Manuscript Submission | Publication Agreement | Manuscript Format | Categories of Manuscripts
Inquiry publishes articles and briefs describing recent research done by UNH undergraduates in all disciplines, along with feature articles, commentaries and letters by UNH students, faculty, staff and alumnae. Inquiry does not accept works of fiction, poetry or drama.
Inquiry has two principal goals: the first is to share university research and expertise with readers beyond those of any particular discipline. Submissions, therefore, should be written for a general as well as an academic audience. The second goal is to provide student authors and editors with the experience of preparing work for publication. All manuscripts are reviewed by an editorial board of students and faculty, who will work with authors on any necessary revisions. (See WRITING GUIDELINES and WRITING FOR INQUIRY)
Manuscript Submission
Inquiry is published online in spring semester of each year at www.unh.edu/inquiryjournal. The first issue appeared in March, 2005. The Inquiry office is in Hood House on the UNH campus.
Since most articles and briefs and some commentaries require a little or extensive rewriting to make them suitable for Inquiry’s audience, authors should contact us by November 1, preferably earlier. Send queries and suggested topics to the Editor at Inquiry.Journal@unh.edu. Letters to Inquiry should be submitted to the same address.
If you have a paper already written, a research project nearing completion, or an idea for a commentary, the first step is to contact the Editor.
Inquiry staff is ready to work with authors at any point but can be most effective if consulted early in the process of preparing a manuscript for publication. In each issue we try to have well written articles from a variety of disciplines. Therefore, an article may be delayed for a later issue if it needs more revision or if its discipline is already represented.
Publication Agreement
Once your manuscript is in or near final form, and before March 1, a signed Publication Agreement in hardcopy is required. Copies are available at the Center for Undergraduate Research (Hood House 209) or the form can be downloaded by clicking on PUBLICATION AGREEMENT FORM (pdf). An author signature verifies that the work submitted is the author’s own, and that the author has read and agrees with the points about responsibility for publication in professional journals, the uses of published work for UNH publicity purposes, and the right of Inquiry staff to edit all submissions. For research articles and briefs, the signature of the faculty mentor or principle teacher is also required.
Manuscript Format
All drafts and manuscripts are to be submitted as Microsoft Word documents. Images such as graphs, tables or photographs are to be submitted as separate JPEG (.jpg) files. Video and audio clips may be included as zipped (.zip) files, but must not exceed five megabytes in size.
Following the text of the article or brief, the author should briefly acknowledge all help or support, including financial, that he/she received while carrying out and writing up the research project.
For in-text citations and references, authors should use the documentation style appropriate to their discipline: APA, MLA or Chicago (or ASA). However, all textual footnotes, if needed, should be incorporated into the body of the article. The list of references (called "References"), which follows the acknowledgment, should be to only those cited in the article. If you have questions, please ask the Inquiry staff for help.
Categories of Manuscripts
Authors of all manuscripts should read carefully the WRITING GUIDELINES and WRITING FOR INQUIRY, especially for the use and non-use of technical language.
Research articles describe research and creative projects carried out in all disciplines. Inquiry does not accept works of fiction, drama or poetry; however, the process of creating such works and the research involved may be an acceptable subject. Articles, in final form, should not exceed 2,500 words. See the research articles in the current and past issue of Inquiry for examples of format and style.
Research briefs are mini-research articles: they offer students the opportunity to share their research findings and descriptions of creative projects, finished or in progress, in a more concise form. Briefs should not exceed 250 words in final version. See the briefs in the current issue for examples of format and style.
Commentaries may be authored by faculty, staff and alumnae as well as UNH students. They address and offer opinions on a variety of issues related to research, scholarship and mentoring. These might include the social and political implications of a line of research, personal experiences in research or mentoring, the application of an academic theory to current events, observations about aspects of academic life here at UNH or elsewhere—or something entirely different. Commentaries should be kept to 1000 words. See the commentaries in the current and past issue of Inquiry as examples of possible subjects and style.
Letters to Inquiry may address any aspect of current or past issues, offering further information or clarification, debating a point raised by an Inquiry author, commenting on the journal or undergraduate research—any responses you may wish to share with other readers. Letters are invited from all readers of Inquiry and should be no longer than 350 words. Please send them (double-spaced) to Inquiry.Journal@unh.edu. Letters will be posted throughout the year. Editorial discretion will be exercised.
All submissions to Inquiry should be written for readers in the entire University community as well as the general public. For authors in the sciences, Scientific American is a good model for level and style of writing; for the arts and humanities, Atlantic Monthly provides a similar model.
