Author Guidelines
The submission portal for Stimulus Volume III will be open soon. Although submissions are open to the public, preference will be given to UTA students, faculty, alumni, and other UTA affiliates. Check back in a few weeks to submit your piece!
Please read all of the following information prior to submitting your work. For detailed instructions on how to submit to the journal, please see the Announcements page.
General Submission Criteria:
The content in this section applies to all creators and submissions. Please read over the guidelines carefully before continuing.
- Academic Dishonesty: Content may be submitted on behalf of yourself or on behalf of a group of people, but each submission must be created only by the person or people that it is credited to, and every creator must be listed. The submission must not be plagiarized or be entirely from another source. Any outside source that is included within the work must be properly cited and given full credit, and must not make up more than half of the submission. Please see the University’s academic dishonesty policy for further guidance.
- Citing Sources: If you need to cite any sources in your submission, the most recent form of APA format is preferred. If you choose a different format, please clearly state as such in your submission.
- Appropriate Content: Please keep the nature of the content in submissions appropriate for a professional audience. Although strong language or mature themes may still be considered for publications, please keep in mind that your submission, if chosen, will be tied to your name and published within the journal that is open to be viewed by the public.
- Submission Limit: There is no limit on the number of pieces you may submit in a given year. You will need to submit each piece separately.
- Resubmissions and Publisher Limit: Submissions that have not already been published in the journal can be resubmitted for consideration to be in the next issue of the Stimulus Journal. There is no limit on how many years a piece can be submitted, nor is there a limit of how many years a creator can be published within the journal.
Types of Creators
Please read the descriptions below to learn more about the crediting process for each type of submission. The type of creators present in each submission is up to the discretion of those involved in the project.
Individual Creator
- You are the only one who created and performed (if applicable) the final submission and are therefore the only name to be credited.
Creative Director
- The person who submits is the only person who helped design, write, or create the content, but there are other members of the group who were needed for the final product.
- Additional members of this group will have only contributed to the final product in their appearance or mention in the work and should be credited in the appropriate section of this form.
Creative Collaborators
- Multiple people help to design, write, or create the submission, and everyone in the group contributed to the final product. In this case, each person’s name should be listed as a creator in the appropriate section of this form.
Detailed Submission Criteria:
The content in this section outlines the criteria for each type of submission. Please read the category that best explains your art form to ensure that you are complying with all of the criteria listed. If, after reading through each category, you feel that there is not a category that encompasses your submission, please contact stimulus.mhj@uta.edu with a description of your submission.
Visual Arts
Submission File Type: JPEG, JPG, GIF, PNG, and TIFF
Image Size: minimum of 300 DPI
File Size Limit: 10 MB
- Photography
- Each submission should include one photograph (or a series/collage of photographs) and the title of that photograph or collage. Photographs that are a part of a series are limited to 3 full pages (including the optional description, which should be allowed one half of a page). A collage of photographs must only take up 1 full page, and must adhere to the file size limit.
- Optional: Brief description of photograph concept and ideas
- Optional: Submit your creation to be featured as the cover art for this year’s journal edition by indicating this in the submission portal!
- Description Word Limit: 250
- Physical Art Medium (painting, drawing, sculptures, digital arts, comic or graphic medicine, other creations)
- Physical art that is a part of a series or has an attached written component are limited to 3 full pages (including the optional description, which should be allowed one half of a page).
- Each submission should include one piece of art with the title of the work.
- Optional: Brief description of the art concept and ideas
- Optional: Submit your creation to be featured as the cover art for this year’s journal edition by indicating this in the submission portal!
- Description Word Limit: 250
Prose
Submission File Type: Word Document (.docx) and Google Docs (.docx)
- Short Stories
- Short stories include fictional works, personal stories or experiences, or the stories and experiences of others (with permission from the subject).
- Word Limit: 4,000 or 4 Pages
- Poems
- Essays
- Essays include a summary of personal research or meta-analysis of the research of others, academic findings, book or movie reviews and/or recommendations, or literature, film, or song analysis.
