The Middle East Centre Blog seeks to make available analysis of the Middle East and North Africa in an immediately accessible and highly relevant way for a wide readership, drawing primarily on the community of academics and researchers at LSE, but also including outside contributors. There is no editorial ‘line’ except a commitment to communicating social science research and commentary in ways that enhance public debate and understanding. We are especially interested in contributions which bring original, primary source material to light. Book reviews are also welcome.
The articles give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the Middle East Centre, nor of LSE.
Notes to Contributors
Submissions should be between 700 and 1,000 words long and be communicated in an accessible way that encourages public understanding of the social sciences with reference to the Middle East.
Please email your submission and a short bio of yourself to Jack McGinn at j.mcginn@lse.ac.uk. We aim to respond to your submissions as soon as possible.
Style guide
To help authors with the submission process, we’ve compiled a list of some of the main style issues to keep in mind when drafting an article for the MEC Blog.
Length and format
- In order to increase readability and accessibility, we aim for our articles to be between 700 and 1,000 words.
- Please send us your draft article in Word format, with your name at the top.
Audience, writing style and language
- Our main aim is to increase the public understanding of the social sciences. With this in mind, your article should be written with a relatively wide audience in mind, including policy-makers and other non-academics.
- Use short sentences and paragraphs. Paragraphs should be made up of maximum four or five sentences.
- As with journalistic pieces ‘lead with the best’. Don’t save your main argument or analysis for the end of the post.
- Write your article as a standalone piece, even if it summarises material in a longer paper or journal article. Try to present all of your argument and evidence within the text and avoid relying too heavily on information contained in external sources.
- Choose a short and engaging title. Questions and statements usually work best.
Referencing
- We use links rather than citations for references. Links should direct readers to more detailed reports or other pieces of research, news items or other blog posts. Open access sources are preferable compared to those behind paywalls.
- Please insert a hyperlink at the relevant point of your argument that you’d like to reference.
- Please do not use footnotes and integrate material directly into the text.
Biography and contributor photo
- We’re proud of our contributors, so we like to give them full attribution. Please send us a three- to four-line biographical note and include your Twitter handle if possible.
- Also send us a colour photo headshot.
Our editing process
- In most cases, submitted articles will be reviewed speedily by the editors, who will edit the piece to enhance readability to the blog’s wider audience. Once these edits are complete, we will send you the final version of the article, and give you an opportunity to make final edits.
- All articles on the Middle East Centre blog should be evidence-based. With this in mind, the editor may double-check the factual accuracy of certain points, or ask you for links to supporting information.
Comments Policy
We welcome comments on all blogs and will accept any reasonable or constructive comment that contributes to debate, including strong criticisms. We operate a propriety filter, so comments are routed to the blog editors and not posted for public view until they have been checked, so there will be a brief delay in posting. Please note that we operate our comments system under the following guidelines:
- Email Privacy: Email addresses are required for commenting, and they are not published on the blog, nor shared. They may be used by the blog editors to privately contact the commenter.
- Language and Manners: This blog is for a wide audience, and comments which include offensive or inappropriate language, or considered by the blog editors to be rude and offensive, will be edited or deleted.
- No Personal Attack Comments Permitted: No personal attacks are permitted in this blog’s comments. You may question or argue the content, but not attack the blogger, nor any other commenters.
