The following is an agreement between the Berkeley Scientific Journal (the Journal) and the submitter (the Author), governing the work currently being submitted, including the primary contribution as well as any supporting materials such as an abstract, data sets, media files, figures, or tables created by the Author and any co-authors (the Submission).
The Journal is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to readers or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
1. As consideration for publication in the Journal, the Author grants the Journal the following rights:
1.1. A non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free right to publish, reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform and distribute the Work in perpetuity throughout the world in all means of expression by any method or media now known or hereafter developed; and
1.2. A non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free right to license others, including databases or printing vendors, to do any or all of the above on a non-exclusive basis.
2. The Author warrants that:
2.1. The Author is the author of the Submission, or is authorized to act on behalf of the author(s) and copyright holder (if different from the author(s)), and has the power to convey the rights granted in this agreement.
2.2. If the Submission has multiple authors, the other authors are identified in the Submission, and the Author will inform the other authors of the terms of this agreement.
2.3. Any textual, graphic or multimedia material included in the Submission that is the intellectual property or work of another is identified and cited in the Submission.
2.4. If the Submission reproduces any material that is the intellectual property of another, the Author has received permission to publish that material in the Submission, or the material is being incorporated based on an informed, reasonable, and good faith application of fair use. 2.5. The Submission is the original work of the Author(s). To the best of the Author’s knowledge, it does not contain matter that is obscene, libelous, or defamatory; it does not knowingly violate another’s right of privacy, right of publicity, or other legal right; does not contain false or misleading statements; and is otherwise not unlawful.
2.6. The Submission has not been previously published and is not pending review elsewhere.
2.7. If the Author is a student, the Author agrees to share their work and waive any privacy rights granted by FERPA or any other law, policy or regulation, with respect to the Submission, for the purpose of publication. If the Author has any student co-authors, the Author will obtain a signed copy of this agreement from those co-authors.
3. Author’s Rights and Obligations
3.1. Nothing in this agreement constitutes a transfer of the copyright by the Author. As such, the
Author retains all rights not expressly granted herein, including but not limited to, the right:
3.1.1. To reproduce and distribute the Submission, and to authorize others to reproduce and distribute the Submission, in any format;
3.1.2. To post the Submission in an institutional repository or the Author’s personal or departmental web page.
3.1.3. To include the Submission, in whole or in part, in another work.
3.2. If the Author distributes the Submission on another website or in another publication (as described above), the Journal will be cited as the source of first publication.
4. Rights for Readers
The Journal and the Author agree that the Submission will be distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), or other later version of the same license, that allows others to copy and redistribute the Submission, as long as they provide appropriate credit to the author(s) and do not use the Submission for commercial purposes. Anyone who uses or redistributes the Submission under this license must indicate any changes that were made, must link to the license, and cannot imply that the author(s) endorse them or their use. Anyone who translates, adapts, or builds upon the Submission may not distribute the modified material. More information about this license is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
5. Termination
The Author agrees to the terms of this agreement for the Submission being considered for publication. If the Submission is declined, this agreement is terminated.
Focus and Scope
Berkeley Scientific Journal (BSJ) is the premier undergraduate research journal of the University of California, Berkeley. Every semester, our undergraduate staff publishes independent research done by undergraduates at UC Berkeley, interviews with faculty members, and articles on current issues in science. The focus of the journal is broad, spanning scientific disciplines ranging from ecology to engineering, from astronomy to biochemistry.
Features, blogs, and interviews are written and published by BSJ staff only. Original research submissions, however, are open to any UC Berkeley undergraduates. This form is open for research submissions only.
Submission Checklist
Selections will be made at the discretion of our editorial staff. However, submissions must meet the following formatting guidelines in order to be considered. As a reminder, only UC Berkeley undergraduate submissions are accepted.
