Great Plains Research Author Guidelines

Content

(Last Updated: October 10, 2026)

Great Plains Research (GPR) publishes original, peer-reviewed scholarship that brings multiple knowledge systems together to illuminate the peoples, cultures, ecologies, and economies of the Great Plains. Authors shape the substance of the journal, and these guidelines are here to support you from abstract to publication. 

How GPR Publishes

GPR publishes one themed issue each year, connected to the annual conference of the Center for Great Plains Studies. Each cycle opens with a call for abstracts, and authors whose abstracts are selected are invited to submit a full manuscript. Because each manuscript grows from that exchange, full manuscripts are by invitation only, following an accepted abstract. GPR does not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Each year’s theme, call for abstracts, and dates are announced on the journal webpage and by email. Invited authors receive the template, submission link, and deadlines directly.

Every manuscript receives double-anonymous peer review from at least two reviewers. That review emphasizes fairness, inclusivity, and constructive feedback that strengthens the work. Authors receive one of four decisions:

  • Accept 
  • Accept with minor revisions
  • Revisions required
  • Reject

Manuscripts accepted with minor revisions do not return to peer review; the Editor verifies that the specified changes have been made. Manuscripts returned for revision undergo a second round of peer review, and GPR may add reviewers at that stage where subject-matter expertise warrants. A rejection is final and most often reflects a manuscript’s fit with GPR’s mission and scope rather than a judgment of its quality; desk rejections include a brief explanation.

The Statement of Publishing Ethics describes the full process, including appeals.

Submissions from the Editor or a member of the editorial team are handled independently by a guest editor with no stake in the outcome, and the handling editor is disclosed with the published article.

GPR does not charge submission, publication, or page fees, so that high-quality scholarship remains accessible to all contributors. 

Submission Categories

We welcome scholarship across three submission categories. You select one with your abstract, and it shapes how your manuscript is prepared and read. All three receive the same peer review and are held to the same standards of integrity, attribution, and accountability to the communities involved.

Primary Research

Primary Research reports original empirical work: field, experimental, survey, modeling, archival, ethnographic, or mixed. Describe your methods clearly enough for readers to evaluate them and, where the work allows, reproduce them.

Integrative Synthesis

Integrative Synthesis connects literatures, disciplines, or knowledge systems to offer an understanding that no single source provides on its own. Describe how you gathered and selected the work you draw on, so readers can judge its reach.

Creative Scholarship

Creative Scholarship includes essay, narrative, visual, or expressive work whose contribution is carried by its form as well as its content.

  • Open with a framing statement of about 300 words that names the work’s contribution and how its form carries it. Reviewers engage the work on those terms. The statement counts toward the word limit.
  • Formatting requirements apply to the framing statement and the scholarly apparatus (citations, references, and line numbers). Line breaks or layout that carry meaning remain as you set them.
  • Visual material follows the same permissions, consent, and alt-text expectations as any figure.
  • If a requirement would compromise the work, please note this in the Cover Document and we will find a path forward together.

What to Submit

Each submission includes two Microsoft Word (.docx) files, uploaded separately: a Cover Document for the editorial team and an anonymized manuscript for peer review. A template accompanies your invitation.

Cover Document

The Cover Document is not shared with reviewers. It includes:

  • Title, up to 10 words.
  • Authors and affiliations, with an asterisk marking the corresponding author. The corresponding author communicates with the journal on behalf of all authors and confirms that each has approved the submission.
  • Abstract, up to 200 words.
  • Plain-language summary of about 150–200 words, published alongside the abstract so the work reaches community and public readers.
  • Keywords, five to eight.
  • Funding statement, or a note that the work received no specific funding.
  • Acknowledgments, or “N/A.”
  • Author biographies, up to 50 words each.
  • Conflict of interest disclosure: any personal or professional relationship that could reasonably be seen as affecting the work, or “None.” Funding belongs in the funding statement.
  • Prior circulation: where and when any part of the work appeared as a preprint, presentation, thesis, or dissertation, or “None.” Such circulation is welcome and is not considered prior publication. Work submitted to GPR must be original and not under consideration elsewhere.
  • Contributor roles (encouraged). The CRediT taxonomy offers a helpful guide. Where community members or knowledge holders contributed, describe their roles in the terms they prefer.
  • ORCID iDs (encouraged).
  • Statement on the Use of Generative AI (required; see below).

