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Manuscript Guidelines

Audience
Change, which is published six times a year, is intended for reflective practitioners in colleges, universities, corporations, government, and elsewhere.  Its readers include faculty, administrators, trustees, state and federal officials, and students, as well as corporation, union, and foundation officers.

Style
A magazine rather than an academic journal, Change deals with contemporary issues in higher education. It spotlights trends; provides new insights and ideas; and analyzes the implications of educational programs, policies, and practices.

The magazine article is a genre unto itself. A good article compels attention to an important matter. It makes an argument or tells a story. It shows a mind at work, one that reaches judgments and takes a stance. It is credible: it knows its subject and the larger context. And it is concrete, providing evidence and naming people, places, dates, and events. For a good idea of the kind of writing that works for Change, we encourage you to go to http://www.changemag.org.  

Manuscripts
Because Change is not a journal, footnotes should not be included. References can be worked into the text or given parenthetically when necessary. A short list of "Resources" (using APA format) can be provided at the end of the article as appropriate, and URLs can be provided for Web sites containing more extensive documentation.

A separate title page should provide contact information for the author(s) (i.e., their physical addresses, telephone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses); a short biography (no more than four or five lines) for each, including email addresses if the author(s) want readers to be able to contact them; and the article's word count (Change articles generally run around 4,000 words). An abstract of roughly 200 words should accompany the article.

To submit a manuscript: send it to pmiller@virginia.edu. Manuscripts should be submitted exclusively to this publication.

Reviewers’ Criteria:

1.    Is the topic important and timely?
2.    Does the article contain enough good ideas to warrant publishing?  Have you seen these ideas in print already?
3.    Does it talk about ideas that have been tested and evaluated adequately?  Is the evidence sufficient to make the case?
4.    Is the point it makes generalizable?
5.    Does the writing need substantial editing?  Is it well developed and organized?  Is the length appropriate to the content?
6.    Did it hold your interest throughout?  Does it have an argument to make, a clear point of view, a fresh voice?