The Kennesaw Tower Undergraduate Research Journal, hosted in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Kennesaw State University, invites submissions from advanced undergraduate students.
Please see our most recent Fall 2023 issue here: https://kennesawtower.kennesaw.edu/current-issue.php
Who can submit :
Any undergraduate university student who has taken at least 1 senior-level course in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, or FLED (Foreign Language Education Department) may submit their work to The Kennesaw Tower.
Simultaneous submissions are not permitted. This means that by submitting your manuscript to The Kennesaw Tower, you confirm that this manuscript is not under consideration for publication at any other journal and will not be submitted elsewhere while under consideration by The Kennesaw Tower.
Submission language requirements :
Submissions must be written by a second language or heritage undergraduate student of Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish, in any standardized dialect. Submissions must also be written in said language that the undergraduate student is studying or has recently studied. Submissions will also be accepted in English if written by a FLED undergraduate student on research related to FLED. If you have already graduated, you may still submit work within one academic semester (not including the summer) following completion of your undergraduate degree. For example, if you graduated in Spring 2022, you would still be eligible to submit your work by December 31, 2022.
Submission review process :
Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis. This means there is no annual deadline for submissions.
The Kennesaw Tower is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal. Upon submission, your work will be reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers from the Editorial Board and/or the List of Reviewers in a double-blind review process. These reviewers are college and university faculty members or independent scholars with expertise in fields related to The Kennesaw Tower. Submissions will then receive one of the following outcomes based on reviewer recommendations:
o Accepted
o Accepted with Revisions (in which case the author will have 30 days to make the reviewers’ suggested revisions and return the manuscript)
o Not Accepted (in which case reviewer comments may be made available to the author upon request)
Please note that many submitted manuscripts require revisions. If you are not willing to engage in this process, please do not submit your work.
Submission Guidelines :
Please closely follow the guidelines below if you are eligible and would like to submit your undergraduate research to The Kennesaw Tower for potential publication.
Submissions must:
o Not be written in English if submitted by a second language student (see above)
o Represent polished work that the author has revised multiple times
o Be accompanied by an abstract of no more than 250 words, written in English, that summarizes the submission’s topic
o Include approximately 2,000-3,000 words if composed in a Latin-script alphabet or a minimum of 1,000 characters if composed in the Chinese writing system (this total excludes the abstract but includes notes)
o Be composed in Times New Roman 12-point font (either double or single-spacing is acceptable) in a Microsoft Word document with editing enabled
o Reflect proper Modern Language Association formatting (please consult the most recent MLA Handbook)
o Include proper usage and placement of accent marks and symbols for the language in which they are composed, when applicable
o Not include identifying information (e.g. the author’s name, affiliation, etc.) in the Microsoft Word document to comply with the double-blind peer review process
o Be accompanied by the author’s official or unofficial undergraduate transcript as an attachment to the email
How to Submi t:
Please send submissions in an email titled “Submission to The Kennesaw Tower – [language].” Within the brackets in the email title, please identify the language in which this submission was composed. Please send this email to Dr. Abigail Alexander at thetower@kennesaw.edu.
Friendly Tips from the Editorial Board :
o You may consider beginning by choosing an essay you wrote for an upper-level language or FLED course as the piece to modify for submission. This piece may be one of which you are particularly proud or one that an instructor or professor indicated was particularly strong.
o We highly recommend that you revise your work multiple times before submission and ask an instructor or professor to help you in this process. It is most helpful to work with an instructor or professor in your chosen language and/or research area to prepare your piece for submission.
o Many universities offer undergraduate research presentation and/or funding opportunities to assist undergraduate students in this process. We recommend looking into what may be available to you through your college or university.
We look forward to receiving and reviewing your polished work!