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Submissions

Inquiry publishes research articles, commentaries, research briefs, and feature articles written by UNH undergraduates or recent graduates only. (See CATEGORIES OF MANUSCRIPTS for details.) Inquiry does not accept works of fiction, poetry, or drama. Inquiry does however accept works of visual art that have developed from research into a particular visual artist, art history, or art form/technique. Visual art submissions will also be considered for the cover of printed Inquiry publications beginning in 2022.

Submission Process

In each issue of Inquiry we present a wide variety of well written pieces describing research findings and experiences in all disciplines. These should be of interest and accessible to the educated general public as well as to those in the author’s field of research. 

STEP ONE:
If you have a research paper or report already written, a research project nearing completion, or an idea for a commentary, the first step is to contact the staff editors at editor.inquiry@unh.edu. Please send short, specific responses to the following questions: 

  • What is the exact question or problem your research addressed? Why should general readers be interested in it? (If you were part of a larger project, describe it and your role in it.)
  • What information, misinformation, and opinions are general readers likely to have about your subject?
  • What is your specific goal in publishing an article on this topic: what do you want readers to learn from your research experience and results? (Keep in mind the word limits: 2500 for an article, 1500 for a commentary, 600-1000 for a research brief.)
  • To accomplish this goal, what background and/or explanatory information needs to be added? What could be omitted?
  • What technical terms and concepts need defining? Which could be omitted?
  • Was this research conducted with a research grant, as part of an independent study, or other? Please specify.

Answering these questions should give you an idea of what is needed to turn a technical or scholarly paper into an article, commentary, or brief suitable for publication in Inquiry (see EDITORIAL AND REVISION PROCESS).

STEP TWO:
Discuss your responses, the revision process, and the editorial calendar with an editor. Your responses help the editors make final selections for the next issue. Selection of articles is based on representing a variety of disciplines and on authors’ commitment to the revision process.

STEP THREE:
Submit a complete first draft. First drafts do not need to meet stated word limits (2500 for research articles, 1500 for commentaries, 1000 for research briefs), however they do need to be within an acceptable range as noted below. We will help you to refine the text throughout the revision process. These first drafts should be standard Microsoft Word documents containing text only. Footnotes are not allowed; please use in-text citations. Please do not embed any images (tables, graphs, photos, etc.) in the document. Image files may be sent separately and are not required at the time of submission.

In order to be accepted for publication in the next issue, first drafts must include the following:

Research briefs, published in the fall and spring issues, must be submitted by October 7 for fall, and November 7 for spring publication. Submissions should not exceed 1200 words. A complete first draft includes:

  1. A clear definition of your research topic and objectives.
  2. A description of your methods and research activities.
  3. A brief discussion of preliminary, anticipated, or final results. (Note that the word limit of a research brief does not permit a thorough discussion of results. If you would like to share more details of your results, consider submitting a research article.)

Research articles, published in the spring issue only, must be submitted by November 7 at the latest. Submissions should not exceed 3000 words. A complete first draft includes:

  1. Introduction to your research topic, its significance, and relevant background information.
  2. Methods and/or a description of daily or weekly research activities.
  3. Results (these may be preliminary at time of submission; at a minimum, please provide a short paragraph about your results or tell us where you stand with analysis of data, etc.)  
  4. Conclusion, including personal reflection on what you gained from the experience.
  5. References.

Commentaries, published in the spring issue only, must be submitted by November 7 at the latest. Submissions should not exceed 1800 words. A complete first draft includes:

  1. An introduction clearly stating the focus of your commentary.  
  2. A discussion supporting the main idea of your commentary. This could be in the form of evidence gained from personal research experiences, insights from other researchers or faculty, and so on.
  3. A conclusion that reinforces the main idea of your commentary.

Feature articles are usually written by members of our student editorial board. If you are interested in participating, please fill out the Join the Staff form, and indicate your interest in writing for the journal.