Submission Guidelines |
SUBMISSIONS FOR VOLUME 17 DUE FEBRUARY 27, 2008!!!
Given that many students at MIT publish in both professional journals specific to their fields of study and in our MIT-based publication, we have designed MURJ to minimize conflict between specialty periodicals and our journal.To prevent copyright violations, any student submitting to us should verify that their writing in MURJ would not conflict with the policies of the professional journal to which their research is being submitted. In order to minimize the possibility of conflict, the creators of MURJ have designed a unique format for submission.
Each submission is intended to educate the general MIT undergraduate audience. In order to do so, a paper submitted to MURJ should not readlike a paper submitted to a professional journal. Rather, it should read more like an article in ScientificAmerican—no unexplained jargon should be used and the writers shouldassume that their readers are unfamiliar with the specialized researchin the subject of interest. For example, a student writing about Alzheimer's disease should not assume that his or her audience is aware of the association between Alzheimer's and the lipoprotein APOE. The writer of this article should also avoid writing about "Gene chips" or "Fluorescence in situ Hybridization" without explaining exactly what these terms mean.
We do not, however, want writers to "dumb-down" their submissions. Please remember that MIT undergraduates, not members of the common public, will be reading this journal. A physics paper, therefore, does not need to include an explanation of basic electromagnetism (it is safe to assume that the general MIT undergraduate will understand these ideas). If you are questioning whether or not most undergraduates will understand a particular concept, please explain that idea.
Because the above guidelines are rather vague, we have prepared an outline to specify our requirements for submissions. This should make the writing process and our expectations for submissions more clear to you. Include the following in your paper in the specified order: (when reviewing the examples provided, note that the style of writing is unpretentious and avoids unexplained jargon)
Outline for submissions to MURJ
- A) General introduction to the subject and what is interesting or important about it; also indicate the central problem/question to be addressed in the report
- B) Provide a review of literature. What research set the precedent for your investigation?
- C) Describe your approach to the problem (you should not detail experimental protocols); what are the advantages and powers of the techniques you used or the design you proposed; what are the disadvantages or controversies involved, if any? (This would replace the "materials and methods" section of a standard report.)
- D) Explain your results and discuss their implications (Rather than detailing every aspect of your statistical number-crunching or your polyacrylamide gels, stress the actual implications of your results. You do not need to separate the results and discussion sections, but use your own discretion to organize your discussion. Remember that your audience is most interested in the conclusions that you draw.)
- E) What questions are left unanswered? What future research will be conducted on this topic?
- F) Site some further reading for students interested in this topic
We have deliberately kept this outline general in order for you to manipulate it to suit your specific topic. Please title your essay, name all sections, and add subsections as you please
The most important thing to remember is that your essay must be logical and must be comprehensible to an undergraduate audience. If complex ideas are involved, then make your best attempt to explain them, but do not worry if you feel that the average student in a discipline other than your own may still find the concepts somewhat complicated. We would rather have you present all of your ideas in full than have you take-up half of your essay attempting to explain one idea.We expect submissions to be between 8 and 15 typed, double-spaced pages (Times New Roman 12), although exceptions can be made if you explain your reasoning to our review board. Graphics and references are not included in this page limit.
You are ultimately in control of your own writing. Submit what you believe would
communicate the most important aspects of your work to
an MIT undergraduate audience. Remember that graphics are
a plus, so include anything that you feel would be an appropriate visual aid for your readers. All graphics must be of high
resolution, suitable for printing. Also remember that professors in your field
of study will review your work to ensure its scientific
credibility. Please send all submissions to the address below AND e-mail them
in the text of the e-mail to murj-submit@mit.edu.
Make sure to attach contact information to both the e-mail and the hard copy of
your submission.
Format for submissions: For example: If part of your original document
looks like this: Your submission to us (as a text file) should look like this: And should include this image as an attached .tiff file, with an appropriate name (e.g. "Equation_1" or "Figure_3"): Sincerely,
All submissions MUST be
sent as .rtf or .doc files. If equations, figures, and tables are included,
label each of them, cut them out of the text, and send them as separate files. We will send your submission back to you if
it is sent to us in the incorrect format.
Please direct any questions to murj-officers@mit.edu.Thank you for
submitting and good luck.
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