Welcome to MARSci

MarSci is an inter-institutional venue for publishing undergraduate research manuscripts pertaining to the marine and aquatic sciences. Students interested in writing a manuscript based on their undergraduate research experience, as well as research advisors to undergraduates, should find MarSci to be the perfect opportunity for undergraduates to engage in the process of submission and publication, a unique learning experience that is not typically available to most undergraduate scientists.

STUDENT AUTHOR(S) must be the first author of the manuscript. The first author must have completed the research on which the manuscript is based while an undergraduate (graduation status does not effect submission eligibility). Student authors must have their research advisor’s permission to submit the manuscript, as well as the permission of any secondary authors. Manuscripts must be thoroughly reviewed by the research advisor(s) prior to submission; it will primarily be the responsibility of all authors and advisors to insure the scientific aspects (methodology, conclusions, etc.) are valid, not the MarSci peer review board. First authors must read, sign, and submit the Letter of Agreement (see Guideline #9 below), on behalf of all the authors of the manuscript, before the submission will be reviewed by the editorial board.

RESEARCH ADVISOR(S) must give student author(s) the permission to prepare and submit a manuscript for publication in MarSci. Advisor(s) must thoroughly review the manuscript prior to submission by the student author(s). Though the MarSci staff is thoroughly trained, supervised, and advised by a faculty resource board, their undergraduate education and experience in all aspects in marine and aquatic research is limited, and thus is limited in the ability to thoroughly review every scientific and technical aspect of a research manuscript. Therefore, it is primarily the responsibility of the advisor(s) to guide the student author(s) through the process of drawing conclusions from results, and to thoroughly review the scientific aspects of the manuscript prior to submission. It is also the responsibility of the advisor to guide the student authors through the process of submitting a manuscript, and especially the ethics involved in submitting a manuscript for publication.

1. First authors must be undergraduate students or must have completed research pertaining to the submitted manuscripts when the authors were undergraduates.

4. Submissions should be double-spaced with 12-point Times New Roman font and 1-inch margins. Paragraphs should be indented. Footnotes are not permitted and so should be worked into the text or omitted.

5. Manuscripts should be written in American English and checked thoroughly for spelling and grammar errors.

Graphics, such as objects, figures, tables and pictures should be separated from the manuscript and submitted as individual JPEG files named accordingly (ex. figure1.jpg).
Each graphic you submit must be properly referenced within the body of the manuscript.
Each graphic must be accompanied by a caption. The caption should describe the graphic in thorough detail, such that a reader does not have to read the manuscript body text to understand the graphic. A caption should NOT be inserted into its corresponding JPG file. Instead, all captions should be submitted as one WORD file, named “captions.doc.”
Color can be used and is encouraged, but make sure the information in the graphic can still be properly conveyed in a black-and-white print. Data series in graphs should not only be categorized by color, but by shape or shading as well.
It is the responsibility of the author to receive permission for the use of any objects, figures, tables, and pictures that have been previously published/copyrighted.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND: Most graphics in the published articles are formatted to a 3-inch width, typically 1/8 the size of one page. Highly detailed images and “summary” graphics may be formatted to a 6 1/2-inch width, typically 1/2 the size of one page. Make the most of the space allotment for your graphic: crop out empty spaces; use large fonts and plot images; and place legends, insets, and other extraneous details inside the graphic plot area where possible. Choose formatting alternatives that allow you to maximize the informational aspects of your graphic.

8. Submit manuscripts in MSWORD format and figures/objects/pictures/tables in JPEG format as email attachments to marscijournal@gmail.com by the submission deadline. In the body of the email, please list the files that should be attached to the e-mail and the email address of the first author.

MarSci reminds all authors that it is unethical to submit any manuscript to this journal that has been published or is currently being submitted for publication elsewhere.

The MarSci editor-in-chief, with advisement from associate editors and reviewers, reserves the right to ultimately decide which manuscripts are published by MarSci.