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Editorial Guidelines

Tips for Creating Articles

Tips for Creating Articles

Our Purpose

The Public Manager is a unique, independent, and nonpartisan quarterly journal about federal government leadership that works. Produced in print and electronic format with related podcasts, blogs, and events, it communicates best practices, innovations and techniques for learning at all levels of government.

 

Every issue of The Public Manager discusses pivotal concerns of federal senior executives and middle managers. In addition to offering information, The Public Manager seeks to foster community so that current, former and future managers can share their innovative ideas, practical applications for new technologies, and management successes. Regular topics include performance management, collaboration, accounting and budgeting, human capital management, financial, talent and knowledge management, learning, citizen engagement and transparency, strategic planning and other critical areas of public service.

 

The Public Manager is affiliated with good government groups such as the Partnership for Public Service, GovLoop and Young Government Leaders, the Graduate School, the American Society for Public Administration, and others. It is published by The Bureaucrat Inc., a not-for-profit organization owned by ASTD that is chartered and devoted to furthering knowledge and best practice in government. The Bureaucrat, Inc. maintains its own corporate officer and Board of Director structure.

 

Our Audience

The Public Manager’s contributors write for a largely federal audience but they seek to foster community and collaboration at all levels of government. The journal also seeks to empower current and future managers―including researchers and contractors―to do the job of serving the nation.

 

Additionally The Public Manager seeks articles that focus on the practical, rather than the theoretical, and on a writer’s experiences or observations. Welcome are articles on new ideas, new books, and innovations, but not reviews of current academic literature. Articles should discuss applications, solutions, and tested tools—not simply challenges, problems, and the public sector’s failure to accomplish much on the matter.

 

Readers should finish each issue with one or more takeaways—new perspectives and techniques 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. Currently, we reach more than 40,000 subscribers worldwide.

 

Article Submission Accessories

Summary

 

Please prepare a summary of approximately 50 to 100 words, suitable for posting on The Public Manager website. We reserve the right to change this, but it will help define each article’s main idea, and we might put it in our editorial calendar or other promotional material before the article is published.

 

Bio

 

Authors should provide a biography with a two-sentence synopsis, including current position/title and an email address. Websites or twitter IDs are welcome in addition to the email address.

 

Sources

 

Please use comments in the margins with track changes to supply sources of key factual information supporting your assertions. URLs to your favorite resources are welcome as the e-dition has hyperlinks.

 

Illustrations

 

Authors are encouraged to send high resolution graphics (at least 300 dpi) and photo-art in jpg, tiff, or gif formats in separate files. Please also send data to be presented in a Microsoft Word file. Our creative team will reproduce submitted art in our palette.

 

Reprints/Copies

Authors may receive up to two 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.

 

If you have questions or would like to place a reprint order, please contact Brittany Banasik at reprints@thepublicmanager.org.

 

Copyright

Authors are asked to transfer copyrights to The Public Manager but can request from our publisher the rights to publish their work ontheir employer’s web site. Authors must sign and return our Copyright Transfer Agreement form electronically or via fax or mail to the publisher. This form must be received within two weeks after hearing from the Editor that the article has been approved for publication. Please email the completed form to Jamie Garubba at jgarubba@astd.org or send it to the following address:

Jamie Garubba
The Public Manager/ASTD
1640 King Street, Box 1443
Alexandria, VA 22313-1443 USA

 

Download Copyright Form Here

Editorial Criteria

Our review process is based on the following points:

 

Original Perspective―Is the angle new and related to current concerns, but grounded in experience, offering information and best practices not widely known? Are the ideas supported and brought together into a readable, cohesive body of work?

 

Audience appeal―Will the article capture and retain readers’ interest even if the topic is outside their professional expertise? Does it provide information useful to our audience of largely federal public managers? Does it provide implementation guidance or increase the reader’s business acumen?

 

Every quarter, the entire journal is published on the website and accessible to our subscribers in electronic format. We publish the entire text of select articles on the website. The Editor may choose to electronically publish articles that are timely or related to a topic presented in a recent issue if they do not fit into an upcoming print issue due to previous commitments to other author. The Editor will advise authors of the journal’s decision regarding an article’s disposition, but if an author has a publication timing preference due to an expected clearance arrangement, event, or book publication, the Editor will take that into consideration. Additionally authors or experts may have the opportunity to be selected for podcast interviews by phone or in person with our Editor or Editor-at-large.

 

Length

We can publish different length stories depending upon the topic and author experience. Column-length articles of roughly 1,500 words are preferred for the People, Budgets, Technology and Learning journal departments. We will entertain proposals for commentary (1,500 words) and book reviews (1,200 words) as well. Additionally, we welcome suggestions for the quarterly Visionaries page featuring leading, award-winning federal government employees and the journal's Exchange interview guest.

 

The ideal length for a single feature article is 2,500 words, including two graphics or two 300 word sidebars or a combination of both. The editor may arrange exceptions (shorter or longer) where warranted. Three featured articles are promoted on the magazine cover.arrange exceptions (shorter or longer) where warranted. Three featured articles are promoted on the magazine cover.

 

Some multi-part issues forums may include articles of a shorter length such as 1,100 words including a featured quote. On occasion, much longer articles are divided into a two-part series and published in separate issues or a part of an article may be made into a blog post of 300 to 500 words.

 

Style

Articles should be crisp, clear, and plain-speaking. We do not publish dissertations, press releases, technology promotions or internal reports. We use the Chicago Manual of Style. Please keep abbreviation use to a minimum and avoid the passive voice when possible. Suggested titles should be six words or less. We incorporate first- and second-level headings with at least one per article page. We do not use footnotes; instead, we include up to five end note references including websites that we may liSourced tables, graphs, etc., must be included in conventional electronic form. We edit accepted submissions and may make non-substantive changes―often to improve readability―before sending to the printer. Where necessary, the Editor will discuss proposed substantive changes with the author or forum/series Editor (as time allows). It is also possible that a fact-checking Editor may contact the author with questions.

 

Peer Review

For those requiring formal peer review of an article (solicited or unsolicited)—particularly from the academic community—the Editor at Large 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 of this requirement when the article is submitted to allow sufficient lead time for the review. Also, the Editor 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 Articles

While the Editors solicit most articles, we welcome unsolicited stories, reports, profiles, or 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 via the link below or use the Submission form.

 

Submission Deadlines

Issue   Submission to Editor    
Spring   January 2    
Summer   March 25    
Fall   June 22    
Winter   September 6    

 

Submission of Manuscript

 

For submissions and questions about editorial policy, please contact Ilyse Veron, Editor. She can be reached at iveron@astd.org or 703-683-9212.

 

 

Other Guidelines

 

Click here for Network Case Study guidelines.

 

Click here for Whitepaper guidelines.