Manuscript

  • Up to 5,000 words for all three categories, counted from the first section through the conclusion. Tables, references, captions, alt text, and the data availability statement are not counted. For Creative Scholarship, the framing statement is counted. Please report your word count in the Cover Document.
  • To support double-anonymous review, remove names, affiliations, and other identifying information from the text, figures, tables, and file properties. Refer to your own prior work in the third person. If naming your community, Nation, partner, or repository would identify you, use a placeholder such as [Nation] in the review manuscript and give the name in the Cover Document.
  • Use 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, clear section headings, and continuous line numbering.
  • Follow the most recent edition of Chicago style for references. Informational footnotes are not accepted.
  • Cite Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers with a full reference entry, with their permission, naming the person as they prefer, their Nation or community, and the teaching shared, rather than only as a personal communication.
  • Include a brief data availability statement (see below).

Figures, Maps, and Tables

  • For peer review, embed figures, tables, captions, and alt text in the manuscript where they belong, so reviewers can engage the work as a single document. Screen-resolution images are sufficient at this stage.
  • For the final manuscript, submit figures separately as high-resolution files, along with a captions document and an alt text document, as described in the University of Nebraska Press guidance at the end of these guidelines.
  • Number figures in order, caption each one, and credit the original source of any reprinted material.
  • Maps should include a north arrow, a scale bar in kilometers, and every location named in the text. Use SI metric units throughout.
  • Build tables with Word’s table feature. The template includes sizing details.

Every figure and map needs alt text of up to 125 characters that describes its content and function without interpreting it. Graphs, charts, and diagrams also need a long description for the ebook edition. Before including one, consider whether the information would reach more readers as text or as an accessible table. The University of Nebraska Press’s alt-text guidance, with examples, appears at the end of these guidelines.

Authorship and Credit

Authorship reflects meaningful contribution: shaping the work, helping write or revise it, approving the final version, and sharing accountability for it. Community partners and knowledge holders who contributed in these ways belong on the author list when they wish to be. All other contributors should be recognized in the acknowledgments, named as they prefer. The Statement of Publishing Ethics addresses changes to authorship after submission. Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors are made in writing to the Editor, with the written agreement of every listed author, including any author being removed.

Data Availability

Your data availability statement should say where the data underlying your findings reside and how others may access them, or explain why access is limited. Please name a repository, archive, or specific access route. “Available on request” alone is not sufficient.

Where data are held under an Indigenous nation’s protocols or a community partnership agreement, those terms determine what is shared, with whom, and how. A statement to that effect fully meets GPR’s expectations. We regard community data governance as an ethical commitment, never a shortcoming.

Generative AI

GPR welcomes the responsible, disclosed use of generative AI with meaningful human oversight. Disclosure alone is never a basis for declining a manuscript. AI tools do not meet the criteria for authorship. Where an AI method is integral to the research itself, as an instrument of data collection, analysis, or modeling, describe it in the Methods in enough detail to be reproduced. The Statement of Publishing Ethics sets out the full policy, and three commitments matter most as you prepare your work:

  • Protect what is entrusted to you. Use only tools that do not train on or publicly share user inputs when working with unpublished material or research data. Indigenous and traditional knowledge, oral histories, community-sourced data, and culturally restricted materials should never be entered into any public or commercial AI tool.
  • Preserve your process. Retain drafts, data, and working notes until at least one year after publication, in case the editorial team needs to understand how the work came together.
  • Honor the regional record. Photographs, maps, and images should not be altered in ways that could misrepresent the Great Plains, however fully the alteration is disclosed.

