The Undergraduate Research Journal

I. In-Text and Works Cited Page Formatting Style

There are several in-text citations and works cited formatting options for URJe papers. Please use (1) MLA, (2) APA, or (3) any other science-specific citation styles (for example, CSE or IEEE etc) style formatting for your (a) in-text citation and (b) works cited page. You should select one formatting style and use it consistently throughout your paper.

While APA and MLA have different paper formatting styles in terms of title pages, font, line spacing etc, URJe papers should have a uniform format. As such, please ignore the paper formatting style guidelines for APA and MLA and only use the formatting guidelines for in-text citation and works cited pages. The particulars of paper formatting (e.g. font, line spacing, paragraph indentation etc.) are presented below in Section II House Style.

Please see the details for MLA and APA citations:

Option 1: MLA 8th Edition

Use MLA citation for humanities papers including: literature, history, film studies, philosophy, art, art history, Egyptology, Islamic art and architecture, etc. For a guide to MLA 8th Edition citation, please refer to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.

Option 2: APA 7th Edition

Use APA for social science and science papers including: sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, political sciences, as well as the physical and chemical sciences.For a guide to the APA 7th Edition, please refer to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.

II. House Style

Please see the below guide for the URJe house style formatting. For your convenience, we have created this template to help you format your paper.

Article Title

• Article titles should be written in Times New Roman, size 12 font, and in bold.
• Titles should be centered in the middle of the page.
• Titles should capitalize the first letter of all nouns.
• You can use semicolons in titles. The first letter after the semicolon should be capitalized.

Author Name

• Author name(s) should be written underneath the title.
• Times New Roman. Size 12. Plain font, not bold.
• Should be aligned to the left (unlike title, which is centered)
• There should be a footnote after the author’s name. Use numeral 1 for the footnote (not roman numerals, or letters, or anything else).

Footnote After Author’s Name - Student Department & Acknowledgements & IRB status

There should be only one footnote associated with the author names. If there are multiple authors, then all authors should share the same footnote, and the footnote goes after the last author’s name. The footnote after the author’s name should include:

• Indicate your position (which is an “Undergraduate Student”)
• Student’s department: Include the departments for all student authors.
• Any acknowledgements you would like to make.
• If you have IRB approval - this is necessary when the research includes human participants - provide the name of the professor you worked with and whose name the IRB is associated with and provide your IRB case number. The case number can be found on the upper right hand corner of your IRB approval letter.
• Please write your acknowledgements in first person (e.g. "I would like to acknowledge…" Or" "The authors thank…").
• Times New Roman, size 10 font.
• The footnote is single spaced.
• NOTE - This is the only footnote in your paper.

Abstract

• Articles should be submitted with an abstract of ca. 150 - 200 words.
• The abstract should be indicated with the heading “Abstract” in Times New Roman, size 12 font, in bold. The heading should be aligned to the left.
• See the template in Section IV of this guide for a discussion of what should be included in your abstract.
• Abstracts should be written in the third person (“This article proposes . . .”), not the first person (“I propose...”).

Keywords

• Immediately after the abstract you will provide a list of maximum 5 keywords.
• Keywords are search terms that people can use to find your article on a library website. These can be either a single word or a short phrase that you think best sum up the ideas or research methodologies in your article.
• Write ‘Keywords’ in Times New Roman, size 12, bold font. This should be aligned to the left of the paper.
• One the next line, list the keywords and separate them with a semicolon.

Page Numbers

• Do not add page numbers.

Headers and Footers

• Do not have a header or footer with the title of your paper or any other information.

Article Fonts

• The article text will be written in Times New Roman font, Size 12, regular font.

Paragraph Indentation

• Each new paragraph will start with an indentation made by pressing the ‘tab’ button.

Line spacing

• The text of the article should be double spaced.
• The text of the abstract should be double spaced.
• The text of your only footnote with your acknowledgements should be single spaced.

Section headings

• Should be written in Times New Roman, size 12, bold font.
• Center headings on the middle of the page.
• Headings should capitalize the first letter of nouns.
• You can use semicolons in titles. The first letter after the semicolon should be capitalized.

Works Cited Page

• Your works cited page should start on a completely new page.
• It should include all texts and other materials referenced in your paper.
• All the entries in your works cited page should be written in Times New Roman size 12 font.
• Please follow either MLA or APA works cited page style guides, see above Section I.

Figures

• If you want to include figures, they should go on a separate page at the very end of your paper, after the works cited page.
• Important - you can only include figures that you as the author make yourself. You CAN NOT include images from another source in your article.
• Each figure should be labeled Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.
• After the label, you should write a short caption explaining what the figure contains.
• Make sure you reference all figures in your text. When you discuss something relevant to a figure in your text either:
• Write - “...., as seen in Figure 1” or “...., as illustrated in Figure 1.” Or something similar.
• If you do not reference the figure in the sentence (as done above), then put in parentes at the end of the sentence (Figure 1).

Academic Language

Numbers

• Numbers zero through ten should be written out in words.
• Numbers after 11 should be written with numbers.

Percent

• Use the % sign

Contractions

• In formal writing use “do not” instead of the contraction “don’t”.

Use language that is formal, clear, precise and effective. Choose words that most appropriately reflect the meaning you want to convey. For example (the underlined word can be replaced by the words in bold):

• For good results, time, effort, and resources are needed.
• For effective/beneficial/advantageous results, time, effort, and resources are needed.

Replace multi-word verbs and other phrases with one-word alternatives when possible. For example (the underlined multi-word verb can be replaced by the one-word alternatives in bold):

• Researchers looked at several factors to explain the result.
• Researchers examined/analyzed/investigated several factors to explain the result.

For more help, please see Purdue University’s Resources on “Appropriate Language” and “Conciseness”. For more help with language for reporting your research work, please see the “Academic Phrasebank”.

III. Checklist before submission

Please check that you have the following items available, in the proper format, before you submit the final, revised version of your work.

• Title
• Author’s name(s)
• Footnote with author information, acknowledgements, & IRB approval information
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Text of your article
• Headings are properly formatted
• In-text citations properly formatted with APA or MLA citation style
• Works cited page properly formatted with APA or MLA citation style
• Figures are provided after the works cited page
• Figures are labeled properly with a caption and image attribution