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Policies

Contents

Philosophy of Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

For more information, please see Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections Aims and Scope page.

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections 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, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections. If you have concerns about the submission terms for Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections, please contact the editors.

This journal publishes book reviews, exploratory essays and research articles.

Book Review: The journal has a selection of books that are available for students to read and review, which the author is welcome to keep after an appropriate academic review has been submitted to the journal. Please email bridges@wlu.ca for information about available titles. Reviews that have been completed as a part of course work are also welcome for submission. Unlike exploratory essays and research articles, book reviews do not go through the double-blind peer review process; the review goes straight to an editor who will either proceed with copy editing or will provide feedback to the author for revision. Book reviews should be approximately 1500 words. For examples of well written book reviews, please look at volume one.

Exploratory Essay: An exploratory essay is a paper that is written with the purpose of exploring a topic or making an argument about an issue and uses published research and scholarship as support for the main points. Many types of assignments completed as part of course work in undergraduate level classes would fall into this category, including most research papers, argumentative and analytical essays, literature reviews and case studies, for example. For publication in the journal, these papers are typically 8-12 pages in length.

Research Article: The most prominent feature of research articles is that they are based on primary research conducted by the author(s), that is they have a research methodology. Undergraduates who have completed an independent or directed study, participated in a research apprenticeship, or had work recommended for ACERS (the Academic, Creative and Engaged Research Showcase) may have work that would meet the criteria for submission of a research article. Research articles are typically longer in length than exploratory essays and should be at least 15-20 pages in length.

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Formatting Requirements

For the initial submission Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections requires that all papers be submitted using the Chicago/Turabian Author-Date system of documentation. 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 Scholars Commons @ Laurier

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

Personal-use Exceptions

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

The failure of Scholars Commons @ Laurier 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 Scholars Commons @ Laurier and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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