Your Disclosure Statement

During review, your Statement on the Use of Generative AI is seen only by the editorial team. Upon acceptance, it is published with the article and becomes part of the scholarly record. Please select the version that best describes your work:

  • No substantive use. Routine assistance with spelling, grammar, punctuation, reference formatting, or translation for your own comprehension does not require disclosure.
  • Use for text or data. Name the tool and version and the task. Affirm that you reviewed and edited the output and take full responsibility for the final work.
  • Use for figures. Name the tool and the figures, explain why a generative tool was appropriate, and affirm the accuracy of the underlying data.
  • Translation for submission. Name the tool and version and the language in which you wrote, and affirm that you reviewed the translation. We welcome translation so that authors can write in the language that best serves their work, and we ask only that it be disclosed.

What a Clear Disclosure Looks Like

“The authors used [Tool, Version] to synthesize published literature on grassland restoration outcomes and to refine the clarity of the Discussion. All syntheses were verified against the original sources, and the authors take full responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the final text.”

For a figure, add why the tool was appropriate: “A generative tool was appropriate because the figure illustrates a conceptual framework rather than empirical data. The authors affirm the accuracy of the relationships depicted.”

By contrast, “AI tools were used in preparing this manuscript” does not meet the standard, because it identifies no tool, version, or task.

Ethical Approvals and Permissions

At submission, you confirm that the required approvals are in place:

  • IRB or IACUC approval or exemption for research involving human participants or animals.
  • Approval from the relevant Tribal nations or other Indigenous or marginalized community authorities for scholarship engaging their people, knowledge, or lands, consistent with their protocols.

You are also responsible for securing:

  • Written permission to reproduce third-party copyrighted material, including figures, maps, tables, and extended quotations.
  • Consent from individuals identifiable in photographs or other materials.
  • Community permission to publish place-based, traditional, or community knowledge.

Documentation of these approvals, including free, prior, and informed consent where the work draws on Indigenous knowledge, is requested upon acceptance.

Writing for the Great Plains

GPR connects scholars, practitioners, and community partners, and we ask authors to write for all of them. Keep technical language to what the argument requires, and provide context where it is needed.

Use the names and terms communities use for themselves, their places, and their histories. Inclusive-language resources can be helpful, but community preference comes first. Follow community preferences for Indigenous-language words, personal and place names, and capitalization (for example, Elder or Knowledge Keeper).

Scholarship with communities should be grounded in reciprocity: shaped with the communities involved, crediting their contributions, and returning meaningful benefit to them.

Copyright

Copyright for content published in GPR is held by the Center for Great Plains Studies, and the University of Nebraska Press manages the associated rights. Questions about reprinting, reuse, or licensing should be directed to the Press.

Connect with Us

For inquiries, please contact us at gpr@unl.edu. If you discover an error after submission or publication, please let us know as soon as possible. Corrections are handled as described in the Statement of Publishing Ethics.

Appendix

Alternative Text Guidance from the University of Nebraska Press

The following guidance is provided by the University of Nebraska Press, GPR’s publisher, and is reproduced here with minimal changes for authors’ convenience. It applies to the final manuscript, when figures, captions, and alt text are submitted as separate files. For the peer-review submission, please embed them in the manuscript as described above. 

Alternative Text (Alt Text)

Alternative text (alt text) is used to visually describe a figure for a low-vision reader. Visually impaired users use screen readers to read alt text so that they can understand an image. Without alt text, these readers will be unable to receive the same information as readers without visual impairments.

Alt text should present the content and function of the image and should be concise and without unnecessary details. In most cases, a short phrase, or at most a sentence or two, is enough to describe the content and function of a graphic. Please limit each alt text description to 125 characters (including spaces). Describe only the most important elements of the image, but do not interpret or analyze it. Alt text should not replace an image caption. Do not repeat information already available in the book text or the caption. It is unnecessary to include descriptors like “Image of…” or “Photograph of…”

When you submit your manuscript, include a separate Microsoft Word document labeled “alt text” with alt text for all images and maps in addition to the captions document.

For graphs, charts, and diagrams, along with alt text, we will also need to include a long description in the ebook, which is distinct from and significantly more detailed than alt text.

