After reading through our publishing policy, please fill out the form below or send us an e-mail with the content you want to present.

Editorial Guidelines and Publishing Policy

The Activism Academy is an inclusive and progressive space that welcomes people of all backgrounds. As such, we deem it very important that these values are reflected in the way we write our content. The following guidelines will give you an idea on the elements that we kindly ask you as a writer to respect so that the discourse on the page – no matter our differences in perspectives and opinions – remains diverse and inclusive to all readers.

In order for you to understand what we are looking for, please have a look at what we stand for through our publishing policy and guidelines.

The Activism Academy’s Goals:

• AA commits to fostering dialogue and tolerance
• Our mission is to counter violent extremism and to promote equality and peace
• We want to create a space that is truly inclusive, where young activists and changemakers can speak their minds, identify issues but also voice their skepticism and doubts.

What Kind Of Articles Do We Publish?

We are interested in news reports, analytical pieces, policy papers and op-eds. The word count lies between 800 and 1000 words.

We also accept pitches! If you have an idea, formulate it in about 200, shedding light on a main outline and briefly elaborating on each part. Once your pitch is accepted, you can proceed to writing the whole article.

Once your pitch/article is accepted, we would like:

• that the content is exclusive and has not appeared anywhere else.
• that you will cooperate with our editors and keep an open mind about suggestions and rectifications.
• that you set a deadline. If delays happen, don’t worry: all you need to do is inform your editor.
• that you respect our publishing policy.

We will also ask you to provide a short bio and a picture (if you want, of course!) to go along with your article and promote it on the Activism Academy and Khalifa Ihler Institute social media channels.

Content approval

All content shall be approved by KII members before publication.

Social Media

The Khalifa Ihler Institute and Activism Academy social media channels are there to enhance the visibility of published content and foster dialogue. While social media allows for a more personal touch, all content published in the official social media channels of the institute shall maintain professionalism and a respectful tone while the Activism Academy channels are more light and addressed at a younger audience.

Mindful language

We encourage our authors to use inclusive language and to refrain from using ableist and derogatory terms. After all, Activism Academy is a place for everyone to feel welcome and safe in.

General Writing Style Guidelines

Abbreviations

• Avoid unfamiliar abbreviations without – do not use periods in them
• If you use unfamiliar abbreviations do explain them in parentheses after the first appearance of the abbreviation
  • Example: REM-T (Racially and Ethnically Motivated Terrorism)
• The Khalifa Ihler Institute may be abbreviated to KII in circumstances where it is well known what the abbreviation refers to.

Dates

• Always spell out days of the week in full
• Always include year
• Always write month to avoid confusion with international date-formats
• Abbreviate months when accompanied by date
  • Example: Friday Jan. 15th 2021

Names

• On first appearance in any text always use full name.
  • Example: President Donald Trump
• Use last name on second and subsequent appearances
• Always use appropriate titles
  • Example: President Trump
  • Example: Mr. Ihler

Times

• Use the 24 hour clock, separate hours and minutes by colon
• Always specify timezone
  • Example: 17:35 CET

Locations

• Always spell out the names of countries on first appearance
• Where names of countries are commonly abbreviated (USA, UK, UAE) abbreviations may be utilized on second and subsequent appearances
• Always spell out states, regions, municipalities etc.
• Avoid using generic terms to refer to locations
  • Example: never refer to the United States of America as simply America
• Avoid sweeping geographic generalizations such as references to entire continents

Currency

• Always specify currency using common and recognizable letter-based abbreviated references
  • Example: 158 SEK
• Where symbols exist to represent currency the symbol may be used before the number, in these circumstances the number shall be followed by letter based abbreviations
  • Example: $458.56 USD

Percent:

• Always use the % symbol

Political Parties

• Always specify country
• Always spell out common English party name
  • Example: the Labour Party in Norway
  • Example: Demoratic Party, USA

Capitalization

• Capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in titles. Do not capitalize prepositions, articles and conjunctions unless they are the first word.
  • Example: The State of the World

References:

Where references cannot be directly hyperlinked, such as in documents designed for print or publication, refer to The Chicago Manual of Style on Notes and Bibliography unless otherwise specified by publishing partners such as journals or academic institutions (https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html).

Image Guidelines:

We like to give our writers the freedom to choose images that go with their articles. These images must be free of copyrighted material or count as your own intellectual property. Our editors will ask you to provide sources to make sure that our platform will not be compromised.

• Use high quality, high-resolution images, either custom pictures or from stock-services such as unsplash.com
• No imagery of an adult nature shall be published on the site
• Content that may be offensive, including extremist symbols, propaganda, and misinformation shall be clearly marked and contextualised. 
  • This content shall never be used as images for social sharing, in the header of posts, or in thumbnails for posts.