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Policies

Contents

Policy Statement

We at Writing Waves want to emphasize academic and ethical integrity in finding and presenting the work of the CSUMB student body. We will not accept any submissions that demonstrate plagiarism, artificial intelligence, or any concerning material that violates CSUMB policies. We reserve the right to reject any works that illustrate such.

The following policies emphasize what will and will not be accepted by the Writing Waves team. General rules and guidelines regarding all aspects of work done with the Writing Waves team are as follows.

General Submission Rules

  • Submissions will be submitted at writingwaves@csumb.edu.
  • Submissions will not be accepted after March 25th
  • Multiple submissions will not be accepted, one submission, per student, per edition of the Writing Waves.
  • We welcome the submission of any genre of writing, photography, artistic expression, and audio/visual works.
  • We are not able to accept submissions that have been published elsewhere.
  • Editors will begin to contact submitters via their school emails during the spring semester.
  • All submissions are subject to revision, submitters must be willing to work with editors to revise and edit their piece. Please expect to submit at least two revised edits of your work.
  • The editorial team encourages submissions from diverse backgrounds, including languages and vernaculars outside of Standard American English.
  • The editorial team will make revisions and editing suggestions that are relevant to the language or vernacular the submission is written in. Submissions will receive final approval from submitters before publication.

Guidelines for Working with Writing Waves

Our editors at the Writing Waves will make suggestions for improvements, regarding formatting, style , spelling, grammar, and continuity. We reserve the right to reject a work if submitters are not able to maintain continued cooperation with our editorial staff. Please respond to communication verifying interest from editorial staff within three to five academic days. Edits and revisions should be completed and sent to the editorial team within an academic week of receiving a proposal from editorial staff. Finalized submissions must be completed by the end of week 13 (April 17th)
  • Communication from authors verifying interest in publishing must be received within three to five academic days upon initial email.
  • The Writing Waves team will give one academic week to receive responses to proposed edits (exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis with proper notice).
  • Finalized edits must be completed by the end of week 11 (April 13th).

Formatting Requirements

Writing Waves requires the following as format requirements:

    All written submissions must be submitted as a sharable PDF. Please submit multimedia submissions using a MP4, PNG, or JPEG file. Written submissions (creative and research writing) should follow consistent style and formatting (Chicago, MLA, APA, ect.) All sources must be cited properly and within the author's chosen format. ( ie. In-text citations or a citation page. )
  • Written works must be submitted with a shareable Google Docs link Digital art, video, and other forms of media must be a PDF or JPEG

    • It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) has no guarantees that PDF documents will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.

    It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.

    Rights for Authors and Digital Commons @ CSUMB

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

    For Students Interested in Becoming Involved with Writing Waves

    Interested in becoming an author for Writing Waves? While submissions are accepted year-round, the majority of submissions used for Writing Waves will come from submissions submitted during the Fall semester to be used the following semester.

    Interested in becoming apart of the Writing Waves editorial team? While submissions are accepted year-round, the class needed to be apart of the Writing Waves team is not. It is a course offered to upper-division students during the Spring semester.

    For more information on either topic or any general Digital Commons @ CSUMB questions please send them to Cody Jay Roberts (M.A) at codroberts@csumb.edu. We look forward to hearing from you.

    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 Digital Commons @ CSUMB, requires credit to Digital Commons @ CSUMB as copyright holder (e.g., Digital Commons @ CSUMB © 2026).

    Personal-use Exceptions

    The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from Digital Commons @ CSUMB 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 (flash drives, back-up disk, 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.
    • 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.

    General Terms and Conditions of Use

    Users of the Digital Commons @ CSUMB website and/or software agree not to misuse the Digital Commons @ CSUMB service or software in any way.

    The failure of Digital Commons @ CSUMB 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 Digital Commons @ CSUMB and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.


    AI (Artificial Intelligence) Policy

    We at Writing Waves reserve the right to refuse publishing works that demonstrate the use of generative AI beyond basic grammar support and/or spell-checking. Prior to being sent to the editorial team, all submissions will have been passed through AI detection software as a preventative measure. While the use of AI as a tool to assist the creator is acceptable, AI that generates content rather than transcribing or editing content will not be accepted.