Submissions

Login or Register to make a submission.

Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to submit manuscripts from any discipline, faculty or school, the only criterion being that research was conducted at LJMU. The LJMU ASPIRE Journal will not accept any manuscript for research conducted outside of LJMU.

Students need to complete, sign and upload a signed Supervisory Form as part of their submission to the Journal. Please read the full Author Guidelines before submitting your paper. 

All Authors must submit their manuscript in MS Word format using the ASPIRE Word Template. Failing to do so will delay the Reviewing process. 

The LJMU ASPIRE Journal is a yearly publication. Once articles have passed the peer review and copy-editing stages, they will be published online. Below is a list of the types of publications the LJMU ASPIRE Journal accepts:

  • Original Articles/Essays 
  • Review Articles 
  • Conference reviews 
  • Exhibition reviews and critiques 
  • Interviews 
  • Book reviews 

Manuscript Formats:

A) Original Research Articles/Essays

  • This category is for papers based on original research conducted at LJMU (master's and undergraduate), and can include dissertations, essays, reports and portfolios (or other works).
  • May include tables, figures, and other visual data representations.
  • Open to students from all faculties and designed to accommodate a wide range of research styles and formats.
  • Papers can be Descriptive/Narrative, Argumentative, Comparative or Experimental/Empirical.
  • This paper should at least include an introduction, a main body (divided into paragraphs with subheadings) and a conclusion.
  • Authors are encouraged to choose headings that best suit the nature of their research and could also, if appropriate, include headings such as Aim, Background, Methods, and Results. Authors are flexible to adapt the headings to their specific research field/topic/discipline.
  • Manuscript Length: 6000 words

b) Review Articles

  • Paper based on a review of literature based on a specific research question or topic.
  • Includes an introduction, aim, methods, results, discussion and conclusion sections.
  • Can include systematic scoping and general reviews
  • Include tables and figures
  • Manuscript Length: 4000-5000 words

C) Conference Reviews

  • The purpose is to provide a short review of the relevance to the conference's scope, and the quality of the research sessions and papers, by specifically reflecting how the conference contributes to knowledge within that specific field.
  • Review of a conference attended within the academic year as an LJMU student
  • Include figures/photographs
  • Manuscript Length: 2000 words

D) Exhibition reviews and critiques

  • The purpose is to focus on providing a critical analysis of the exhibition, covering aspects like its purpose, visitor experience (layout, design, accessibility, audience), relevance (contextualisation, scholarship, aim), and overall effectiveness, as well as exhibition dates and location.
  • Includes an introduction, description of exhibition, analysis and interpretations, critical evaluation, and conclusion sections.
  • Include figures/photographs
  • Manuscript Length: 2000 words

 E) Interviews

  • Can include interviews with academic staff or anyone else.
  • Includes an introduction, aim, interview questions and answers, short discussion section, and conclusion.
  • Ensure the interviewee has given informed consent for the interview
  • Manuscript Length: 1500 words

 F) Book Reviews

  • Book reviews of books published in the last 2 years.
  • Book reviews should consider: The intended audience for the book, the main ideas and major objectives of the book, scholarship and methods used in the book and the strength and weaknesses of the book within a particular field or body of literature.
  • Manuscript Length: 1000-1500 words

 

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • The submission is in an appropriate file format
  • The submission has not previously been published nor is under consideration with another journal.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is in correct format (as defined by author guidelines)
  • The text adheres to stylistic and bibliographic requirements (as defined by author guidelines)
  • Copyright clearance has been obtained for any 3rd Party content included in submission (this is a mandatory requirement)
  • The project supervisor has approved the submission, review and eventual publication of this paper.
  • If applicable, the paper is an essay that was previously submitted as part of assessed course work at LJMU.
  • The paper is not plagiarised or generated by AI.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for communicating with authors, reviewers and editors during the processing of submissions, notifying readers of new publications or announcements and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.