The Mental Note is the only of its kind – an undergraduate research journal dedicated to furthering Cognitive Science Research. We’re affiliated with the Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science, which houses many experts in the field. With this affiliation comes close support and talent from Rutgers’ Computer Science, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Psychology departments. Looking forward, we hope to encourage undergraduate researchers to take part in the interdisciplinary conversation, and appreciate the different viewpoints that Cognitive Science offers researchers of its various sub-disciplines.

First Call for Papers!
Mental Note is now accepting submissions for this year’s issue. Mental Note is an Academic Journal dedicated to Cognitive Science, aimed at publishing undergraduate research. We are looking for college-level research papers and theoretical works and commentaries pertaining to the Cognitive Sciences.

We expect all submitted papers to follow the guidelines described in the Author Guidelines.

Timeline: We are accepting papers now through July 31st, 2019. Reviewing will begin August 1st, 2019, with the expectation to officially publish our inaugural issue by November 15th, 2019.

Overview: Mental Note does not accept full-length papers. Instead, we are looking for shorter submissions that should be no shorter than 1500 words, or about 3 pages single spaced, and no longer than 5000 words, or about 10 pages single spaced.

Eligible Work: You need not be an undergraduate to submit your work; however, submissions should include original work that was mainly completed as an undergraduate student in Cognitive Science related fields, including philosophy, computer science, psychology, linguistics, neuroscience (and others). Research and papers done for classes, honors theses, and independent work are all welcome. We also accept commentaries. For original research, students must include a sponsoring statement from their faculty advisor to assure the quality of work and that all ethical considerations, if applicable, have been followed. If there are questions about the suitability of the work for this journal, please contact the editorial team.

Submission Type: There are three types of submissions, empirical, theoretical, and commentary papers. The first two should focus on the impact of your research. For empirical work, methods should not be overly detailed, and there should be more emphasis on setting up the problem and the implications of your findings. The what, why, how, and impact of this work should be clear. Similarly, theoretical work should include a clear overview of what you are researching and the impact of your conclusions. This is to ensure both brevity and readability for people of all expertise.

The third option is submitting a commentary paper. Commentaries are not your original research and are responses to others published work in Cognitive Science. The topic you choose to write about is something that you are knowledgeable in and your commentary should be an informed critique of the research.