•  
  •  
 

Author & Peer Review Guidelines

Contents

Who Can Submit?

Any current or graduated Loyola University Chicago student may submit an original article in Loyola Undergraduate Research in Sustainability provided (a) the work was completed at LUC or in conjunction with LUC faculty or staff and (b) they own the copyright to the work being submitted or are authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).

{ top }

General Submission Rules

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Loyola Undergraduate Research in Sustainability, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that they will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Loyola Undergraduate Research in Sustainability. If you have concerns about the submission terms for Loyola Undergraduate Research in Sustainability, please contact the editors.

{ top }

Formatting Requirements

See Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details.

{ top }

Peer Review Guidelines

For those new to peer review, here is a detailed guide to best practices and here is a quick tips list and video.

When an article is initially submitted, the Assistant Editor will screen it for conformation to the guidelines and return it for resubmission if it fails to meet the standards. Assuming a submission conforms to the guidelines, the Journal Editor will send it to the Editor-in-Chief, who will either take responsibility for it or delegate it to an Associate Editor so as to approximately balance their workloads. In the event that Editor-in-Chief advised the author or is a co-author on the submission, an Associate Editor will handle the review and final determinations of decline/ revise/ accept. In the event that an Associate Editor advised the author or is a co-author on the submission, the Editor-in-Chief or a different Associate Editor will handle the review.

Whoever is responsible for the review process (the “managing editor”) will solicit one review from an IES faculty or staff member (who is not the authors’ advisor or a co-author on the submission) and one or two reviews from “research active” IES undergraduates. The Assistant Editor will collect the names of all IES students who are conducting research, i.e. are “research active,” by speaking with all IES faculty and staff at least twice a year. The solicitation of reviews will include guidelines for conducting a helpful anonymous review (i.e. the links above) – as this will be an excellent learning process for the undergraduate peer reviewers as well. The managing editor will cajole the reviewers as needed to obtain timely reviews.

Once all the reviews are returned, the Editor-in-Chief (or an Associate Editor in cases of conflict of interest) will make the final determination of Decline/ Major Revision/ Minor Revision/ or Accept-as-is. A determination of Decline will only be made in the event that it is inconceivable that any edits will make the work acceptable. For example, if a study used a fundamentally flawed design and thus cannot be analyzed in any legitimate way, the Editor-in-Chief will decline the submission along with a through explanation of the decision, in part to justify the decision but more importantly to provide valuable feedback should the student decide to repeat the work. A determination of Major Revision will occur when the work itself seems legitimate, but some other aspect is seriously lacking (e.g. scholarship, analysis, presentation, logic, over-generalization). Once the author resubmits after revision (along with a detailed, point-by-point response to reviewer comments), the manuscript will go back out for review, ideally to the original reviewers. A determination of Minor Revision will occur when the managing editor determines that minor changes need to be made, the success of which can be assessed by the managing editor without further peer review. A decision of Accept-as-is will be made when the managing editor determines that a submission is acceptable and ready for copy editing.

{ top }

Rights for Authors and Loyola eCommons

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to Loyola eCommons all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal--use exceptions described below.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of Loyola eCommons, requires credit to Loyola eCommons as copyright holder (e.g., Loyola eCommons © 2023).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from Loyola eCommons provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial;
  • Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g., a Phrenology professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Phrenology online publication series); and
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author.

People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

{ top }

General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the Loyola eCommons website and/or software agree not to misuse the Loyola eCommons service or software in any way.

The failure of Loyola eCommons to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between Loyola eCommons and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

{ top }