VERITAS: VILLANOVA RESEARCH JOURNAL

VVRJ is published once annually, in the fall.

Please email the VVRJ team.

VVRJ invites submissions from all academic disciplines. As outlined in the Contributor Agreement, submissions must: (a) be an original work of the author(s); and (b) be approved for submissions to VVRJ by all authors and mentors. Furthermore, submissions must not: (c) have been published elsewhere; (d) currently be under consideration at another journal or other venue; or (e) infringe the intellectual property or rights of others.

If applicable, the author must have received approval from the Villanova Institutional Review Board (IRB), Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or Institutional Biosafety Committee.

VVRJ has two major submission types: Research Reports (250–500 words) and Research Articles (500+ words). For more information on submission types, see the submission guidelines.

The Editorial Board encourages student researchers to share a wide range of scholarship. This may include academic work from a research seminar or similar course, senior thesis, mentored research (at Villanova or at another institution) or independent research project (i.e., work resulting from the VURF Program or another similar program). Submissions should contain methodology, results, analysis, and a conclusion (or equivalent as appropriate for the author’s field).

Research Reports can describe ongoing projects (e.g., data collection or analysis are ongoing); however, work described in Research Articles must be fully completed by the time of submission.

Because the main goal of VVRJ is to disseminate undergraduate student research, we ask that only current undergraduates and recent alumni be listed as authors. Other contributors to the work (e.g., graduate students, faculty, staff) should be listed as mentors. VVRJ will feature mentors’ names, photos and short bios alongside the published manuscripts.

When publishing in VVRJ the author(s) retain the copyright to their work; author(s) grant VVRJ certain permissions to publish and use the work, as outlined in the Contributor Agreement.

Authors are welcome to submit work published in VVRJ for publication in another venue; however, they must first secure permission from the Editors-in-Chief and include a statement in the new publication noting that the work has been published in VVRJ, along with the date and volume of the original publication. Please email if you are considering republishing elsewhere.

Authors should request a VVRJ account. The co-editors must manually review requests, so please allow up to 48 hours for a response. You will receive an activation email with your username and a temporary password. Note that submission, peer review and production occur on this single platform.

Yes. We must have the Contributor Agreement on file before we can publish your article or research report.

The Editorial Board will not review incomplete submissions. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submission contains all required elements, including a separate cover page, anonymized text, contributor agreement and separate files for all images, tables, and figures. Text must be in Word; the Editorial Board will not accept text in PDF format.

For images, tables and figures, authors must upload individual high-definition files in addition to the main text of the submission. Images, tables and figures may appear in the full text of the article ONLY if accompanied by separate files in JPG or PNG format. Images, tables and figure files should be named as they appear in the text and contain the surname of the author (“Jones Figure 1,” “Jones Image 1,” “Jones Table 1,” etc.).

Research Article submissions, including those from Falvey Scholars and senior thesis authors, should not exceed 30 pages double-spaced. This may mean that you tailor a portion (such as a chapter, an aspect, etc.) of the larger work such that it is coherent on its own. The page limit does not include references in the reference list. 

Research Report submissions might describe research that is currently in progress or projects that cannot be developed into a full Research Article. Research Reports should address the importance and originality of the research question, methods, analysis and conclusions.

Student reviewers assess the validity, quality and often the originality of articles for publication. They are an integral part of the peer review process, which helps maintain the integrity of science. The editors-in-chief provide hands-on training, and student reviewers can expect to review two or three manuscripts during the summer. The VVRJ team aims to send their first assignments shortly following the priority deadline for submissions. 

No, the word count for the Research Reports only includes the main text of the submission; figure and table captions, titles, references, supplementary material etc. do not contribute to the word count.

For the fall 2024 issue, the priority deadline for submissions is June 21, 2024. However, submissions will be considered after this date on a case-by-case basis. Please email if you have any questions.

Submissions to VVRJ undergo several rounds of review before publication, including: (1) pre-review and plagiarism screening by the Editors-in-Chief, (2) full review by undergraduate researchers in the field and (3) full review by faculty members in the field. Authors may be asked to revise their manuscript and resubmit for a second round of student researcher review (4). Authors and mentors will be notified of their submission status at each stage in the review process.

We anticipate that each stage of the review process will take 2–3 weeks.

Submissions that represent work that may be published in another form are welcome, but such submissions should take a different approach, such as appearing in the form of a Research Report and detailing the ongoing process of research--so as to remain compliant with the rules of the publication with which a student intends to publish. Authors should always check with their research supervisors before submitting their work.