Editorial Policies

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (JNCHC) is a refereed periodical publishing scholarly articles on honors education. The journal uses a double-blind peer review process. Articles may include analyses of trends in teaching methodology, discussions of problems common to honors programs and colleges, items on the national higher education agenda, research on assessment, and presentations of emergent issues relevant to honors education. Bibliographies of JNCHC, HIP, and the NCHC Monograph Series on the NCHC website provide past treatments of topics that an author should consider.

Submissions and inquiries should be directed to: journals@nchchonors.org.

NCHC journals and monographs are included in the following electronic databases: ERIC, EBSCO, Gale Cengage, and UNL Digital Commons. Both journals are listed in Cabell International’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities.

Deadlines

JNCHC is published semi-annually. Submission deadlines are March 1 and September 1.

JNCHC Submission Guidelines

We accept material by email attachment in Word (not pdf). We do not accept material by fax or hard copy, nor do we receive documents with tracking.

If documentation is used, the documentation style can be whatever is appropriate to the author’s primary discipline or approach (MLA, APA, etc.), employing internal citation to a list of references (bibliography).

All research based on data from human subjects should include IRB approval or other ethical review from your institution.

All essay submissions to the journal must include an abstract of no more than 250 words and a list of no more than five keywords (not repeating words in your title).

Accepted essays are edited for grammatical and typographical errors and for infelicities of style or presentation. Authors have ample opportunity to review and approve edited manuscripts before publication.

There are no minimum or maximum length requirements for research essays; the length should be dictated by the topic and its most effective presentation.

Essays in the Forum for Honors should be roughly 1000-2000 words long.

All submissions and inquiries should be directed to journals@nchchonors.org.

Editors

Ada Long (English), Emeritus Professor of English and former Director of the University Honors Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Editorial Board

François G. Amar (Chemistry & STEM Education), Professor of Chemistry and former Dean of the Honors College, University of Maine

William A. Ashton (Psychology), Associate Professor, Behavioral Sciences Department, City University of New York at York College

Gary M. Bell (Early Modern British History), Dean Emeritus of the Honors College and Retired Professor of British History, Texas Tech University

Suketu P. Bhavsar (Astrophysics), Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Director Emeritus, Kellogg Honors College, Cal Poly Pomona

Bernice Braid (Comparative Literature), Professor Emeritus of English, Director of Core Seminar, and Former University Honors Program Director, LIU Brooklyn

Phame Camarena (Human Development), Dean of the William Conroy Honors College, New Mexico State University

Andrew J. Cognard-Black (Sociology), Assistant Professor, St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Joan Digby (English), former Director of the Honors College, Professor Emeritus of English, LIU Post

John W. Emert (Mathematical Sciences), Dean of the Honors College and Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Ball State University

Ted Estess (English), Professor of English and Former Dean of the Honors College, University of Houston

K. Patrick Fazioli (Anthropology), Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Global Honors Program, Mercy College (NY)

Jim Ford (Philosophy/Religious Studies), Director of the Honors Program and Professor of Humanities, Rogers State University

Philip L. Frana (Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies), Associate Professor, Associate Dean of the Honors College, and Co-Director of the Independent Scholars Program, James Madison University

Jay M. Freyman (Ancient Studies) Associate Professor Emeritus of Ancient Studies and Former Director of the Honors College, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Linda Frost (English), Professor of English and Dean of the Honors College, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

Raymond J. Green (Psychology), Dean of the Honors College and Professor of Psychology, Texas A&M University-Commerce

Jerry Herron (English), Dean Emeritus of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College and Professor Emeritus of English, Wayne State University

Nancy Davis Johnson (Psychology), Associate Professor of Psychology, Queens University of Charlotte

Lisa W. Kay (Statistics), Professor and Former Associate Director of the Honors Program, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Eastern Kentucky University

Christopher J. Keller (English), Professor of English and Dean of the Honors College at East Tennessee State University

George Mariz (History), Emeritus Professor of History and Emeritus Director of the Honors Program, Western Washington University