Formatting Guidelines
Formatting:
Times New Roman font, 12 point size
Double spaced, 8-14 pages, including figures and references
Initial submission: PDF file that includes the manuscript and all figures, tables, and graphs sent to research.bsj@gmail.com
If accepted: Manuscript text in .doc/.docx. Each figure must be a separate high-resolution image file (TIFF, JPEG). Tables/graphs can be included in the manuscript text file or as separate Microsoft Office or image files. Equations should be written using Microsoft Word’s equation function and saved as a “.tif”. Be sure to include correctly-numbered figure legends. (PDF format is NOT accepted for the final manuscript text, figures, or tables/graphs.)
Submissions that do not follow the above submission guidelines will be sent back to the author for reformatting.
Structure:
Your paper should use concise, clear language and should not contain any passive voice (with the exception of the Methods section) or first-person language. Your paper should be organized to best suit the research and field. The expectation is, however, that your writing follows this general structure:
Header
- Title of paper
- Name(s) of author(s)
- Research sponsor (PI)
- Major, year, department
Abstract
The Abstract is a paragraph summary of the research motivations, the experimental approach, the major results, and their implications. It should not contain any references. (250 words)
Introduction
In the Introduction, the author presents the problem they will address and provides background information on the significance and relevance of the topic to its field. This should include a clear statement of the hypothesis and address other relevant studies or articles by other researchers. The Introduction should be worded in a clear, concise manner that defines jargon and explains concepts for undergraduate science readers unfamiliar with the author’s field.
Results
The Results section details the experimental results in an organized, clear fashion without presenting any interpretations or analyses. The author should avoid including all raw data, but rather present the key results of the study. Results are substantiated by figures and tables, and subsection headings in bold font should be used to organize the section. If applicable, the statistical significance must be included.
Discussion
In the Discussion, the author restates the problem and provides interpretations based on the results, addressing their relation to the initial hypothesis. They should examine the significance of their results and the limitations of their study, explaining any potential sources of error. The author should relate their findings to a bigger picture by considering implications, applications, and future experiments. They should also avoid drawing overgeneralized conclusions.
Methods
The Methods of the study should be described thoroughly so that they can be repeated with accuracy by a competent researcher. The author may use passive voice in this section to clearly and concisely detail the methods and explain why certain methods were employed. No discussion of results or sources of error should be included in the Methods section. Subsection headings should be distinguished in bold font, with preferably one subsection per method used in the experiment. Any animal studies must state IACUC approval, and any human studies must state IRB approval. The author should include company sources for any uncommon reagents or equipment.
Figures (5-7 total)
Figures should be clearly formatted and include error bars if applicable. Each figure should contain a one-sentence title and a brief description (less than 250 words). The figure and legend should be understandable without reference to the text.
References
The author should include a minimum of 15 references in APA format. The reference list should be ordered based on the order of citations in the paper; that is, the first citation should point to reference 1, the second citation reference 2, etc. Any references within the paper should be listed in superscript.
You may find the following example references helpful for periodicals, website, book, and image references:
- Ryan, S.-L., Baird, A.-M., Vaz, G., Urquhart, A. J., Senge, M., Richard, D. J., . . . Davies, A. M. (2016). Drug discovery approaches utilizing three-dimensional cell culture. ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies, 14(1), 19-28. doi:10.1089/adt.2015.670
- Kelava, I., & Lancaster, M. A. (2016). Dishing out mini-brains: Current progress and future prospects in brain organoid research. Developmental Biology, 420(2), 199-209. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2016.06.037
- Niels Bohr Institute. (2016, February 9). The universe’s primordial soup flowing at CERN. Retrieved from https://phys.org/news/2016-02-universe-primordial-soup-cern.html
- Pasachoff, J. M., & Filippenko, A. (2013). The cosmos: Astronomy in the new millennium (4th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Cambridge University Press.
- Goldberg, E. (2013). Nitrogen dioxide at different temperatures. [Digital photograph]. Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nitrogen_dioxide_at_different_temperatures.jpg
Acknowledgements
The Acknowledgements section should be used to credit others who have made the research possible, such as the PI, research assistants, or grants.
Licences
The following licences are allowed:
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Publication Cycle
This journal published once per semester. Submissions open at the beginning of each semester, and close towards the end of each semester.