Guidelines

Peer Reviewed Articles 

The D.U.Quark peer reviews submissions that target a scientific audience, including primary research articles and secondary reviews.  These articles can be submitted by emailing your paper to quarksubmissions@gmail.com, along with the appropriate consent forms. All authors must submit the Author Submission Consent Form. If the submission was the result of a class or research with a professor, the author must also submit the Professor Submission Consent Form.  

Communication will primarily be with the journal’s current Editor-in-Chief.  All articles are de-identified before being sent to the Peer Review Section Editor, who assigns the article to 2-3 student anonymous peer reviewers.  Peer reviewers will evaluate each article using a standard rubric.  Some peer reviewers also leave annotations on an article to suggest edits. The average time to review is 1-3 months.  Once the Section Editor receives the peer reviews, the Editor-in-Chief will contact the author to negotiate a revision date, preferably within 2 months.  This process with repeat until the peer reviewers are satisfied with the author’s revisions.  At this point, the article is sent to the Copy Editor to review the article for grammar.  If the Editor-in-Chief approves the final version, the completed article is sent to the Layout Editor to be published on the website.  The article will also be published on the Digital Scholarship Collection in the next issue of the D.U. Quark.   

If you are interested in becoming a peer reviewer for the D.U. Quark, please reach out to duquark@gmail.com to be connected with the Section Editor. 

Staff Articles 

Any Duquesne student can contribute to The D.U.Quark as a staff writer. Staff writers contribute public-facing science content. This can include news articles, podcasts, creative content, infographics, photography, and opinion pieces. Other content is encouraged. Staff writers can also contribute content for social media posts. Staff articles are not peer reviewed. Instead, these articles are reviewed by staff writers and editors.    

How to submit a staff article: 

1. Upload your article to our Staff Writing Folder on our google drive. 

2. Open the “Edits for Articles” spread sheet in the drive.  Insert your name, article name and submission date to this form. 

1. Throughout the process, this is used as a sign-off sheet by the author and board members to ensure all steps are occurring in the appropriate order and in a timely manner. 

3. Complete an Author Submission Consent Form and upload to the folder of the same name. 

4. Watch the “Edits for Articles” spreadsheet for the Staff Section Editor to sign-off.  This means they have provided suggestions and it is time for you to make revisions.  After revisions are complete, sign-off on the spreadsheet. 

After your revisions are made, the Copy Editor will review the article and provide grammatical corrections.  The Editor-in-Chief will provide a final review of the article.  If the Editor-in-Chief is satisfied with the article, they will move it to a “Ready to be Published” folder for the Layout Editor to publish it on the website.  The article will also be published on the Digital Commons in the next issue of the D.U. Quark.   

A special folder exists for Instagram staff article write-ups entitled “Social Media Posts”.  Authors can sign-up for topics using the spreadsheet in this folder.  Brief write-ups for Instagram can be uploaded into this folder.  These are typically reviewed by a Board Member.  The Communication Chairman will design an Instagram post and upload it to the platform. 

If you are interested in becoming a staff writer, please reach out to duquark@gmail.com to be connected with our Staff Section Editor and obtain access to our Staff Writing Folder. 

Professional Development 

We welcome all majors and years at our journal, from undergraduate through graduate school. As a member of our staff, students learn about science communication and the publishing process through a unique and authentic experience.  We are always seeking students interested in writing, editing, and promoting science communication.  

You can join as a student with no prior experience.  You can also contribute to the D.U.Quark through an internship course (ENGL446/712) and earn credit for your work. This course may count as the capstone requirement in some majors and counts towards an English major or minor.  For those students who are interested in science communication as a professional goal, an English minor can combine the internship course and a collection of science, environment, and health related writing courses in the department.  Please contact the faculty adviser for more information (Klucevsekk@duq.edu).