Thank you for agreeing to write an article for the BAS blog (indexed ISSN 2673-6888 at the Swiss National Library). All articles published via the blog undergo editorial review and can be cited, as well as included in repositories.
Below are some instructions. Please read this document carefully and contact me (by email) if anything is unclear.
Length:
For articles based on a journal paper: first drafts should be 400 – 600 words.
Stand-alone commentaries: First drafts should be 600-1800 words.
Content:
Articles should be based on your paper in Business & Society. Make a clear link somewhere in the article & hyperlink the phrase/sentence to your published journal article.
Some suggestions for inspiration:
- A key insight from your Business & Society paper, presented in accessible language for practitioners and non-specialists.
- Commentary on your Business & Society paper in relation to what is happening in the news and/or current discussions/debates.
- Commentary on your Business & Society paper in relation to a special event (to help you in ascertaining a special event, your article usually goes live 2-3 months after my first email to you – and we could coordinate the timing).
- Policy or practice proposal based on your Business & Society paper – Suggestions for how business, NGOs, governments or academia could do things better.
Style:
- Think in the style of The Conversation – writing for an informed, intelligent, but not necessarily academic, general audience.
- Write in simple English, using first-person pronouns. Aim for Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 10-12 and (ideally) make it more conversational.
- Hyperlink to news articles, commentaries, and other research papers.
- Use short sentences, with maximum four sentences per paragraph.
- Use the first paragraph to summarise your article (approximately 40 words).
- Use the final paragraph to reiterate key messages.
- Provide a separate 1 sentence summary (this would be used as the excerpt for your article in the website’s main page).
- Group references at the end of the entire text and follow the following style for references. Remember to include the full citation for your own published paper.
- e.g. Author, I.I. Year. How to cite in the website. The Journal, Volume(Issue):Starting page number- Ending page number.
Submit the draft as a Microsoft Word document, with any weblinks hyperlinked.
During the revision process, I will be using Word’s “track changes” function. I advise authors to do the same so that it is easy to identify the changes made.
Accompanying photo:
If possible, suggest a photo related to the theme of your article (or an idea for a photo that I can source), either open-source or one for which you hold the rights.
If you happen to have a photo or figure, send it as a separate jpeg file with details of the photographer and the website where the photo is published (if open-source).
In both cases, please indicate in the body of the text where you would like the photo to be placed. Otherwise, the default position is at the first sentence of the article.
Title:
Keep your title to less than 65 characters. Make it simple, specific, and ensure that it captures the gist of your article.
Authors:
Add the names of authors after the article title, hyperlinked to their institutional/home pages (alternatively, LinkedIn or Google Scholar)
In a comment box, please provide Twitter handles (if you have any).
Review process:
As described in my articles here and here, your article will undergo several rounds of edits (you may expect anything from 1 to 7 rounds!).
During the revision process, please use the track changes function in Word.
The blog’s readers comprise of academics, students, practitioners, and the general public. Accordingly, the article needs to be comprehensible and readable (the blog is also archived by libraries- so there is a substantial reach). Possible changes you may be requested to make are as follows (but not limited to): rewriting specific sentences/phrases, adding more explanations, and following grammar and punctuation guidelines.
- Some helpful tips are conveyed in this link. In particular: “Use the past tense to report what happened in the past: what you did, what someone reported, what happened in an experiment, and so on. Use the present tense to express general truths, such as conclusions (drawn by you or by others) and atemporal facts (including information about what the paper does or covers). Reserve the future tense for perspectives: what you will do in the coming months or years. Typically, most of your sentences will be in the past tense, some will be in the present tense, and very few, if any, will be in the future tense.”
In the final round, your article will be reviewed by two members of the current editorial team, who may suggest additional revisions. In addition, they generally offer (via comments and track changes) suggestions for any language changes.
Timeline:
Your article usually goes live 2-3 months after my first email to you. You will be informed once the article is live.
- Note: Some endogenous and exogenous events might make the process longer (e.g. other activities at the journal, existing pipeline, and IT issues). Usually, we publish one article per week.
Spreading the word:
- Twitter: the journal & I (along with the Social Media Editor) will be tweeting about the article and sharing it with the mailing list.
- Facebook: the journal will be sharing this via their Facebook page.
- LinkedIn: the journal will be sharing this via their LinkedIn page.
- Google Scholar: As the blog has an ISSN, you can add the article to your Google Scholar page.
I look forward to working with you in crafting an amazing article for the BAS blog!