- Provide citations and appropriate external links.
- If the essay is a summary of personal research, a link to said research will be included in the publication.
- No more than 50% of the submission should be another person’s work: the primary focus of the essay should be the author’s own thoughts, commentary, and findings.
- Word Limit: 4,000 or 4 Pages
Student and Professional Life Section
Submission File Type: Word Document (.docx) and Google Docs (.docx)
- Student to Student
- Submissions include personal thoughts relating to student life, academic or personal advice to other students (can be addressed towards certain majors or groups), or student reflections or experiences.
- Word Limit: 2,000 or 2 Pages
- A Day in the Life A …
- … Patient, physician, other medical personnel, family member, third-person, etc.
- Submissions include the activities included in a professional’s day-to-day life, advice to students who aspire to enter a certain profession from a current member of that profession, or the experience of a person who fits into a certain societal role or unique life experience.
- Word Limit: 4,000 or 4 Pages
Media
- Videos/Short Films
- Submissions include original dance and choreography, live-action or animated short films, music videos for original pieces, artistic processes for other art forms, etc.
- Creative video projects may be fiction or nonfiction.
- Optional: Include a still image of your video or some other aspect of your work to be featured in the PDF version of the journal alongside the link to your submission.
- If actors or additional members participate in the film, they must be credited in full.
- Submission file type: .MP4, .MOV, or .WMV.
- File Size Limit: 10 MB
- If your file is larger than this, please contact mhj@uta.edu with an attached copy of your submission for review.
- Audio
- Submissions include original music, slam poetry, spoken narratives, or other audio creations.
- All musicians, voices, or other contributors to the final product should be credited in full.
- Optional: Include a still image related to your submission (such as sheet music or lyrics) to be featured in the PDF version of the journal alongside the link to your submission.
- Submission file type: .MP3, .MP4, .WAV, or .M4A.
- File Size Limit: 10 MB
- If your file is larger than this, please contact mhj@uta.edu with an attached copy of your submission for review.
Activities
Submission File Type: Image file (JPEG, JPG, GIF, PNG, and TIFF) or Text file (.DOCX)
- Brain-teasers
- Submissions include puzzles, trivia, mazes, or other short, interactive activities.
- Page Limit: 1
Student Wellness
- Submissions include tips for staying physically or mentally healthy, including exercise, meditation, de-stressing activities, etc.
Combined Content
This section is for any creators who wish for their content to be viewed alongside another creation (such as a poem that goes along with a photograph). Please read over the following criteria if you wish to submit combined content.
- Combined content is defined as two separate creations from two different categories above that are created to be viewed together as one. This content can come from a single creator or multiple creators but should be submitted as one file with the appropriate names credited.
- Each individual piece of content must confine to the criteria listed above that is applicable to it. When combined into one file, the submission must still fit within the file size limit of 10 MB. If your combined file exceeds this limit, please send a copy of your submission to mhj@uta.edu for consideration.
Creator Biographies
Creator biographies should give a brief (around 1 paragraph or 200 words) background on the creator and should detail the meaning behind their work. This is a unique opportunity for our audience to see behind the curtain into the meaning and inspiration for your piece!
Biographies should be written in the first person. Although this should be a professional portrayal of you as the artist, feel free to let your personality and passion shine through!
Biographies may include, but are not limited to the following suggestions:
- Who you are: your position relative to UTA and any other details you wish to share about your past, present, and future!
- What your work means to you
- The method you use for your art-form and the reason for choosing a particular medium
- The inspiration behind the piece
For Creative Collaborations, each member of the group has the option of submitting their own biography (please submit all remaining biographies and creator photos that are not submitted to the submission portal with the correct names to our email, stimulus.mhj@uta.edu). For creative directors and creative collaborators who wish to submit one biography should be submitted on behalf of the group, please incorporate the names of every person within the group.
We will also ask each creator to submit a photo to go alongside their biography. This image should be as professional as possible. If you are uncomfortable with submitting an image, please submit a placeholder instead and email us (stimulus.mhj@uta.edu) so that we can figure out another option for you!
