Mountaineer Undergraduate Research Review

Who Can Submit?

The Mountaineer Undergraduate Research Review (MURR) publishes research papers of all disciplines by West Virginia University undergraduates or recent graduates within a year after their graduation.

Authors may submit an original article to be considered for publication in MURR provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is 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).

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General Submission Rules

• Submitted articles cannot have been previously published and must be an original work
• Submitted articles cannot be currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and the author is advised not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at  Mountaineer Undergraduate Research Review
• Most professional journals have strict policies concerning dual publication; authors should discuss publication plans with discipline-specific journals to which they are considering publishing their work
• Most professional scholarly journals will refuse to consider publications that have been previously published electronically; authors should notify the editorial review board if they only want their work to appear in print 

Authors:All submissions must at least contain the name of corresponding undergraduate research author and the faculty research mentor. Corresponding authors will serve as the primary point of contact for the MURR editorial review board.

Abstract titles should be 3-14 words long and use language that can be comprehended by the general public

Abstracts (160-250 words) should:

• Clearly state the central research question and/or purpose of the project (e.g., motivation/impact, question addressed/hypothesis tested)
• Provide brief, relevant scholarly or research context (no actual citations/references required) that demonstrate its attempt to make a unique contribution to the area of inquiry.
• Provide a brief description of the research methodology (e.g., artistic, theoretical or experimental plan used/approach).
• Give a summary of principal findings/results (or expected results) and the context in which they will be discussed.
• State major conclusions that cycle back to the project's central research question and/or purpose.
• Include text only (no images or graphics).
• Be well-written, well-organized, and a self-contained, single paragraph.

Generally, research article submissions (1000-2500 words) should:

• Clearly state the central research question and/or purpose of the project (e.g., motivation/impact, question addressed/hypothesis tested)
• Provide relevant scholarly or research context that demonstrate its attempt to make a unique contribution to the area of inquiry. Please include a list of citations and references.
• Provide a description of the research methodology (e.g., artistic, theoretical or experimental plan used/ approach).
• Give a summary of principal findings/results (or expected results) and the context in which they will be discussed.
• State major conclusions that cycle back to the project's central research question and/or purpose.
• Include all text and corresponding images and graphics.

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Formatting Requirements

Mountaineer Undergraduate Research Review has no general rules about the formatting of articles upon initial submission. There are, however, rules governing the formatting of the final submission. See Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details. Although bepress can provide limited technical support, it is ultimately the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the article as a high-quality PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format) file, or a Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or RTF file that can be converted to a PDF file.

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 The Research Repository @ WVU

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to The Research Repository @ WVU 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 The Research Repository @ WVU, requires credit to The Research Repository @ WVU as copyright holder (e.g., The Research Repository @ WVU © 2024).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from The Research Repository @ WVU 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 The Research Repository @ WVU website and/or software agree not to misuse the The Research Repository @ WVU service or software in any way.

The failure of The Research Repository @ WVU 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 The Research Repository @ WVU and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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