Kristine A. Miller (English), Professor of English and Executive Director of the University Honors Program, Utah State University

Rosalie Otero (English), Professor Emerita and Former Honors Director, University of New Mexico

Robert J. Pampel (Higher Education), Director of the University Honors Program, Saint Louis University

Jeffrey A. Portnoy (English), Former Associate Dean of the Honors College and Professor Emeritus of English, Perimeter College, Georgia State University

Rae Rosenthal (English/Women's Studies), Former Lead Director of the Honors Program and Emeritus Professor of English and Women's Studies, Community College of Baltimore County

Rusty Rushton (English), Associate Director of the University Honors Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Patricia J. Smith (Higher Education), Associate Professor and Dean of the Norbert O. Schedler Honors College, University of Central Arkansas

Stephen H. Wainscott (Political Science), Director Emeritus of the Clemson University Honors College

Emily Walshe (Library and Information Science), Reference Librarian and Associate Professor of University Libraries, Long Island University

Len Zane (Physics), Emeritus Professor of Physics and Former Dean of the Honors College, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

NCHC is committed to inclusion, diversity, and equity and thus asks authors to be mindful of language that upholds these values and those expressed in NCHC’s Shared Principles and Practices of Honors Education. Writers should embrace culturally sensitive prose and avoid language that perpetuates bias.

Your submission should center on an idea, not just description or information, and, starting in your introduction, you should be clear about why and how your thesis is relevant, interesting, and useful to an audience of honors administrators, faculty, and/or staff.

Your thesis should be based on and supported by evidence that is clearly presented in the essay.

Your conclusion should explore the implications of your thesis rather than simply repeating it.

Don’t forget that you need to tie your topic to honors in a specific way and contribute to advancing the field of honors education by presenting innovative practices, observations, and/or analysis.

Avoid blanket assumptions that cannot be backed up with evidence (and thus are often wrong), e.g., “few community colleges have honors programs” or “few honors programs practice outcomes assessment.”

Similarly, be wary of statements like “Little has been written about”; chances are that a lot has been written about it, and you’re obliged to have done that research in NCHC publications as well as other sources available on your topic. Thanks to Jeff Portnoy, NCHC has made research incredibly easy: go to http://nchc.site-ym.com/?page=Publications, and do a key word search on your topic. The journals and monographs are available online at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlcollhonors/.

Avoid constructions like “This paper will present research on” or “We intend to show that.” Go ahead and make statements about your topic.

Avoid rhetorical questions. Make statements instead.

Avoid redundancy. Repetition for emphasis is unnecessary if you make your point well the first time.

Use active voice whenever possible. “We found that” is better than “It was found that.”

Avoid starting a sentence with a phrase like “There is” or “It is.” “There is a common belief that” can and should be “A common belief is that.”

Beware the unclear pronoun reference: the word “this” should almost never be the subject of a sentence and should always point to a clear reference within the sentence.

If you use italics for emphasis or scare quotes, we will almost always remove them.

Capitalization is absurdly fraught, but “honors program” is capitalized ONLY when it is part of the official title of a program, e.g., “Washington State University Honors Program” but “the honors program at Washington State University.” Similarly, titles and disciplines are capitalized only when part of a formal title, e.g., “Anna is Associate Professor of Philosophy” but “Anna is an associate professor of philosophy.”

Generally, avoid contractions, slang, clichés, and other forms of casual writing; formality is appropriate in a journal essay except in rare cases when informality is a strategic choice.

Every rule is made to be broken—but only by outstanding writers.

Abstract

The abstract is what appears in catalogs and indexes, so it needs to be able to stand alone and to encourage as well as inform readers. Limited to a maximum of 250 words, it needs to give a clear, concise sense of your topic and its importance.

The abstract should describe:

• the central thesis, topic, research question, problem, and/or theory being addressed;
• the kinds of evidence used to support the thesis; in projects using data, what the data represent, where they come from, the sample size, and the research and/or statistical methods used;
• the principal finding(s) or conclusion(s);
• how the findings relate to the question or problem that inspired the research and why they are important.

