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Policies

Contents

Who Can Submit?

Any undergraduate student enrolled at West Chester University may submit a manuscript to Ramifications. All work for the project must have been completed while the author was an undergraduate student, however recent graduates may still submit manuscripts. To be considered for publication, the submission must be accompanied with a recommendation for consideration from a faculty member.

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Submission Guidelines

The work submitted must be original work completed by the student. Original work may be research or creative work that has been previously presented at a conference, showcase, or continued from a capstone course project, but that has not been previously published. In general, class assignments (papers, presentations) may serve as the beginning foundation of a project, but will require further work and development to constitute a research or creative project of appropriate caliber to fit with this journal. If human subjects or living animals have been used in the research to be published, the research protocol must have been approved by the Internal Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at West Chester University. Creative works - fiction, creative nonfiction, works of art and poetry - are also welcome, as are reviews of theatrical productions on campus. If a student has an original piece of art, a photograph of it may be submitted along with a narrative describing the student’s creative process in producing the piece. At the time of submission for consideration, the manuscript may not be under consideration by other publications and must conform to all submissions requirements. Proofread the manuscript prior to submission, manuscripts with numerous spelling and grammar errors will be returned without further review. Faculty in the appropriate discipline will review all submissions prior to acceptance for publication.

Copyright - This journal is open access and published under a Creative Commons-Attribution-Noncommercial license and the authors retain the copyright. Manuscripts that have been previously published in another journal or paper that you intend to submit to another journal are not eligible for publication here. The author is responsible for ensuring that no duplication of papers exists.

If you have concerns about the submission terms for Ramifications, please contact the editors.

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Submission Requirements

To submit an article, you need to upload the following to the Ramifications website:

  • An abstract (250-300 Words)
  • A keyword list
  • A biography for each contributor

You must also submit a faculty recommendation form completed by a faculty member at West Chester University, as well as upload a manuscript formatted according to the manuscript submission guidelines. All of the required documents can be submitted by clicking on the Submit Manuscript button on the main Ramifications page.

Note: Do not include the abstract, keyword list, or biography in the file containing the manuscript or visual art piece. These will be uploade through the submission form separately.

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Manuscript Submission Guidelines

Your manuscript must be submitted as MSWord files (.docx) in the following format:

  • single-spaced
  • fully justified
  • have one-inch margins
  • have 12-point Times New Roman font>/li>
  • have numbered pages

In addition, the manuscript must meet the following requirements:

  • The manuscript must NOT include any identifying information about the author/s within the manuscript.
  • Illustrations, tables, and explanatory figure legends should be embedded within the text at the locations preferred by the authors.
  • Each graphic must have an accompanying legend. Preferably, number the graphics and provide a call-out to the graphic at the appropriate place in the prose of the manuscript.
  • The manuscript must be a minimum of 2,500 words and a maximum of 5,000 words.
  • It should represent a clear perspective and present relevant and logical evidence to support that perspective.
  • The manuscript must be written in the academic language of the paper’s discipline, but should avoid using field-specific jargon unless fully explained.
  • It should include proper citation style for the discipline, using the most recent editions of the citation s (e.g. MLA, Chicago, APA, etc.). Exceptions to this apply for creative works, which should generally conform to their discipline’s style. The chosen format must be consistent throughout the manuscript.
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For more information on preparing figures, please see Wiley’s "Guidelines for the Preparation of Figures."

It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.

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Rights for Authors and Digital Commons @ West Chester University

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to Digital Commons @ West Chester University 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 Digital Commons @ West Chester University, requires credit to Digital Commons @ West Chester University as copyright holder (e.g., Digital Commons @ West Chester University © 2023).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from Digital Commons @ West Chester University 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.

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General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the Digital Commons @ West Chester University website and/or software agree not to misuse the Digital Commons @ West Chester University service or software in any way.

The failure of Digital Commons @ West Chester University 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 Digital Commons @ West Chester University and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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