Submission Guidelines: Research Articles

1. Author Guidelines

At the time the manuscript was written, the first author must have been an undergraduate student either (a) attending an Oregon college or university or (b) conducting research with Oregon faculty or at an Oregon campus. This includes all current students, and graduated students may submit old work completed during their time as an undergraduate. Multi-author papers are allowed and encouraged; however, the submitter must have the consent of all authors involved, including any faculty mentor(s) facilitating the research, and the first author must be an undergraduate.

2. Manuscript Guidelines

2.1. Integrity, Compliance, and Generative Artificial Intelligence

  • To be published, all research submissions must be in compliance with the Integrity and Compliance standards set by the University of Oregon’s Office for the Vice President for Research and Innovation; if you have any questions regarding these standards, please contact the Associate Vice President for Research Integrity at avprintegrity@uoregon.edu
  • OURJ strongly discourages the use of generative artificial intelligence in the writing stage of research production; wherever it occurs, the use of generative artificial intelligence tools must be disclosed and cited appropriately

2.2. Content

  • Title
  • Abstract (1 paragraph, 250 words maximum)
  • Body (often includes Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion)
  • Bibliography, References, or Works Cited

2.3. Style

  • All personal/identifying information wiped
  • Minimum 8 pages, double-spaced
  • 12-point Times New Roman
  • 1″ margins, single column
  • All figures readable at/shrinkable to an absolute width of 3.1″; captions not embedded in figure image but written in-text
  • Microsoft Word file (.doc or .docx)

2.4. Recommendations

  • The citation style should conform to the standards of your discipline — typically MLA, APA, or Chicago (in doubt? email us and we can help)
  • Headings and subheadings to separate sections within the body of the manuscript are strongly recommended
  • The use of spell check ahead of submission is required, and proofreading by a peer and/or faculty member are strongly recommended
  • If you are looking for further clarification on formatting or content, it is advisable to look at past OURJ issues, particularly to see what kinds of pieces we have previously published from your discipline

3. Required Supplemental Materials (To Include in Document Separate from Manuscript)

  • Brief author(s) biography (3–4 sentences), written in the third person
  • Email(s) (to be published on manuscript for article-related correspondence)
  • Acknowledgements (1–2 paragraphs), optionally

Submit all materials through our double-blind submission form.

In lieu of submitting work that is incomplete or incorrectly formatted, please attend drop-in-hours or email ourj@uoregon.edu with questions.