Submission Guidelines

We seek clear, ambitious arguments about the philosophical foundations of STEM. Foundations shares selected work as student preprints while protecting authors’ freedom to develop and submit it elsewhere.

Who may submit

Foundations welcomes high school and undergraduate contributors worldwide. Exceptional middle-school students are welcome, and gap-year contributors are fully eligible. Authors do not need to be currently enrolled when their work fits the journal’s intellectual standards.

Authorship and anonymity

Individual and co-authored submissions are welcome, including collaborations between students and teachers. Authors may choose to withhold their names publicly to help preserve anonymity for future double-blind review. Foundations will still keep author identity privately for correspondence and integrity checks. Authors should follow a target journal’s rules on posting, updating, or promoting preprints during review.

Preprint status

Work selected for Foundations is shared as a student preprint, not as a formally peer-reviewed publication or Version of Record. Authors should disclose any earlier public version or publication when submitting.

Length and form

We do not impose a single rigid word limit. A submission should be as long as its argument requires and as concise as clarity permits. For the present, the journal primarily considers substantive research essays; additional formats may be introduced in future issues.

Citation style

Authors may use any recognized scholarly citation style, provided it is applied accurately and consistently throughout the submission.

Submission periods

Foundations plans to curate four preprint issues annually and opens one submission period every three months. Dates and the developmental-review timeline for Issue 1 will be announced shortly.

Developmental review

Submissions normally receive open, developmental feedback from at least three readers drawn from students and teachers. Authors may be invited to revise before the editorial team makes a final selection for inclusion. This process is not formal journal peer review.

Copyright and display licence

Authors retain full copyright and do not transfer ownership to Foundations. With the author’s written consent, Foundations receives only a non-exclusive, revocable, non-transferable licence to display the submitted version. Foundations will not apply a Creative Commons licence, sublicense, sell, or adapt the manuscript without separate written permission. Authors may revise, withdraw, submit, or publish their work elsewhere at any time.

Future journal submissions

A small number of journals may not consider manuscripts previously shared online. Before submitting elsewhere, authors should check the target journal’s current Preprint Policy, including through Jisc Open Policy Finder, disclose the Foundations version when requested, and follow any double-blind-review restrictions on updating or promoting the preprint. The receiving journal’s own policy always governs its decision. See Jisc Open Policy Finder.

Updating the record

If a preprint is later formally published, authors are encouraged to send Foundations the final citation, link, or DOI so the preprint page can point readers to the Version of Record.

AI collaboration

AI-assisted scholarship is welcome. Authors remain responsible for their claims, citations, and final prose. An optional Collaboration Appendix may explain how AI assisted, challenged, extended, or redirected the inquiry.

Fees

Foundations charges no submission or display fee.

Questions & submissions

VivianCao201103@hotmail.com

Please include your name, manuscript title, and manuscript with your email. Further submission-period details will be posted here.