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Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research

Policies

Contents

Philosophy of Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research

For more information, please see Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research Aims and Scope page.

Who Can Submit?

Currently, enrolled undergraduate students and alumni who have earned a degree within the past year may submit a manuscript to the Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research.

  1. All submissions must be original work.
  2. Each submission must include a letter of support and authenticity from a full-time faculty mentor.
  3. Submissions should include a separate page listing the corresponding author’s name and email address, the names of additional authors, the faculty mentor’s name and email address, and the school affiliation.

Faculty mentors may assist students in preparing their work for the journal by helping them consider a wider audience (such as non-majors or those unfamiliar with the discipline), ensuring clarity in each sentence, adjusting the length, crafting an accessible thesis, and mentoring students on how to transform an assignment into a publishable manuscript.

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General Submission Rules

Submitted manuscripts cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. By submitting material to Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at the Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research. If you have concerns about the submission terms for Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research, please contact the editors.

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Generative Artificial Intelligence Use Policy for the Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research

1. Purpose
Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools are increasingly used by authors, researchers, and editors in the publication process. While these tools provide new forms of support, they also present concerns related to authorship, transparency, originality, validity, and integrity. This policy establishes expectations for the responsible use of GAI tools in submissions to the Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research.

GAI tools are artificial intelligence systems including but not limited to ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, DALL-E, Gemini, Grammarly, Perplexity, and other AI tools that generate texts, images, or codes.

2. Scope
This policy applies to all submissions to the Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research and includes the following groups:

  • authors and co-authors
  • editors, faculty mentors, peer reviewers, and other reviewers
  • third-party contributors who assist in preparing the manuscript (for example, writing services or the University Writing Center)

3. Authorship and Responsibility
A GAI tool may not be listed as an author on a manuscript. Authorship is reserved for human authors who meet the journal’s submission criteria. Human authors are responsible for:

  • generating arguments
  • providing scientific insights
  • conducting analyses
  • collecting and analyzing data
  • ensuring the validity of content
  • drawing conclusions

4. Permitted and Prohibited Use
Substantial intellectual work remains the author’s responsibility. The author must explicitly disclose GAI use for generating texts, images, graphics, tables, or figures; processing data; translating texts; or coding. All GAI use must be cited. Citation styles for GAI can be found in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, the MLA Handbook, and the Chicago Manual of Style. GAI may be used to correct grammatical, mechanical, and spelling errors, but that use must also be explicitly disclosed.

5. Disclosure Requirements<
Authors must provide a clear statement covering the use of GAI tools in the manuscript submission. At minimum, this statement should include:

  • the name(s) and version(s) of the GAI tool(s) used
  • a description of how the tool was used
  • the reason for using the tool
  • a statement of the extent to which output was verified, edited, or corrected by the human authors
  • an explicit affirmation that the human authors remain responsible for all final content, accuracy, originality, and integrity
Below is an example of a disclosure statement:
  • “Sections 2.1 and 3.4 of this manuscript were drafted using the GAI tool [ToolName vX.X]. The authors edited and verified all generated text for accuracy, originality, and appropriateness of content. No images or data processing were generated by the tool. The authors take full responsibility for the final version of the manuscript.”
The disclosure should appear in the cover letter to the editor and in the manuscript (ideally in an Acknowledgements section). This approach ensures transparency and the ethical use of GAI.

6. Peer Review and Editorial Process
The editorial and peer-review processes for Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research remains human-centered. Editors and reviewers must not rely on GAI to replace their own critical evaluation, nor may they load confidential manuscripts into GAI tools. Uploading manuscripts to a GAI system violate the journal’s confidentiality agreements and the copyright law.
Once a manuscript is accepted, if undisclosed GAI use or plagiarism are discovered, the Honors College Journal of Teaching and Researchmay initiate an investigation. The investigation could lead to correction or retraction.

7. Copyright, Data, and Licensing Considerations The use of GAI tools does not waive copyright obligations: authors must ensure they have rights to any inputs (data, figures, images) they submit and that any GAI-generated content complies with agreements (e.g., rights to use).
If a GAI tool was used to (re)create images, tables, graphics, or figures, authors must verify rights, attribution, and licensing of any such output.

8. Integrity, Originality, Attribution
Authors remain responsible for ensuring the originality of their work, proper citation of sources, and validity of any data, analyses, or findings. The use of GAI tools does not relieve authors of these responsibilities.

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Formatting Requirements

TheHonors College Journal of Teaching and Research does not have specific formatting requirements for articles upon initial submission. However, there are guidelines for formatting the final submission. Please refer to the Final Manuscript Preparation Template for more information. While there is limited technical support, it is ultimately the author's responsibility to provide an electronic version of the article. The file should be submitted as a high-quality PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) or as a Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, or RTF file that can be converted into a PDF

It is important to note that due to the current state of technology, there are no guarantees that (PDF) documents will be fully compatible with all hardware and software configurations that readers may use.

This document outlines the typesetting and layout requirements for the final manuscript submission to the Honors College Journal of Teaching and Research.

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Rights for Authors

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. The Creative Commons Attribution License allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship, requires credit to Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship as copyright holder (e.g., Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship © 2025).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial;
  • Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)' place of employment.
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author.

Persons seeking an exception or have questions about use should contact the editors.

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General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship website and/or software agree not to misuse the Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship service or software in any way.

The failure of Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship and the Author(s) regarding submission of the article.

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