Submit an Article

Manuscript Guidelines

Manuscripts, letters to the editor, and and queries about the guidelines for writers should be submitted directly to the Change executive editor, Margaret Miller, at pmiller@virginia.edu.

Because Change is a magazine rather than a journal, footnotes should not be included. References can be worked into the text or given parenthetically when necessary. A short list of "Related Readings" or "Resources" can be provided with the article where appropriate, and URLs can be provided for Web sites containing more extensive documentation.

A separate title page should provide short biographical information (up to four or five lines) and contact information, including the complete address, telephone, fax number, and e-mail of the author(s). The first-named author of a multi-authored article will receive the notification of acceptance, rejection, or need for revision.

Review Process
When we receive your manuscript, we will send you an email verifying that it has arrived. By agreement with Heldref, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is responsible for all editorial judgments about the magazine-its themes, articles, and editorial voice-and exercises that judgment through its executive editor, Margaret Miller. She reads all manuscripts to determine their suitability for Change. If the fit is not good, you should hear within about six weeks. Those that are promising she sends to two consulting editors for peer review. Those that are returned with positive reviews she (or the guest editor) considers for publication. This process takes from two to three months to complete.

If the article is accepted, you will be contacted to discuss editing procedures and the production schedule for the issue of the magazine in which your article will appear. Each author receives two complimentary copies of the issue in which the article is included. Authors may also order additional copies or reprints (minimum order of 100) at their expense.

Manuscripts should be submitted exclusively to this publication.

Even the best manuscripts compete for limited space: We publish just six times a year, and given that many of the articles are solicited, we can use only 20 or so of the hundreds of manuscripts submitted each year. What accounts for acceptance or rejection? Topics that have been exhausted or that are too broad or too specific for our audience will not be published, nor will those written in the style of a journal-heavy on jargon and footnotes, light on analysis and point of view.

This last criterion is important. Change is a magazine, and the magazine article is a genre unto itself. A good article compels attention to an important matter. It shows a mind at work, one that reaches judgment and takes a stance. It is credible: it knows its subject and the context. And it is concrete: it names people, places, dates, and events. For a good idea of the kind of writing that works for Change, we encourage you to read a few past issues.

Change doesn't start with an ideological predisposition; we court good ideas from all sides. But tracts, broadsides, and grand plans seldom impress reviewers (or readers), who prefer real, usable ideas that someone has actually tried out and evaluated.