Q. May I submit an essay written as a class assignment?

A. Yes. You are strongly encouraged to develop an essay you have written for school.

Q. Who is eligible to submit essays to The Schola?

A. You must be in high school while writing the essay. For example, if you submit an essay in May of your senior year, your essay, if selected, might be published in the June, September, or December issue, possibly after you have gone to university.

Q. May I submit more than one essay?

A. Yes. Each submission requires a non-refundable fee of $180.

Q. What are relevant disciplines?

A. The Schola accepts essays written on topics in philosophy, history, art history, literature, politics, public policy, and sociology. However, many important academic inquiries often involve multiple fields of study across traditional academic disciplines. Essay topics and questions must be academic, answerable, and specific to be examined in a 5,000-word essay.

Examples of interdisciplinary topics

• ‘A work of art cannot be obscene, because anything that has a tendency to deprave or corrupt its audience thereby undermines its claims to be a work of art.’ Discuss.
• “…we will always learn more about human life and human personality from novels than from scientific psychology.” (Noam Chomsky) To what extent would you agree?

Examples of inappropriate topics

• What is justice? This question is too broad to be adequately examined within the length guideline.
• Can Ayurveda and allopathy work together? This topic would be suitable for a publication in health and medicine but not for a humanities and social sciences journal for high school students.
• How political relationships and economic motivations shaped the experiences of foreign-born NBA players? This topic would be appropriate for journalistic writing but not for academic writing. It has little relevance to scholarship in the humanities and social sciences or demand rigorous academic research.

Q. What is the review process?

A. We receive many more manuscripts than we can publish. To be published in The Schola, an essay should meet several general criteria:

• The analysis is rigorous and the argument is logical.
• The essay is well-researched, using a variety of sources.
• The topic and/or findings are academically interesting.
• The work deserves the visibility of publication in The Schola rather than other journals.

All submitted manuscripts are read by the editorial staff. To save authors and reviewers time, those not meeting the manuscript requirements, including violations of academic integrity and authorship ethics, are rejected promptly. Then a decision is made from among three possibilities:

• Accept, with or without revisions;
• Invite the author to revise and resubmit the manuscript before a final decision is reached; the invitation is made once and does not automatically lead to acceptance;
• Reject, typically on grounds of insufficient conceptual understanding or major analytical problems, lack of originality, insufficient general interest, or otherwise inappropriate.

Q. May I resubmit my essay?

A. No. Once the submission process is complete, your submission is locked and you are NOT allowed to make changes to it. You may revise and resubmit your essay, only if you have been invited to do so.

Q. Who reviews the essays?

A. Editors at The Schola are academics teaching and researching in the humanities and social sciences.

Q. May I submit an essay longer than 5,000 words?

A. Ten percent over the 5,000-word limit is acceptable (5,500 words). We advise that you are absolutely clear in what you aim to achieve within the length guideline. Write succinctly. This is the most important rule for any academic writer, especially when preparing a journal article. The last thing you want to do is write a longer paper because it won’t help it get published.

Q. I don’t have a PayPal account. What should I do?

A. Please contact us for alternative payment methods.

Q. Is there a deadline for submitting my work?

A. We accept essays year-round. Our best advice is to submit the manuscript as early as possible.

Q. How long does it take - to review, to get my essay published, to be notified of the decision, etc.?

A. The editorial decision on a manuscript is made within 2-3 weeks of submission. The author of a selected manuscript will be notified in that time frame. If you don’t hear from us, it’s safe to assume that your essay was not successful. Accepted manuscripts will be published in one of the forthcoming issues. For example, an essay submitted in August, if selected, will be published in the December, March, or June issue. If not selected, it will be permanently removed from further consideration. We are unable to offer a specific timeline for submission and publication as the representation of disciplines and revision timelines are some of the many factors considered in the publication of each issue.