Guidelines for authors

Contributions to i2Insights are welcome!

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

i2Insights shares ideas and techniques to:

  • improve research on complex societal and environmental problems
  • provide effective education in ways of tackling complex problems
  • strengthen the place of such research and education in universities and other research organisations.

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

i2Insights topics

For a list of the main topics i2Insights covers see “What is the blog aiming to achieve and who is it for?” and “Contributions and blog partners” on the ‘About’ page.

We welcome contributions:

  • sharing methods, frameworks, processes, concepts, theories, competencies, cases and toolkits
  • covering topics at introductory, intermediate and advanced levels
  • sharing 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:

  • test new ideas
  • draw attention to important ideas and techniques in new or old published papers. We have evidence that this increases the readership of those papers.

To see what has previously been published by i2Insights on your proposed topic, use the advanced search function.

Tips for writing your contribution

  • 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
  • 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 Practicalities on the ‘About’ page
  • 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.

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 3-5 weeks after publication.

Immediately after publication we post a snippet about your contribution on relevant LinkedIn groups and listservs. We send out five tweets about the blog post at various times in the week after publication using the handle @GabrieleBammer.

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 a snippet on relevant LinkedIn groups and by tweeting about it five times over the course of a week using the handle @GabrieleBammer. 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
Feel free to republish your contribution in other blogs. 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 let us know.

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.

When we publish your contribution, we generally invite five or so researchers with similar interests to comment. You are encouraged to suggest suitable people to invite.

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).