Submit to Inventio

Interested in publishing your work? Submit to Inventio!

Now Accepting Submissions.

Deadline for Submissions: May 15, 2025

Deadline for FYE Submissions: December 31, 2025

How to Submit Your Work

1. Please check the guidelines below to ensure that your essay meets our requirements for publication. You will need a 200 word abstract for your essay, as well as an editable, anonymous text file of the manuscript. Submissions are also required to use Chicago Style citations.

2. To submit work, please fill out the applicable submissions form (NOTE: FYE submissions and non-FYE submissions have different submissions forms, both of which are found below.):

For a FYE section submission, please fill out the FYE Inventio Submission form.
For all other submissions, fill out the Inventio submissions form.

Notes:

Authors may submit more than one essay for consideration, but only one essay can be published by an author in each issue, with the exception of the FYE section.
Authors are also invited to resubmit work that was considered for previous issues and has been revised.

Types of Research Accepted

Inventio accepts submissions of original research in theology, philosophy, the humanities, the fine arts, and the social sciences conducted and written by undergraduate students at The Catholic University of America. Papers should be written as part of a Catholic University course or supervised independent study. Authors should be current students or within two years of their graduation.

The papers should be written for a general, well-educated audience and may use technical language. The writing should show an attempt by the undergraduate researcher to tackle an intellectually challenging subject. The work should parallel academic rigor accepted in the professional research community.

Notes:

Due to the nature of our review process, we are currently unable to accept essays written for courses taken as part of study abroad programs.
Co-Authored essays will be considered.
Essays originally written in a foreign language will be considered in translation or accompanied by an English translation. If accompanied by an English translation, the word count limit applies only to the original essay and both versions should be submitted as a single manuscript.
Essays written for First Year Experience are considered for the Phi Beta Kappa First Year Experience Essay Prize and should be submitted by December 31, 2025.
English 101 Essay submissions should be limited to the research unit of the course.

Format

Manuscripts msut be in the form of an editable text file (.doc, .docx, or .rtf).
Manuscripts should not contain the author's name (the name and title will be identified on the Cover Letter form).
Manuscripts should include: original course the paper was written for, supervising instructor's name and email, title, abstract (of no more than 200 words), and endnotes.
Papers should not exceed 7500 words (not including notes).
Longer projects such as junior or senior theses are welcome as abridged versions.
Manuscripts must be formatted using the guidelines set out in the Chicago Manual of Style and the Inventio stylesheet. All citations should be formatted as endnotes.
Authors are responsible for securing permission to reproduce images in their work (if you are uncertain how to go about doing this, please consult your supervising faculty member or advisor) or selecting images that are in the public domain.

Deadlines

All non-FYE submissions for the Spring 2024 volume are due by May 15, 2025.

FYE submissions for the Spring 2025 volume are due by December 31st, 2025. (Note: FYE submissions do not require an abstract, but do require the text of the essay prompt/assignment.)

Contact Information

Please send questions/concerns to the Student Editorial Board or the Faculty Editors via Dr. Taryn Okuma (okuma@cua.edu).

If you are unfamiliar with the Chicago Manual of Style or would like some assistance in formatting your manuscript, The Writing Center is available to help:

Interested in contributing to Inventio?

Apply to the Student Editorial Board

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