Keywords

Keywords enable readers to find a research article in databases. A maximum of 5 keywords should represent the content of an article in the context of the relevant discipline(s).

Honors in Practice (HIP) is a refereed journal of applied research publishing articles about innovative honors practices and integrative, interdisciplinary, and pedagogical issues of interest to honors educators. HIP employs a double-blind peer review process. Authors should include discussion of how central ideas and practices may be applied in campus settings other than their own, and the thesis should be located within a larger context such as theoretical perspectives, trends in higher education, or historical background. Essays should demonstrate awareness of previous discussions of the topic in honors publications and other relevant sources; bibliographies of JNCHC, HIP, and the NCHC Monograph Series are available on the NCHC website.

All submissions to the journals must include an abstract of no more than 250 words and a list of no more than five keywords.

Submissions and inquiries should be directed to: journals@nchchonors.org.

Abstracting and indexing services providing coverage of HIP are Academic OneFile; Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Educational Curriculum & Methods and Educational Psychology & Administration; Current Abstracts; Education Abstracts; Education Index; Education Research Complete; Education Source; Educator’s Reference Complete; ERIC; InfoTrac; and OmniFile Full Text Mega. Current and back issues of HIP are available in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Digital Commons repository: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlcollhonors/ and for purchase on the NCHC website.

HIP Deadline

HIP is published annually. The deadline for submissions is January 1.

Submission Guidelines

We accept material by e-mail attachment in Word (not pdf). We do not accept material by fax or hard copy.

If documentation is used, the documentation style can be whatever is appropriate to the author’s primary discipline or approach (MLA, APA, etc.), but please avoid footnotes. Internal citation to a list of references (bibliography) is strongly preferred, and the editor will revise all internal citations in accordance with MLA guidelines.

There are no minimum or maximum length requirements; the length should be dictated by the topic and its most effective presentation.

Accepted essays are edited for grammatical and typographical errors and for infelicities of style or presentation. Authors have ample opportunity to review and approve edited manuscripts before publication.

All submissions and inquiries should be directed to journals@nchchonors.org.

Editors

Ada Long (English), Emerita Professor of English and former Director of the University Honors Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Members

Larry Andrews (Comparative Literature), Dean Emeritus of the Honors College and Professor Emeritus, English, Kent State University

Richard Badenhausen (English), Professor & Dean of the Honors College, Westminster College

J. Robert Baker (English), Professor of English and Director of the Honors Program, Fairmont State University

James D. Bell (Entrepreneurship), Professor of Management, Texas State University

Kate Bruce (Psychology), Professor of Psychology and Director of the Honors Scholars College, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Scott Carnicom (Psychology), Dean of the College of Natural, Behavioral, and Health Sciences and Professor of Psychology, Lock Haven University

James J. Clauss (Classics), Professor of Classics and Former Honors Director, University of Washington

Heather Camp (English), Associate Professor of English, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Lisa L. Coleman (English), Professor Emerita of English and Former Honors Program Director, Southeastern Oklahoma State University

Leslie A. Donovan (English), Professor of Honors College and Affiliated Faculty of English and Medieval Studies, University of New Mexico

Steven Engel (Political Science), Director of the University Honors Program and Associate Professor of Political Science, Georgia Southern University

Bruce E. Fox (Forestry), Professor of Forest Management, Northern Arizona University

Annmarie Guzy (English), Associate Professor of English, University of South Alabama

Carolyn Haynes (English), Professor of English and Associate Provost, Miami University

Melissa L. Johnson (Educational Technology), Associate Director of the Honors Program, University of Florida

Jim Lacey (American Studies), Emeritus Director of the University Honors Program and Professor of English, Eastern Connecticut State University

Karen Lyons (English, Women’s and Gender Studies), Courtesy Assistant Professor of English, Emeritus; Associate Director, University Honors Program, Retired

Alan Oda (Psychology), Professor of Psychology, Former Assistant Director, Honors Program, Azusa Pacific University

