submission Guidelines page for a quick research statement template, and then contact us at jmurj@jmu.edu if you have any questions.
  • We welcome research/scholarship written in languages other than English. You may submit your piece in that language, with or without an English translation. On our end, we'll work to screen and then share your work with faculty reviewers. If reviewers suggest that your piece merits publication, we'll ask that you supply an English translation, and we'll work with you to edit your submission in both languages before we go to press. For examples of published JMURJ submissions originally composed in Spanish, see Jemma Stratton's El VPH y el cáncer cervical en el Perú in Volume 6 and Tessa Adams' Análisis sociolingüístico de una hispanohablante en Harrisonburg, Virginia in Volume 11.

Check out our General Submission Information page before clicking into our Text-based Submission Guidelines page or our Media-based Submission Guidelines page, and then send an email including your submission to jmurj@jmu.edu.

Please use your @dukes.jmu.edu email address to send us your submissi, and remember to include your most-used non-JMU email address. If you've graduated and no longer have access to your JMU email address, submit under your most-used non-JMU address, and include your full name, old e-id, and graduation date in your email.

JMURJ accepts and publishes submissions on a rolling basis.

This approach means that if you submit your research/scholarship earlier in the academic year, you may see it published before the end of the academic year. The approach also means that if you submit your research/scholarship later in the academic year, we'll get it into our review process before the year ends.

You are welcome to submit at the end of the academic year or later. Whether you have more work to complete at JMU or have just graduated, we encourage you to submit your work as soon as possible.

The JMURJ Editorial Board meets during the JMU academic year. If you submit your work at the end of a semester or during winter or summer break, we will contact you after we reconvene.

Looking for information on what you can say on applications and résumés and during interviewers after submitting to JMURJ? See our FAQ below regarding résumés/CVs and interviews.

You may submit any research/scholarship you worked on or have worked on during your time as a JMU undergraduate student.

  • If you did not create your JMURJ submission for a JMU class or JMU-related project, just let us know in your submission email.
  • Even if you have already graduated (congratulations!), you can still submit work you completed or nearly completed while an JMU undergraduate to JMURJ. Be sure to include your most-used non-JMU email address along with your @dukes.jmu.edu email address (even if it no longer works) in your submission email to jmurj@jmu.edu.

You may submit multiple pieces to JMURJ, both over a period of years or all at once. We welcome your best research and scholarship, rather than all your research and scholarship.

  • You may submit multiple projects to JMURJ during and after your years as a JMU undergraduate student.
  • You may submit more than one project to JMURJ in a single email.

JMURJ can publish only one submission from each student in each volume and will consider other deserving submissions for later volumes.

We welcome capstone projects and theses from students in all JMU disciplines, in any medium or genre. This said, we do have a length requirement:

  • Text-based submissions and text-focused multimedia submissions should range from 2,000–6,000 words, excluding any abstract, references list, or appendices.
  • Other media-based submissions should be able to to be viewed, heard, or otherwise appreciated within a similar time window (e.g., 15–20 minutes).

If your project is longer, you can work to condense it on your own before submitting, or you can send us your whole project along with a note suggesting that you'd like us to focus on a specific chapter or section. You can also send us your whole project, and we can help you narrow down.

Please contact the JMURJ Editorial Board at jmurj@jmu.edu with any questions.

JMURJ publishes co-written and co-produced work. Be sure to obtain permission from all of your collaborators before submitting your team's work. Please also include all team members' names along with their JMU and most used non-JMU email addresses in your submission email.

Volume 8 of JMURJ offers a perfect example of a team-written paper: Assessing Perceptions of Group Work Using Team-Based Learning. The first piece we published in JMURJ Volume 1 was a capstone report by four Engineering researchers. In Volume 3, we published a submission created by 11 Biology scholars from a Viral Genomics class. Volume 10 features two team-written pieces from JMU's College of Education, starting with Strategies to Aid Multilingual Learners in Academic Language Acquisition in Elementary Science and Mathematics Classes.

JMURJ holds no copyright on published submissions. You may submit your work elsewhere after publication in JMURJ

JMURJ does not accept hard-copy submissions. Please submit your research electronically to jmurj@jmu.edu

We'll work to inform and involve you in every step. Please note, though, that the JMURJ Editorial Board and the JMU faculty members we enlist as reviewers work within the constraints of the academic year and that the publication process takes time.

Looking for information on what you can say on applications and résumés and during interviewers after submitting to JMURJ? See our FAQ below regarding résumés/CVs and interviews.

Yes, you may share the status of your JMURJ submission in your résumé/CV, applications, and interviews.

Even though JMURJ publishes on a rolling basis, our JMURJ Editorial Board and our faculty reviewers generally only operate during the JMU academic year.

Here's how you can share the status of your submission with interested parties:

Submitted for Initial Review

  • When JMU is in session, after you submit your work, we will immediately initiate our review process. If we contact you to identify opportunities to make your submission more available to a wider academic audience, we'll suggest that you respond in two weeks. You may resubmit your work (over the winter or summer break, and we'll re-establish contact early in the new semester. In the interim, you may choose to say "Submitted for Initial Review" on a résumé/CV or in a job interview.
  • If we contact you to say that we appreciate your submission but that we must wait until the new semester to act upon it, you can safely say "Submitted for Initial Review" on a résumé/CV or in a job interview.

Under Review 

  • If we contact you to tell that you that we are looking for reviewers or that we have forwarded your submission to JMURJ faculty reviewers, your submission will then officially be "Under Review."
  • If we contact you later in the semester to tell that you we will forward your submission to JMURJ faculty reviewers in the coming semester, your submission will then officially be "Under Review." Since you'll have an email saying as much from the JMURJ Editorial Board, you can say something like "Accepted for review by the James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal" on a résumé/CV or in a job interview.

Invited to Resubmit

  • If we send you feedback from JMURJ faculty reviewers, you can write "Invited to Resubmit" on a résumé/CV or in a job interview.
  • If we send you feedback from JMURJ faculty reviewers later in the semester, you can write "Invited to Resubmit" or, if you act on the invitation over the summer, you can say "Revised and Resubmitted" on a résumé/CV or in a job interview.

Accepted for Publication or Forthcoming

  • If we accept your submission for publication, you can say "Accepted for Publication" or "Forthcoming" on your résumé/CV and in interviews.
  • If we accept your submission for publication but are unable to publish it before the end of the academic year, you can say "Accepted for Publication" or "Forthcoming" on your résumé/CV and in interviews. 

This article from Inside Higher Ed provides more general guidelines.

Multimedia Submissions
Yes. See our Media-based Submission Guidelines page, and contact us at jmurj@jmu.edu with specific ideas and concerns.
Please do. Whenever possible, send us the original files and images along with your submission. We need to know that you can edit all of your work and that we will be able to publish your work cleanly and clearly. 
This is a concern. If you've included film clips, images, figures, or tables that you did not create, be aware that you will need to secure permission from the copyright holder before JMURJ can publish your work.
Questions? Contact Us.
Please email us at jmurj@jmu.edu. The JMURJ Editorial Board operates during the academic year. If you know you are graduating, please consider including both your JMU email address and your most-used non-JMU email address.

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