Tips for Creating Articles

Audience

The audience includes public management practitioners—at the federal, state, local, and international levels of government—and public nonprofit practitioners, applied academics, students, and consultants interested in effective performance in the public sector. The Public Manager is produced both in print and electronic copy. Currently, we reach more than 10,000 subscribers worldwide.

 

Content/Focus

We seek articles that focus on the practical, rather than the theoretical, and on your experience or observations about practice, rather than on a review of the literature. Discuss applications, solutions, and tools and techniques—not simply challenges, problems, and the public sector’s failure to accomplish much on the matter. We want our readers to finish each issue with one or more takeaways—new perspectives and tools for better job performance, a better understanding of issues facing the public management community, and a leg up on how these issues can and are being addressed successfully by pioneers in the field. We encourage authors to include embedded Web links to reference material and additional information.

 

Publication Options

We accept articles for print and electronic publication on our Web site. The entire journal is published on the Web site and accessible to our subscribers in electronic format. Sometimes we excerpt long articles in the printed journal and publish the entire text on the Web site.  Articles that are timely or related to a topic presented in a recent issue but that do not fit in an upcoming issue because of previous commitments to other authors may be published electronically. The editor-in-chief will advise authors of the journal’s decision regarding an article’s disposition.

 

Length

The ideal length for a single article is four article pages (12 double-spaced pages, or 2,800 words), including graphics. The editor-in-chief may arrange exceptions (shorter or longer) where warranted. On occasion, much longer articles are divided into a two-part series and published in separate issues.

 

Style

We use the Chicago Manual of Style. Please keep abbreviation use to a minimum and avoid the passive voice when possible. Titles should be six words or less, followed by a brief sentence that captures the essence of the article. We incorporate first- and second-level headings with at least one per manuscript page. We do not use footnotes; instead, we include up to five end note references. Tables, graphs, etc., must be included in conventional electronic form—for example, Word tables and PowerPoint figures—as part of the document, as a separate file, or in camera-ready form. Please ensure that embedded links reach active sites. We edit accepted manuscripts and may make nonsubstantive changes before sending to the printer. Where necessary, the editor-in-chief will discuss proposed substantive changes with the author or forum/series editor (as time allows).

 

Additions to Article Submission

Please prepare an abstract of 100 words or less, suitable for posting on the The Public Manager Web site. Also, please provide a biography with a maximum of two sentences, including your current position/title and a method for readers to contact you (usually an e-mail address, although Web sites are welcome).

 

Reprints/Copies

Authors may receive up to five free copies of the journal issue; additional copies are available at a 50 percent discount to normal prices. Please include a mailing address with the article submission.

 

Copyright

Authors are asked to transfer copyrights to The Public Manager for reprints, but retain rights to make copies of the published work for distribution within the agency/institution that employs them, for their use in classroom teaching, and to reuse all or part in a compilation of their own works or in textbooks of which they are authors. Authors must sign and return our Copyright Transfer Agreement form electronically or via fax or mail to the Publisher. This form must be received no later than seven days after the article due date. Please send the form to the following address:

 

Carrie Blustin, Publisher
The Public Manager
2000 Corporate Ridge
McLean, VA 22102-7805

E-mail: publisher@thepublicmanager.org
Fax: (571) 633 - 7679
Telephone: (571) 633 - 7663

 

Peer Review

For those requiring formal peer review of an article (solicited or unsolicited)—particularly from the academic community—the editor-in-chief can arrange a double blind review by members of the journal’s Board of Editors or others with related expertise on the topic. Please notify the editor-in-chief of this requirement when the article is submitted to allow sufficient lead time for the review. Also, the editor-in-chief may pass along comments by reviewers back to the author in an attempt to add clarification prior to publishing the article. This process may also delay the publication date.

 

Unsolicited Manuscripts

While the editors solicit most articles, we welcome unsolicited manuscripts that meet our guidelines. Delays in publication of unsolicited articles are sometimes unavoidable due to previous commitments to other authors. If you are interested in submitting an article, please contact the editor-in-chief via the link below or use the Submission form.

 

Submission Deadlines

Issue		Article and All Graphics Due Date		Copyright Transfer Agreement Due Date
Spring		February 1		February 8
Summer		May 1		May 8
Fall		August 1		August 8
Winter		November 1		November 8

 

Submission of Manuscript

We prefer electronic submission of all material.

Submit all articles (along with illustrations) electronically to Warren Master, Editor-in-Chief.

For questions about editorial policy, please contact Warren Master, Editor-in-Chief.