To be useful, alt text:

  • Uses a consistent method of description throughout a publication.
  • Accurately describes the content of the image.
  • Is succinct. All descriptions are partial but should not omit key information.
  • Is context sensitive.
  • Does not refer to the fact that it is describing an image (e.g., do not use “image of …”). The screen reader will communicate to users that you are referring to an image.
  • Cannot contain HTML/XML control characters (<, >, &, ", ').

Graphs, Charts, and Diagrams

Before considering a graph, chart, or diagram, determine whether the information can be presented in the main text or in an accessible table. This is the easiest way to convey the information to a reader who may have visual impairments.

If the images are to be included, UNP requires both alt text and a long description of each graph, chart, or diagram.

A long description provides more information than can be conveyed in alt text. It is a textual representation of the essential information in the complex image and is required for an e-publication.

It is good practice to refer to and summarize more complex images in the accompanying text. For example, “The following graph shows that vaccination coverage increased in all five states.”

Examples

Photographs

Caption: Fig. 1. World War I–era US Food Administration billboard, circa 1917–18, on display in Lincoln, Nebraska. National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https://lccn.loc.gov/2016827038.

Alt text: US Food Administration billboard, which reads Food will win the war / don’t waste it.

Caption: Fig. 2. The Astrodome, the world’s first domed stadium, 1980. Source: Library of Congress.

Alt text: Aerial view of The Astrodome with parts of Houston in the distance. The grounds of the stadium and the roof are both circular.

Maps

Caption: Fig. 1. Frank H. Galbraith’s Nebraska railway mail service map, circa 1898. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, https://lccn.loc.gov/98688512.

Alt text: Hand-drawn map showing rail lines and post offices in Nebraska in 1898. Office locations are labeled by name.

Caption: Fig. 1. Solar PV generation capacity by state (MWAC). Source: “Electric Power Monthly, Data for January 2020,” https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/.

Alt text: Map of United States showing the solar PV for each state. California generates six times that of Arizona.

Examples of Images Requiring Alt Text and Long Descriptions

Bar graph

[The figure: a bar graph of vaccination coverage (percentage, 0–100) for five states and the District of Columbia. Each site has four bars, one per quarter from Q3 2006 to Q2 2007, each in a different shade of blue.]

  • It is not necessary to describe the visual attributes of the bars, e.g., dark blue, light blue.
  • Briefly describe the graph and give a summary.
  • Provide the title and axis labels.

Alt text: Bar graph showing percentage of vaccination coverage in five states over one year from Q3 2006 to Q2 2007.

Long description: Figure 1 is a bar graph that measures percentage of vaccination coverage in five states over one year, from Q3 2006 to Q2 2007. In each state, the coverage increases over time. All data are approximate.

Pie chart

[The figure: a pie chart titled “Leisure activities performed in a day,” with each activity in a different color. The legend lists walking (10%), jogging (45%), yoga (16%), soccer (7%), and camping (22%).]

  • It is not necessary to describe the visual attributes of the charts, e.g., orange wedge.
  • It is helpful to list the numbers from largest to smallest, regardless of how they are presented in the image.

Alt text: Pie chart displaying the percentage of various leisure activities performed by respondents in a day.

Long description: Pie chart describing leisure activities. Jogging occupies 45 percent, camping occupies 22 percent, yoga occupies 16 percent, walking occupies 10 percent, and soccer occupies 7 percent.

Diagram

[The figure: a center circle labeled Scientific Methods, linked to five surrounding circles. One is labeled Observation. The other four are labeled a through d, each followed by a blank and a question mark.]

  • Identify that the image is a specific type of diagram. In this example, include that there is a center circle and the number of circles connected/linked to it.
  • Identify labels in the circles.

Alt text: A web diagram of Scientific Methods

Long description: A web diagram has a center circle and five smaller circles connected to it. The center circle is labeled Scientific Methods. One connected circle is labeled Observation. The other four circles are labeled A, B, C, and D.

Resources