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Policies

Contents

Purpose of Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The purpose of Themis is to:

1) Inspire academic research and original writing in justice fields;

2) Instill respect for authorship and the writing process;

3) Promote scholarly excellence and professionalism;

4) Develop editorial and critical evaluation skills;

5) Provide students a means for publication and recognition of scholarship, and a source of pride in their department;

6) Provide students with the experience of peer review: evaluating and critiquing papers for style, clarity, content and accuracy; and line-editing papers for publication.

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Who Can Submit?

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science publishes original research papers and book review submissions from undergraduate and graduate students at San Jose State University. Students from any major may submit.

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General Submission Rules

Papers must be topically related to justice, injustice, human rights, criminal justice, criminology, law, law enforcement, philosophy of law, philosophy of the courtroom, neuroscience, or any of the forensic sciences. Selection for publication is competitive. Students may not submit more than two papers per volume.

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Formatting Requirements

Papers must be submitted in Word (.doc or .docx). Paper length is limited to 30 pages, including references. Social science papers must be in APA format. Science papers must be in format used by Journal of Forensic Sciences. Email submissions to themis-journal@sjsu.edu Submission deadline: January 31.

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Rights for Authors and SJSU ScholarWorks

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to SJSU ScholarWorks all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal--use exceptions described below.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of SJSU ScholarWorks, requires credit to SJSU ScholarWorks as copyright holder (e.g., SJSU ScholarWorks © 2023).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from SJSU ScholarWorks provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial;
  • Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g., a Phrenology professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Phrenology online publication series); and
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author.

People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

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General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the SJSU ScholarWorks website and/or software agree not to misuse the SJSU ScholarWorks service or software in any way.

The failure of SJSU ScholarWorks to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between SJSU ScholarWorks and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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