After you have submitted your paper, the UMBC Review editors will notify you. 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 out for review. The reviewer will be chosen by the editors with possible reviewer recommendations from your faculty mentor. If no faculty member off campus is able to review your paper, the editors may use an on-campus reviewer.
The reviewer is asked to comment on your paper regarding the following criteria:
- Quality and originality of research and thesis
- Extent of contribution to the discipline
- Overall presentation of the paper (including correct citations)
- Accuracy of information presented
- Merit of content
- Appropriateness of the sources used
- Reviewers are asked to recommend publication of the paper with or without revisions, or to recommend that the paper not be published in the UMBC Review.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 review and provide guidance in the revision process.
Once all reviews have been received by the editors, the editors decide which papers should be included in the upcoming issue. These choices are made on the basis of the reviewers’ comments and the need to put together a UMBC Review with interesting and diverse content. 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 proviso 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 advisor. The student and the advisor must devise a plan to revise the paper in accordance with the suggestions. If the student and advisor disagree substantially with either the reviewer’s or the editors’ comments, the student and advisor must contact the editors for further consultation.
The student will be given a period of time to make the desired revisions in close consultation with the editors and the student’s advisor. 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 emailed back to the editors. After the student submits his or her revisions, the editors will continue to work with the student, if necessary, to address matters of style and any final refinements.
When this editing is complete, 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 then send the completed submissions to the printer sometime in March.
Once the issue of the UMBC Review is published, students whose submissions are included in the edition may each get up to 3 copies of the recent UMBC Review.
Our usual time schedule is:
- 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 inclusion 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.