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Submission Guidelines

Eligibility

All first authors must be current undergraduates at MSU and receive approval from a faculty mentor prior to submitting their manuscript. If the research was conducted independently or at another institution, students must identify a faculty mentor related to the topic and have them review the article.

To be eligible for submission, the scholarly work conducted by students must be a part of their academic coursework, faculty-mentored, or independent research projects. Papers written for a class generally must be embellished upon to meet the standards of the work required for the journal and must adhere to the journal’s formatting guidelines. The research is typically carried out under the supervision of a faculty member or mentor as a part of research currently conducted by MSU faculty. The work must aim to contribute new knowledge, insights, or perspectives to a particular field of study.

All submissions must be in APA format or the appropriate citation style in the manuscript's field. Students must have a faculty mentor review and approve their article prior to submission.

Senior Theses, if submitted, must be in their final form. Word limits do not apply.

We accept submissions in the following areas: Health Sciences, Biological and Life Sciences (including Plant and Animal Sciences), Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Art & Humanities, and Social Sciences (including business and economics). Descriptions of each area can be found in Aims and Scope.

The work must fall under one or more of the following categories:

  • Original Student Research: Comprehensive reports detailing the methodology, findings, and implications of original student research projects. These articles typically follow a standard structure, including sections such as introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.
  • Review Articles: Comprehensive summaries and analyses of existing literature on a specific topic or research area, written by students. Review papers may provide valuable insights into current trends, gaps in knowledge, and future research directions within a field.
  • Senior Theses: Senior theses conducted through the Shackouls Honors College may be submitted to Endeavors as long as they will not be submitted to another journal. Further information on the Honors Thesis can be found at https://www.honors.msstate.edu/curriculum/honors-thesis/

Additionally, the following requirements must be met:

1. The Primary author must be a current Mississippi State Undergraduate.

  • A Mississippi State Undergraduate is defined as a student currently a B.S. or B.A. candidate who has not yet received his/her degree at the time of submission.
  • Students taking a leave of absence for a short term (one or two consecutive semesters) are considered undergraduates, provided they have already completed one semester at Mississippi State and intend to resume their degree candidacy upon return.

2. Submitted manuscripts must contain original research

  • Submitted manuscripts cannot be published or undergoing review in another research journal (undergraduate or otherwise).
  • If the author wishes to submit a manuscript already under review elsewhere to Endeavors, the manuscript should be promptly withdrawn from the other journal.
  • Similarly, if an author subsequently submits an Endeavors submission to another journal, they must notify Endeavors as soon as possible to withdraw from consideration.

3. The primary author must be willing to work with Endeavors editors to revise the submission if it is considered for publication

  • Upon review, promising but incomplete manuscripts may be offered consideration in the next issue and complemented by faculty or Endeavors comments for revision.
  • Authors should respond to inquiries from Endeavors editorial staff in a timely manner (at most 2 business days).

4. Submission Requirements are complete and correct

  • The manuscript must not contain an abstract. There will be a place to submit the abstract in the form.
  • To ensure integrity of review, please either submit an anonymized copy of the manuscript (no name/personal identifier in the header, footer, or body). Alternatively, provide an editable version so we can redact your identifiers when sending for review

5. Author(s) must consent to publication in Endeavors if their manuscript is selected for publication.

Manuscript Formatting

  1. Submission must have at least 1500 words (not including references).
  2. Submission may not exceed 5000 words (not including references), including all figures/tables and in-text citations.
  3. If additional space is needed, please prepare a Supplementary Materials document containing additional accompanying text, figures, and tables.
  4. Manuscript should be double-spaced with 12-point font (standard font such as Times New Roman, Calibri, Arial, or similar preferred) and standard margins (1’’).
  5. We prefer that the manuscript be prepared using a word-editing program such as Word or Google Docs. If your work is produced in software such as LaTeX, please include your source files. If your work is selected for publication, you will be asked to format it in text form.
  6. Pages should be numbered at the top right. Please do not include identifiers in the page number.

Structure and Style

  1. Writing should be clear, logical, and free from typographical or grammatical errors.
  2. Appropriate structure of submissions will vary depending on the research field. The manuscript should be of a similar style and structure to that of typical articles published in professional journals.
  3. In general, your manuscript submission might include sections for an Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References, and Figures/Tables.
  4. Supplementary Materials may be submitted along with the manuscript in a different file.

Figures and Tables

  1. Figures may be incorporated into the body of the text for readability, at the end of the work, or in a supplementary file/folder.
    2. Submitting an additional folder of high-resolution figure files is much appreciated and will make your work look better in the publication!
  2. If a manuscript is selected or seriously considered for publication, the editorial staff will request high-resolution figures if the current figures are deemed too low-resolution.
  3. All figures must be appropriately referenced in the text and include legends in text format.
  4. Tables should be submitted in text format.
  5. For plots and graphs, axes should be clearly marked and legible. Figures should be clearly labeled if applicable.

References

  1. APA in-text citations should be parenthetical (Author, Year) and embedded within the main text.
  2. References should be formatted as follows: Authors (Year). Title. Journal/Book. Volume, Page Numbers.

    3. Please refer to this Purdue guide on APA for more information: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html

    Example:

    Williams, A.R. & McKinney, C. (2023). Indirect Effects of Parental Psychological Control on Emerging Adult Psychological Problems. J Child Fam Stud, 33(4), 1058-1069. doi:10.1007/s10826-023-02623-y

    Review Process

    All articles go through a peer-review process involving both Associate and Assistant Editors. We ask for authors’ patience as we thoroughly review each submission. The review process is summarized below.

    Peer Review Process