Submission Requirements

1. All applicants must maintain copyright permission or ownership of their work to submit their papers to the journal.
2. All papers must pertain to the intended purpose and mission of MSJ (see Purpose section), and must be void of inappropriate language.
3. All submissions must follow MLA, APA, or Chicago formats in order to be considered and must include pertinent information about the author and the paper's context.
4. All submissions must not plagiarize and must contain a references section in the manuscript. Applicants must be able to submit their references separately in the submission process as well.
5. All submitted manuscripts must contain the entire paper that the applicant wishes to publish in a single file and must clearly mark which pages are not to be published.
6. All submissions must be accompanied by the required biographical and contextual information outlined in the submission process.
7. All applicants must provide adequate avenues of communication and be prepared to receive communication during the process.
8. All submissions must contain the appropriate acknowledgments to contributors.
9. All applicants must consent to the public dissemination of their submissions for possible inclusion in scholarly databases and indexes, and for advertising and educational purposes.
10. It is recommended that all applicants must maintain a valid ORCID researcher ID for author verification.
11. All submissions must be accompanied by an abstract.
12. All submissions must be originally submitted in English.

Application Cycle

1. Applicants must complete the submission form and provide the required information including an abstract and full length work as is outlined in the Submission Requirements section.
2. Submissions will be processed and discussed by the full board. A vote by simple majority will be conducted to make this decision.
3. Inclusion within the next published issue of the journal will be based on: 
   1. The mission of MSJ seen at the beginning of this document and located on the website.
   2. A quota of papers and distribution of topics decided by the Editorial Review Board. The goal of being an open journal will push the number of accepted papers to be higher, however a stringent selection based on volume must be planned for. A good distribution of topics will be defined as: varying ideas and opinions expressed within the journal that are diverse in the factors of, geography, social discussion, economic principles, or political systems.
   3. The quality of research found within the paper which will be decided by reviewers and concerns multiple factors. MSJ agrees and follows the characteristics outlined by the Colorado Department of Education at cde.state.co.us. The following characteristics can be found at https://www.cde.state.co.us/sites/default/files/documents/research/download/pdf/highqualityresearch.pdf on page 4 and includes,
      1. “A well defined research topic and a clear hypothesis,
      2. Focused research questions responsive to a literature review, 
      3. An absence of research bias,
      4. High quality data fit for their intended use and reliable, valid, relevant, and accurate,
      5. Analytical methods appropriate to the data and the questions (descriptive or inferential),
      6. Findings of the study written in a way which brings clarity to important issues,
      7. Tables and graphics which are clear, accurate and understandable with appropriate labeling of data values, cut points and thresholds,
      8. Include(s) both statistical significance results and effect sizes when possible,
      9. The conclusions and recommendations both logical and consistent with the findings.”
   4. Further than these, the inclusion of significant contextual information that clarifies and expands the thesis or research question.
   5. The originality of the topic if the paper has been written for an academic course. This refers to papers whose prompts were assigned to two or more parties by a professor. While conclusions may be different across students, the topics of these papers are still deemed as unoriginal in this context.
   6. The prospective impact of the paper and/or the overall importance of the submission's context. MSJ would like to accept papers by students who wish to explore tough subjects and provide students with an opportunity to not simply learn about their academic interests but contribute themselves to that field.
4. By a certain timeframe, full papers are to be submitted and processed down to reviewers and copy editors, who will work with authors to edit and perfect the work until the publishing date.

Review Timeline

1. The initial submission is required for some cycle by a certain date.
2. A notification about inclusion will be sent to authors by a certain date.
3. All technical and content edits will be due by a decided pre-publishing date. An adequate pre-publishing date will be 7-14 days before the publishing date.
4. Some issue of MSJ will be published on a certain date.

Important Information

1. The journal will follow an open-peer review practice in which authors and reviewers maintain contact and communicate with one another. Measures will be taken to prevent unethical or inappropriate communication in that regard.
2. Contributors may be listed as contributors on multiple submissions. Authors may contact the MSJ Editorial Board with questions regarding the status of their submissions or the review process. Inquiries may be sent to: admin@macalesterstreet.org
3. If rejected from inclusion, applicants may appeal to the editorial review board for a further presentation and vote on prospective inclusion. See the MSJ Ethical Practices for further information.

Journal Indexing and Availability

1. The Macalester Street Journal will maintain an account with the Library of Congress ISSN network and intends to apply for an ISSN number as soon as the first issue is complete. The journal will be available publicly and freely on the journal website and pursued for indexing in further databases, such as Google Scholar. All editions of the journal online will be freely accessible. Hard copy editions may be available for purchase through third party vendors such as Amazon Bookstore.