The Emperor is YSU's Honors academic journal, a student-led, peer- and faculty-reviewed, open-access journal. The Sokolov Honors College is committed to publishing exemplary work by YSU undergraduate students through this journal.

By giving students a public forum for sharing their intellectual pursuits, The Emperor promotes increased student engagement in research and creative scholarship, while also fostering a community of emerging scholars.

Call for Submissions

The Emperor is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes in spring semesters. We are accepting submissions of academic work from Honors and Honors-eligible students who have 12 or more completed credit hours and a cumulative GPA of 3.4 or higher. 

Submit your class project, senior thesis/capstone, creative work or other research to be reviewed for acceptance into the second volume of The Emperor. Along with individual submissions, groups and students working with supervising faculty are also eligible to submit. 

We accept submissions in each of the following categories:

  • Business
  • Creative Arts and Communication
  • Education
  • Health and Human Services
  • Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
  • Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Submit Your Work

Call for Editorial Board Positions

We are now accepting applications for editorial board positions. We would like students from each of the six academic colleges at YSU and from a range of disciplines. For Honors students who have intentions of attending graduate school, this experience provides a unique experience into the process of publishing an academic journal.

The following positions are needed:

  • Assistant Editors
  • Student Reviewers
  • Copy Editors and Proofreaders
  • Graphic Designer

Apply for a Position

Instructions and Formatting Requirements

  • All text submissions should be submitted as an editable document (such as a Microsoft Word document), not a PDF.
  • No personal or identifying information should appear outside of the cover page.
  • Essays, papers and thesis submissions must include proper citation format (e.g., MLA 7th ed., APA  6th ed., or Chicago 16th ed.), in the form of a bibliography, reference or works cited page, footnotes, and in-texts citations; authors should ask a faculty member which style guide is appropriate. On the submission form, authors should indicate which citation format they have used.
  • All paper submissions should be no longer than 8,000 words.
  • All graphs, charts or images should be included at the end of the Microsoft Word document; within the document, authors should indicate where each figure or table should appear.
    • Please note that while the online edition of this journal is published in color, print versions are in black and white. Consider how your graph will show up in grayscale for best results in printed copies.
  • Research articles should be submitted with an abstract of 250 words or fewer.
  • Authors must complete a separate submission form for each submitted work. We encourage you to submit a variety of work.
  • Authors must only submit their work, and all authors whose names appear on a submission should have participated actively in the research, writing, revising and editing of the document.

Art and Open Media Submission Requirements

  • Please submit all art images as .jpeg files.
  • Submissions must be high-resolution (at least 300 DPI).
  • Please submit supplemental information including: Title, media type and dimensions in inches of the artwork and an Artist's Statement.
  • If applicable when submitting, attach a file of the script, short synopsis or sheet music, and be sure to remove all personal information before sending. If you are unable to submit a file with the work using the submission form, you may drop off a physical copy (DVD, CD or USB drive) to the Honors office, located in Cafaro House on campus. If you do submit a physical copy, you must still fill out the submission form and indicate on it that a physical copy of the work will be delivered prior to the submission deadline.
  • All physical copies of media must be free of personal information. In the case of DVDs, CDs or USB drives, please include a cover letter with your personal information. Include your submission title somewhere on the DVD, CD or USB drive.

Cover Page Formatting

All submissions should include a cover page that contains:

  • Title of submission.

  • Names of all authors; since student(s) are the primary author(s), they should be listed first; faculty should be listed last.
  • Affiliations of all authors, including department or college, university and university location; this affiliate information should be correlated with authors’ names using superscripts.
  • Contact information (email, phone number and mailing address) for the student author(s).

Plagiarism Policy

Students must submit original work to The Emperor. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable. If plagiarism is detected in a submitted work, the editorial staff will work with the author to explain the nature of the offense and determine whether the author can revise and resubmit the work for further consideration.

Authors accepted for publication grant the journal one-time electronic serial publishing rights. Authors retain all copyright of their work.

How Submissions Are Selected

Submissions are reviewed anonymously by a student- and faculty-review board, using a blind review process. Submissions are evaluated with respect to originality, academic and practical relevance, thoroughness, accuracy, consistency, credibility and referencing. 

If a work is accepted for publication, the author will develop a brief author biography and provide a headshot to be published alongside the submission. Publication of selected papers is conditional and contingent upon copyediting.

Please give The Emperor until the end of the semester in which you submitted before inquiring about the status of your work. You can expect the entire review process to take one year.