PRISM: Call For Entries

PRISM aims to be a premier undergraduate journal publishing the best research papers written by National University of Singapore students. We are currently publishing the journal annually in July. If you have a research paper written in the course of a recent Independent Study Module, Honours thesis research or any module that contained a research component and would like to share your findings with your fellow students, PRISM welcomes your submission. We also welcome special issue submissions collecting edited research papers from undergraduate student seminars. We are open to submissions from undergraduates of other local universities.

We accept research papers from the sciences, social sciences and humanities. As undergraduate students are the next generation of thought leaders at the frontier of knowledge but have limited research resources, we expect to receive exploratory research papers that propose innovative lines of inquiry rather than conclusive findings. We do not accept thematic essays and papers that are published or being considered for publication elsewhere. After first consideration by the editors, papers would be sent to students and faculty members working in the same field for peer review. Papers should not be longer than 5,000 words, including references and endnotes.

Submissions. Authors should send their manuscripts in Microsoft Word format through email at PRISMjournal@nus.edu.sg by 8th October 2009 for publishing in the 2009 issue. Please send enquiries to the same email address.

Titles and bylines. Please supply a simple title without a subtitle and a two-sentence byline. The byline should capture the thrust of the research question that the paper is attempting to answer. For example, an article titled “The Rhetoric and Reality of ‘Opting Out’” by Pamela Stone appeared in Contexts (2007:6:4:14-19) with the byline: “Professional women who leave the workforce may have fewer options than it seems. What does that tell us about work in America today?”.

Tables and figures. Please embed tables, figures, illustrations, scans and photographs in the submitted Word document with proper captions and numbered titling. Tables and figures are numbered separately. Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to reprint images.

References and Endnotes. We accept either Harvard-style in-text parenthesis referencing with a reference list at the end of the paper or the documentary endnote citation system used by the humanities. Do not use footnotes; use only endnotes. Papers with improper and inconsistent referencing will be returned to authors. Authors will be asked to reformat their paper according to our style guide once their papers have been accepted for publication.

Biographical note. Please supply a short biographical note of not more than three sentences comprising the following information: (a) faculty, year of study and major; (b) involvement in other activities related to academic or university life; (c) the course of study from which the research paper originates. For example: “Clement Tan is a third-year student majoring in Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, NUS. He is also the founding editor of Campus Observer and enrolled in the University Scholars Programme. This article is a revised version of a paper he wrote for an Independent Study Module with Dr Daniel PS Goh on ‘Empire and Mass Media’”.