Selection Process

Authors who submit by the priority review deadline in August will receive comments from the editors before the final deadline in September. Authors have the option to resubmit their paper by the final deadline after considering the feedback from the editors. Any edits must be approved by your faculty mentor.

Please make sure your application is complete at the time of submission. If your packet is incomplete the editors will request that you complete it in a timely manner. The editors will then read your paper. If the paper passes their initial evaluation, it will be sent for peer-review to an off-campus reviewer. Reviewers are most often faculty members from other universities, but may also be other experts in the appropriate field. The reviewer will be chosen by the editors, who will also consider reviewer recommendations from your faculty mentor when making the decision. The editors may use an on-campus reviewer if off-campus reviewers are unavailable.

The reviewer is asked to comment on your paper regarding the following criteria:

  1. Does the paper have a thesis that is original?
  2. Does the paper contribute to research in the field?
  3. Is the research methodology sound?
  4. Does the research support the thesis?
  5. Does the paper follow research designs and standards common in the field?
  6. Does the paper follow the accepted style format for papers in the field?

Reviewers are asked to recommend publication of the paper with or without revisions, or to recommend that the paper not be published in the UMBC Review.
The identity of your reviewer will be kept confidential unless the reviewer chooses to disclose his or her name. In some cases, the reviewers will offer to talk to the student about their feedback and provide guidance in the revision process.

Once all reviews have been received by the editors, the editors decide which papers will be published in the upcoming issue of the UMBC Review. These choices are made while considering several factors, including the peer-review comments and the desire to have an interdisciplinary, relevant, and compelling publication. After the editors have made their decisions, the student submitters will be informed as to whether or not their papers have been accepted for publication.

When a paper is accepted for publication, it is usually with the provision that the student make certain revisions. It is the student’s responsibility to study the recommendations of the reviewer and the editors and to discuss these with his or her mentor. The student and the mentor must devise a plan to revise the paper in accordance with the suggestions. If the student and mentor disagree substantially with either the reviewer’s or the editors’ comments, they must contact the editors for further consultation. All changes to the paper must be approved by the student’s mentor before final publication.

The student will be given a period of time to make the desired revisions in close consultation with the editors and the student’s mentor. The UMBC Review editors are ready to help the student in any way possible. Do not hesitate to contact them. Once the revisions are complete, the paper is resubmitted to the editors. After the student submits his or her revisions, the editors will continue to work with the student to address matters of style and any final refinements if necessary. When this is done, usually in January, the papers go to the design editor who is responsible for the layout of the journal. The design editor will then address formatting specifications while communicating with the editors and the student, if necessary. The design editor will send the submissions to the printer once all edits are complete.

Once the issue of the UMBC Review is published, students whose submissions are included in the edition may each take up to 5 copies of the recent UMBC Review.

Schedule

  • By mid-September:
    • Papers are submitted for the issue that will be published in April of the following year.
  • In October:
    • Papers are sent out for faculty review.
  • By mid-November:
    • Papers for publication have been selected and students are notified of decisions.
  • In early December:
    • Students resubmit their papers with the revisions required for publication.
  • By mid-December:
    • Papers have been edited for style and content.
  • In early January,
    • Papers go to the design editor.
  • Beginning of March:
    • The UMBC Review goes to print.