Niles Reddick (Humanities), Vice Provost, University of Memphis Lambuth Campus

Mike Sloane (Psychology), Director of the University Honors Program and Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Bob Spurrier (Political Science), Director Emeritus of the Honors College and Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Oklahoma State University

Paul R. Strom (Ethics), Honors Residential Academic Program Faculty, University of Colorado Boulder

Emily Walshe (Library and Information Science), Reference Librarian and Associate Professor of University Libraries, Long Island University

Norm Weiner (Sociology), Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Director Emeritus of the College Honors Program, State University of New York at Oswego

Susan Yager (English), Professor and Faculty Director of the Honors Program, Iowa State University

John Zubizarreta (English), Professor of English and Director of Honors and Faculty Development, Columbia College

NCHC is committed to inclusion, diversity, and equity and thus asks authors to be mindful of language that upholds these values and those expressed in NCHC’s Shared Principles and Practices of Honors Education. Writers should embrace culturally sensitive prose and avoid language that perpetuates bias.

Your submission should center on an idea, not just description or information, and, starting in your introduction, you should be clear about why and how your thesis is relevant, interesting, and useful to an audience of honors administrators, faculty, and/or staff.

Your thesis should be based on and supported by evidence that is clearly presented in the essay.

Your conclusion should explore the implications of your thesis rather than simply repeating it.

Don’t forget that you need to tie your topic to honors in a specific way and contribute to advancing the field of honors education by presenting innovative practices, observations, and/or analysis.

Avoid blanket assumptions that cannot be backed up with evidence (and thus are often wrong), e.g., “few community colleges have honors programs” or “few honors programs practice outcomes assessment.”

Similarly, be wary of statements like “Little has been written about”; chances are that a lot has been written about it, and you’re obliged to have done that research in NCHC publications as well as other sources available on your topic. Thanks to Jeff Portnoy, NCHC has made research incredibly easy: go to http://nchc.site-ym.com/?page=Publications, and do a key word search on your topic. The journals and monographs are available online at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlcollhonors/.

Avoid constructions like “This paper will present research on” or “We intend to show that.” Go ahead and make statements about your topic.

Avoid rhetorical questions. Make statements instead.

Avoid redundancy. Repetition for emphasis is unnecessary if you make your point well the first time.

Use active voice whenever possible. “We found that” is better than “It was found that.”

Avoid starting a sentence with a phrase like “There is” or “It is.” “There is a common belief that” can and should be “A common belief is that.”

Beware the unclear pronoun reference: the word “this” should almost never be the subject of a sentence and should always point to a clear reference within the sentence.

If you use italics for emphasis or scare quotes, we will almost always remove them.

Capitalization is absurdly fraught, but “honors program” is capitalized ONLY when it is part of the official title of a program, e.g., “Washington State University Honors Program” but “the honors program at Washington State University.” Similarly, titles and disciplines are capitalized only when part of a formal title, e.g., “Anna is Associate Professor of Philosophy” but “Anna is an associate professor of philosophy.”

Generally, avoid contractions, slang, clichés, and other forms of casual writing; formality is appropriate in a journal essay except in rare cases when informality is a strategic choice.

Every rule is made to be broken—but only by outstanding writers.

Abstract

The abstract is what appears in catalogs and indexes, so it needs to be able to stand alone and to encourage as well as inform readers. Limited to a maximum of 250 words, it needs to give a clear, concise sense of your topic and its importance.

The abstract should describe:

• the central thesis, topic, research question, problem, and/or theory being addressed;
• the kinds of evidence used to support the thesis; in projects using data, what the data represent, where they come from, the sample size, and the research and/or statistical methods used;
• the principal finding(s) or conclusion(s);
• how the findings relate to the question or problem that inspired the research and why they are important.

Keywords

Keywords enable readers to find a research article in databases. A maximum of 5 keywords should represent the content of an article in the context of the relevant discipline(s).

