Guidelines for authors

Contributions to i2Insights are welcome!

i2Insights aims to be a global vehicle for exchange, discussion and network building, especially among researchers and educators. We encourage discussion through comments on each blog post (see “Guidelines for commenters“).

A contribution should be a short, easy-to-read, self-contained, “gold nugget” of information about a specific tool, providing enough basic information to give readers a good idea about whether it may be useful in their own work.

i2Insights tools range from descriptions of simple useful methods and frameworks, to guidelines for more intricate processes, to insights into complex concepts and theories.

Feel free to send in your contribution or contact us to discuss ideas and possibilities.

i2Insights topics

As a global, comprehensive, living toolkit for improving research, education and their impact on complex real-world problems, i2Insights welcomes tools for tackling all of the multiple facets of complexity inherent in most societal and environmental problems. Specifically, i2Insights is looking for tools to:

• understand problems more comprehensively, especially dealing with systems, context, unknowns, diversity, and integration
• support policy and practice change to address problems, especially dealing with decision making, research implementation, and change
• interact effectively, especially through communication, teamwork, and stakeholder engagement.

In addition, i2Insights is open to tools from multiple approaches that can be useful in tackling complexity, both formalised approaches such as systems thinking, complexity science, action research, transdisciplinarity, implementation science and team science, and also tools from approaches that may not be recognised in Western knowledge systems, such as culturally-appropriate inclusion of Indigenous knowledge and country- or region-specific approaches.

For more information, see “Aims and overview of i2Insights.”

Tools include methods, frameworks, processes, concepts, theories, and competencies. Contributions can be at introductory, intermediate or advanced levels and can share new ideas and techniques, as well as “golden oldies,” that is, ideas and techniques that have been around for a while and that are still useful.

i2Insights contributions are a great way to draw attention to important ideas, techniques and other tools in new or old published papers. We have evidence that this increases the readership of those papers.

Tips for writing your contribution

i2Insights “house style” is described here:

• 500-1000 words
• Short, clear title
• Open with questions to engage the reader
• The title and opening questions should clearly convey what your contribution is about
• Don’t try to cover too much; keep to one basic idea or technique; think of it as a ‘gold nugget’ of information for the reader
• Use short sentences, dot points and short paragraphs to make it easy for busy people to skim quickly
• Keep references to a minimum – only use those directly cited
• Avoid links in the text, unless they are to other i2Insights blog posts; instead provide full citations of work referenced – for an explanation see “General practicalities”
• Avoid acronyms and jargon
• Close with questions that invite the reader to comment.

In addition:

• Visuals are welcome. Please provide a reference or copyright information. Preferred are image file type as JPEG (also known as JPG), at least 950 pixels wide. Where a visual includes intricate designs or small text please send an image that is 2,000 pixels wide.
• The core language for i2Insights is English.
• Both American and British spelling are acceptable. The index uses British spelling.
• We also welcome additional versions of contributions in other languages.
• Provide a recent high resolution photo (head shot) of each author.
• For each author, provide a brief biography with highest degree, current affiliations/s and main areas of interest relevant to research integration and implementation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) statement

With the increased use of generative artificial intelligence (AI), readers may want to know whether authors are using that technology. We are not planning to ban or restrict its use in i2Insights contributions. Instead from July 1, 2024, i2Insights authors are asked to add a statement to their contributions about their use of generative AI in that contribution.

How the submission and publication processes work

You can pitch an idea or submit a draft contribution by contacting us:

• When you pitch an idea, we will help you craft it into something suitable for i2Insights.
• When you submit a draft, we may suggest edits to get it into house style (see tips above) and improve readability.

When your contribution is ready to publish, it will go into the publication queue. We publish one contribution each week (apart from a break in late December – early January) at 6.30 am Tuesday (Canberra, Australia time). When we have more than a two month backlog of unpublished contributions, we publish two blog posts per week, with the second published at 6.30 am on Thursday (Canberra, Australia time). We will liaise with you about the publication date to ensure that you are available to respond to any comments that your contribution may attract. Most comments are made in the week after publication.

We will upload your contribution and index it.

We will contact you via e-mail a week before your contribution is scheduled to be published and again when it is published.

We will advise you via e-mail when there are comments on your contribution. It helps promote discussion if you respond promptly.

During the first week after your contribution is published we will let you know, from time to time, how often it has been viewed. We prepare monthly reports on viewing statistics for all new contributions for the first three months after they are published and, unless you would prefer not to receive it, will send you a copy. You can also view the quarterly statistics for i2Insights (updated in January, April, July and October).

Advertising, re-advertising and re-publishing your contribution

Advertising
Subscribers to i2Insights are informed via e-mail each time a new blog post is published. Your contribution will appear on the home page for 5 weeks (usually) after publication.

During the week after publication we post snippets about your contribution on LinkedIn and in relevant LinkedIn groups. 

We also encourage you to advertise your contribution via colleagues and social media, as we have found this can significantly improve the number of views that a blog post receives.

Re-advertising
We re-advertise most blog posts around two years after publication. The re-advertised blog post is highlighted on the home page. It is also re-advertised by posting – over the course of a week – snippets on LinkedIn and in relevant LinkedIn groups. We advise you when your contribution has been re-advertised and if it has attracted new comments. We also prepare monthly reports on viewing statistics for all re-advertised blog posts for the first three months after they are re-advertised and, unless you would prefer not to receive it, will send you a copy.

Republishing and citation
Feel free to republish your contribution and, if you do so, please let us know. Please cite i2Insights as the original source, for example: “This blog post originally appeared in Integration and Implementation Insights (http://i2Insights.org or, preferably, the URL for your contribution) as “ADD YOUR CONTRIBUTION TITLE HERE” and is reposted with the author’s (or authors’) permission.” For an example see the citation at the end of this blog post on the LSE (London School of Economics) Impact blog. 

Please also feel free to cite you blog post in other work.

Encouraging commenting on your contribution

Our aim is for i2Insights to be a vibrant forum for discussion. Ending your contribution with questions invites reader input. Responding to comments promptly promotes further discussion.

As part of the process of preparing your contribution for publication, we ask you to nominate five or so researchers or educators with similar interests who can be asked to comment and we will invite them to do so when your blog post is published. 

We also welcome your comments on other people’s i2Insights contributions.

When you post a new comment, please use the “leave a reply” box. When you reply to a comment, please use the small “reply” button, as this will link your reply to the comment.

All comments are moderated.

Privacy policy and disclaimer

To find out how we control data on this website, see our “Privacy policy and disclaimer” (and search on the word ‘author’ within that webpage).