Submission Guidelines


Why submit to Word on the Street?
Our blog is a platform dedicated to wide-ranging discussion around urban violence and related issues (e.g., criminal violence, police violence, and the war on drugs). It follows UVRN’s aim of encouraging a global and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas between academic and public sector researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners. Publishing on Word on the Street provides you with the unique opportunity to showcase your work and ideas to a broad public and to directly reach our expert membership – a 200+ (and growing) multidisciplinary group of leading researchers across the world.

What kind of pieces do you publish?
We are interested in publishing pieces discussing your latest research, new publications, critical reflections on current affairs and debates, book reviews and any other research or critique related to urban and criminal violence. Accounts of personal research experiences, including in the form of field-diary updates or ‘views from the ground’, are also very welcome.

We do not publish submissions on topics that fall outside UVRN’s broad area of interest. Please email us if you are unsure about your topic’s suitability.

Length
Blog pieces typically range from 500 to 1200 words, but we are happy to consider longer pieces on a case-by-case basis.

Language
We currently accept submissions in English, French, Italian and Portuguese. All posts will include an English translation where English is not the primary language. As UVRN aims at sparking a truly global debate on the issue of urban violence and related questions, submissions in other languages will be considered and may be published where editorial capacity allows.

Editing
Any submission will be subject to the approval of the Editorial Team. All final drafts will be sent back to the author by the Editorial Team for final approval before publication on the blog.

Accuracy
Contributors are responsible for the factual accuracy of their work. Editor’s comments may include requests to provide sources for claims we cannot readily verify.

Plagiarism
Contributors are responsible for ensuring their submission does not commit plagiarism, i.e. taking someone’s words and/or concepts and presenting them as your own without attribution. Any submissions identified as plagiarised will be rejected.

Citations
Articles submitted to Word on the Street should be supported by reliable sources. These should, wherever possible, be included in the piece as hyperlinks or, exceptionally, as endnotes.

Style
We follow the Economist Style Guide. Note the following:

  • Please use accessible, clear, and compelling language. Avoid jargon and explain complicated concepts.
  • Avoid excessively long sentences: break them up into simpler, more easily readable phrases.
  • Subheadings are welcome.
  • Include analysis in your piece – not just facts and information.
  • Use single marks for quotations and double marks for quotations within quotations.
  • Do not italicise quotations.
  • When writing in English, we do not discriminate between UK and US spelling.

Rights
All text published on Word on the Street falls under a Creative Commons license, whereby work can be quoted or reproduced elsewhere provided it is properly attributed and linked back to the blog, and so long as it is not reproduced for commercial use. Unless otherwise informed, we assume that submitted articles are offered for exclusive publication to Word on the Street and that no piece accepted for publication will be published elsewhere simultaneously in any form without our knowledge.

How to submit
Send your piece as a Word document (no PDFs nor Google Docs) via email to info@urbanviolence.org . Mark your email with ‘Blog entry’ in the title. Include in the document a short biography of no more than three lines. You may also include a link to your Twitter profile.

Images
Please attach any accompanying images to your submission email. Include a link to the source for any images taken from the Internet. It is essential you ensure that we have full permission to publish your images, either through a Creative Commons license or through explicit written permission from the copyright owner.

For further queries, contact us at info@urbanviolence.org

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