NCHC Monograph Series
Style Sheet
1 April 2021

NCHC’s Publications Board prefers that the monographs assume a scholarly and formal tone. If they include research, the text should contain the appropriate scholarly apparatus. When monographs are anthologies, all the essays must abide by the same documentation system. MLA is preferable, but authors and editors may select the one they want to employ. If authors are using MLA and are citing online sources, they are free to cite or eliminate URLs as long as the practice is consistent throughout the manuscript.

The editors of NCHC’s journals and monographs feel strongly about the importance of properly introducing the names of the authors whose exact language or paraphrased ideas are brought into the text in accordance with the documentation style being used. Readers should know whose words or ideas they are reading; mentioning the names prior to or near the beginning of the borrowing, especially for a paraphrase, is an important courtesy. Page numbers for citations of print sources should be provided parenthetically in the text itself.

When talking about honors education, be wary of statements like the following: “Little has been written about….” Chances are that quite a bit has been written about the topic. Take advantage of NCHC’s bibliography for all of its publications: download and do a key word search on your topic. The journals and monographs are available online at http://nchchonors.org/nchc-publications/ as well as through other databases including ERIC.

Notes should be consolidated at the end of each chapter or essay rather than appear as footnotes.

Bibliography entries should be consolidated at the end of each chapter or essay and labeled References.

NCHC’s practice is not to capitalize the words “honors,” “honors program,” or “honors college” unless these words are part of a formal name. Here are examples: the Kent State University Honors College, the honors program at our university, or the Nesbit Honors College.

Similarly, titles and disciplines are capitalized only when part of a formal title, e.g., “Anna Smith is Associate Professor of Philosophy” but “Andy Smith is an associate professor of philosophy.”

To establish and maintain a formal tone, authors should avoid contractions, minimize the use of dashes, and use parentheses primarily for citations or abbreviations to be used in the text after the first use of the full name: Georgia State University (GSU). Use NCHC after writing the full name out when first naming the organization, but be sure to put NCHC in parentheses after the full name that first time.

Please write out the number for centuries rather than using the numerals and –th.

Authors should avoid second person.

The use of first person should be minimized. An author should not use we to indicate all honors administrators, faculty teaching honors courses, or honors students, especially since the readership of the monographs extends well beyond these groups. Multiple authors of a text can use "we" to refer to themselves, but again, that practice should be minimized. Using third person plural when the noun referent for they is clear is best: honors administrators/they, honors students/they, or faculty members/they.

Whenever possible, avoid wordy phrases like there is/are, it seems, and it is when “it” has no noun referent. Use active voice whenever possible. Emphasize strong, vivid verbs.

Avoid contractions, slang, clichés, and other forms of casual writing; formality is appropriate except in rare cases when informality is a shrewd strategic choice.

Authors should not use italics or quotation marks for emphasis, they will almost always be removed.

Authors should place a comma before the conjunction in a series (a/k/a the Oxford comma).

Every rule is made to be broken—but only by outstanding writers.

We accept material by email attachment in Word (not pdf).

Dr. Jeffrey A. Portnoy
General Editor, NCHC Monograph Series
Honors College
Georgia State University--Perimeter College
Email: jportnoy@gsu.edu

NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HONORS COUNCIL
Monograph Series Submission Guidelines

The Publications Board is interested in receiving manuscripts on diverse topics in honors education and urges people with expertise interested in writing such a monograph to submit a prospectus.

Prospective authors or editors of an anthology should submit a proposal discussing the purpose or scope of the manuscript, a prospectus that includes a chapter by chapter summary, and a curriculum vitae. We accept material by email attachment in Word (not pdf). Bibliographies of JNCHC, HIP, and the NCHC Monograph Series on the NCHC website provide past treatments of topics that authors should be familiar with and consider.

Direct all inquiries, proposals, and manuscripts to the General Editor of the Monograph Series:

Dr. Jeffrey A. Portnoy
General Editor, Monograph Series
Professor Emeritus of English
Honors College
Georgia State University--Perimeter College
jportnoy@gsu.edu

PROCESS GUIDELINES