Incite

INCITE is the undergraduate research journal for Longwood University.

Dedicated to publishing the best work of undergraduate students across disciplines, INCITE is a faculty-reviewed journal produced at the end of each academic year.

Students who submit their original work to INCITE are eligible for a Best Student Publication monetary award in their discipline. Faculty mentors for student INCITE publications are also eligible for an INCITE Faculty Mentor Award. Recipients of these awards will be announced at the Excellence in Research and Inquiry Award Ceremony during the Spring Student Showcase.

Student work from all disciplines is welcome!

Read Incite volumes 1-15

Instructions for Student Authors

Work Closely with Your Faculty Mentor

Student research submissions may include but are not limited to

• Senior seminar research papers/projects
• Original research projects
• Literature reviews
• Research papers for coursework
• Translations
• Write-ups of any other type of research study
• Research proposals
• Research articles
• Original written creative work including:
  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Plays

Faculty Mentor Role

Your faculty mentor is here to guide you throughout the writing process.

Initial Drafts

If applicable, your mentor may guide you in the research or data collection process. They will review your early drafts and provide feedback to help you improve your arguments, structure, and clarity. This may happen in a class you take with them, an independent study, or another arrangement.

Editing Process

Your mentor will also assist with revisions, ensuring your paper is clear, well-organized, and free of grammatical errors. They may ask you to visit Longwood’s Writing Center for help. See the style guidelines for individual disciplines here. Be sure to include an AI Statement.

Signing Off

Before submitting, your mentor will review the polished version of your paper and “sign off” to confirm it’s ready for submission.

Submitting Your Paper

Once your paper is polished and ready, upload it to Longwood's Digital Commons INCITE: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship Initial Submission site. Along with your submission, please also submit a Cover Page (pdf).

This document requires a signature from your faculty mentor. This signature indicates that they support your submission and believe that
it is worthy of publication in Incite.

Handling Editorial Feedback

After submission, an Incite Editorial Board member will review your work and may suggest revisions. We aim to match you with an editor with relevant expertise, though this isn’t always possible. Feedback will come to your Longwood email in January.

Once you receive feedback from the Incite Editorial Board, it may feel like a lot! You and your mentor will decide which revisions are most essential and feasible. Your mentor will guide you on making meaningful changes while keeping the essence of your original work.

While it’s important to consider editorial feedback carefully, you and your mentor will ultimately decide which revisions to implement.

Typically, you will have approximately two-four weeks to implement feedback and resubmit.

Resubmitting

In most cases, you’ll need to submit a revised paper on Digital Commons. Please resubmit the Cover Sheet as well.

Working with your mentor and the Editorial Board, the Incite Editor, Dr. Hannah Dudley-Shotwell, will make a final decision about acceptance to the publication.

Recognizing Your Faculty Mentor

Faculty mentors are eligible for a mentoring award, based on feedback from student authors like you and the overall quality of their guidance as observed by the Editorial Board. If your mentor’s support has been exceptional, be sure to let us know! Look out for an email asking you to do this.

Student Awards

There are several awards for students who publish in Incite. You are automatically eligible if your submission is published and do not need to do anything to apply.

Spring Student Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Students whose work will appear in Incite or who have won an Incite award will be listed as such in the Spring Student Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry program. This event takes place in late April. You will also receive printed copies of Incite to share with your friends and family.

Questions

Email Incite Editor, Dr. Hannah Dudley-Shotwell shotwellhg@longwood.edu.

View, Download, Print Instructions for Student Authors (pdf)

Instructions for Faculty Mentors

Mentorship and Guidance

The primary role is to guide the student through the entire research (if applicable), writing, and editing processes.

Initial Drafts

Providing feedback on early drafts to help the student refine their arguments, structure, and clarity.

Editing Process

Assisting with revisions, ensuring that the paper is well-organized, clear, it's free of grammatical errors and includes an AI Statement if applicable. 

AI Statement Example
In developing the guidelines for faculty mentors of students submitting papers to Incite, I utilized OpenAI’s ChatGPT to assist with drafting the content.

Specifically, I provided the AI with a detailed outline of the requirements and expectations for the mentors, including the mentoring process, submission procedures, and award eligibility.

ChatGPT generated a draft of the guidelines based on the information I supplied. I then reviewed and refined the draft to ensure it accurately reflected the needs of the Incite journal and provided clear instructions for the faculty mentors.

No additional AI tools were used in this process, and I thoroughly reviewed and approved the final content.

Polished Version

Reviewing and "signing off" on the final, polished version of the paper before it is submitted to Incite via Digital Commons.

Submission Process

Once the polished paper is ready, the student will upload it to Digital Commons. After submission, a member of the Incite Editorial Board will provide further suggestions for revisions. We strive to match students with a board member who has relevant subject matter expertise, though this is not always a perfect match. In cases where no suitable board member is available, we may ask volunteers from other parts of the university to review
the paper.

Handling Editorial Feedback

Students may receive various feedback from the Incite Editorial Board, sometimes more than they can realistically incorporate. As the faculty mentor,
you help the student prioritize which suggestions to address. Use

discretion and knowledge of the student’s abilities to guide them in making meaningful revisions while maintaining the integrity and intent of their original work. You may also wish to help the students understand the differences between publishing in Incite versus publishing in an academic journal in your field. Ultimately, deciding which revisions to implement is up to you and the student.

The final decision to include the submission in Incite rests with the Editor.

Award Eligibility

Faculty mentors whose students submit to Incite are eligible for a mentoring award. This award is based on feedback from the student author and the overall quality of the mentorship experience as observed by the Editorial Board. The board will ultimately choose the award recipient.

Mentorship is vital to the success of our students and the quality of Incite. 

Questions

Email Incite Editor, Dr. Hannah Dudley-Shotwell - shotwellhg@longwood.edu.

View, Download, Print the Instructions for Faculty Mentors (pdf)

AI Policy

At Incite, we recognize the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic work. While AI can be a valuable tool, its use in student submissions must be governed by clear guidelines to maintain academic integrity and the quality of our journal.

Please review the Policy on the Use of AI in Submissions to Incite (pdf).

Deadlines

18 December 2024
Initial submission deadline.

17 January 2025
Advisory Board comments/reader’s review will be sent to the author.

14 February 2025
Final submission deadline for edited submissions, tables, figures, and photos.

3 March 2025

Review of submissions by the Incite Advisory Board for the Incite awards.

23 April 2025
Student Best Publication Awards and Incite Faculty Mentor Award announced at the Spring Student Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry. Students whose work will appear in Incite or who have won an Incite award will be listed as such in the program and will have a ribbon for their presentation.

Incite Faculty Advisory Board Members (2024-2025)

• Hannah Dudley-Shotwell, Editor (History and Honors)
• Corey Call (Criminal Justice)
• Steven Hoehner (Math)
• Mark Kostro (Anthropology and Archaeology)
• Hua (Meg) Meng (Marketing)
• Gregory Mole (History)
• Sarah Porter (Chemistry)
• Tim Ritzert (Psychology)
• Benjamin Topham (Chemistry)
  
• Erin Waggoner (Communication Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies)
• Erin Wallace (Communication Sciences and Disorders)