{"id":235239,"date":"2018-03-12T18:48:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T18:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/?page_id=235239"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:05:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T21:05:54","slug":"submission-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/submission-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Submission Guidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Truthout<\/span><\/i> welcomes submissions from both well-known and emerging writers, video and audio reporters, photographers and artists. We regret that we are only able to publish a small portion of these submissions and, in general, only respond to those we plan to use. <\/span>Any submission that does not conform to the formatting and substantive guidelines below will be rejected. <\/b><\/p>\n

Truthout<\/i><\/b> is a small nonprofit organization and unless otherwise stated, it will be assumed that submissions are offered gratis.<\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

Please familiarize yourself with <\/span>Truthout<\/span><\/i>\u2019s content before sending us your work. We look for original news stories and news analysis pieces with broad national appeal. We\u2019re especially interested in coverage of issues that slip under the radar of the mainstream media.<\/span><\/p>\n

NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS<\/b><\/p>\n

Please DO NOT submit to <\/span>Truthout<\/span><\/i> simultaneously with a number of outlets: We want either original and exclusive submissions or reprints. Articles posted to any other site \u2014 including your own personal site \u2014 must be submitted as reprints. <\/span>Articles submitted to <\/b>Truthout<\/i><\/b> should be wholly unique.<\/b> It is fine to quote and cite your previously published material, but please do not incorporate material you have published elsewhere into your piece without proper attribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

SOURCES<\/b><\/p>\n

Human sources<\/b> must be named (by first and last name) and contextualized. If a source does not agree to be named in print, their name must be provided to the editor, and the article must provide a compelling explanation for the source\u2019s anonymity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Citations<\/b> (see below) must be from reliable sources. When citing lengthy source material, please provide page numbers specifying where supporting documentation is located to expedite our fact-checking process.<\/span><\/p>\n

We strongly encourage including external links<\/b> to substantiate assertions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Please submit this supporting material as embedded hyperlinks in your word processing document (i.e. Microsoft Word document).<\/span><\/li>\n
If for some reason you cannot embed the hyperlinks, please list the URL BOLDED AND IN BRACKETS immediately following pertinent words intended to be hyperlinked. Use [ ] for brackets, never < >. DO NOT INCLUDE ANY HTML CODING.<\/span><\/li>\n
Please <\/span>highlight two to five words or a key phrase<\/b> related to the linked content when you hyperlink. (i.e. \u201cthe ACLU report\u201d; \u201can article in <\/span>The New York Times<\/span><\/i>\u201d; \u201cdozens of people were arrested\u201d etc.) Please do not repeat links unless there is some distance between them and there is NO alternative link available.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
We expect secondary sources to be cited via the<\/span> seamless embedding of hyperlinks within the body text<\/span><\/a> wherever possible. If that is not possible, please work a casual reference to the source into the body text rather than using footnotes or more formal parenthetical citations. For example, for a non-digitized source, you may need to say, \u201cAs evidenced by a diary written by Jane Doe in 1920 that is accessible within such-and-such archive at such-and-such archive \u2026\u201d Or if you are referencing a book, you could simply say, \u201cAs [<\/span>author\u2019s name<\/span><\/i>] shows in [<\/span>Title<\/span><\/i>] \u2026\u201d (and hyperlink the title of the page to the publisher\u2019s page for it, if you want).<\/span><\/p>\n
BLOCKQUOTES<\/b><\/p>\n
It is important that material intended for block quoting be clearly designated. For example, type <\/span>BLOCKQUOTE<\/b> in <\/span>BOLD CAPS<\/b> above and below the relevant text.<\/span><\/p>\n
HTML Coding<\/b><\/p>\n
Please do not use HTML coding in your submission.<\/span><\/p>\n
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION<\/b><\/p>\n
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Please use subheadlines<\/b> to break up longer pieces.<\/span><\/li>\n
Please list at least four suggested tags, separated by commas<\/b>, between your byline and your suggested story summary, above the body of your story.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS<\/b><\/p>\n
Submissions devoted primarily to unsubstantiated opinion are strongly discouraged.<\/b><\/p>\n
Open letters, signed public statements, press releases and rebuttals of original <\/b>Truthout<\/i><\/b> articles will not be published.<\/b><\/p>\n
Truthout<\/i><\/b> eschews submissions that employ ableist language.<\/b> Please see this <\/span>glossary<\/span><\/a> of ableist terms compiled by author Lydia Brown.<\/span><\/p>\n
ORIGINAL ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS<\/b><\/p>\n
Please send your clean final submission to editor[at]truthout[dot]org in a .doc file \u2014 as well as copied into the body of your email. Include your name; contact information; your submission\u2019s word count; and a brief (one to two-line) biography, with embedded hyperlinks to your website, Twitter account, etc., if you would like them included; and a JPEG of a headshot photo, if you would like that included.<\/span><\/p>\n
The subject line of your email should begin with \u201cSUBMISSION:\u201d followed by your last name and the article title.<\/span><\/p>\n
All submissions are subject to an editorial review process, proofing and possible headline change. Final headlines are chosen by the editors. Writers will be consulted if major editing is required. The review and publication process may take as long as three weeks, or exceptionally, even longer if the topic is not time sensitive. If there is a stale-by date or other critical time element to your submission, please indicate that prominently in your submission email.<\/span><\/p>\n
Keep It Short<\/b><\/p>\n
For writers not previously published by <\/span>Truthout<\/span><\/i>, we suggest opinion submissions and news analysis be limited to 1,200 words and straight news stories to 2,000 words. <\/span>Please send final drafts only.<\/b> Our staff is small and revisions are time-consuming. If intervening events between submission and publication necessitate revisions, please resubmit your original text with revisions highlighted or in bold text.<\/span><\/p>\n
Format Appropriately<\/b><\/p>\n
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Place only a <\/span>single space<\/b> between sentences.<\/span><\/li>\n
Place only a single line break between paragraphs.<\/span><\/li>\n
Do not indent paragraphs.<\/span><\/li>\n
In your word-processing program, turn off \u201cword wrap.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
All dates, times and months must be spelled out<\/b>, i.e. December 10, 2010, never \u201clast Tuesday,\u201d \u201cnext week,\u201d \u201ctomorrow\u201d etc. Since time of publication may be significantly later than time of submission, this is essential for the story to remain accurate and usable.<\/span><\/li>\n
Please spell-check your work.<\/span><\/li>\n
Please submit all copy in Times New Roman, 14-point font, single-spaced.<\/span><\/li>\n
Please avoid pasting <\/span>photos, tables or other visuals<\/b> directly into Word documents with text. Instead, mark in the text where photos should be placed (i.e. \u201cPhoto 1 and Caption text and photo credit\u201d) and attach visuals as separate files, with corresponding file names. Please only submit original photos, images under fair use, creative commons licenses or images for which you own the publishing rights.<\/span><\/li>\n
References<\/b> must appear as embedded hyperlinks. In rare instances, they can appear as manually created (not auto-formatted) footnotes, as described at length above.<\/span><\/li>\n
Please note that any work published by Truthout will be licensed under Creative Commons, unless specifically requested. Other outlets will be allowed to republish our original pieces as long as they comply with our <\/span>republishing guidelines<\/a>. Our choice to copyright our original material this way reflects our desire to spread reliable information, critical thought and progressive ideas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
See an example of a correctly formatted original submission.<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n
(Your submission should be submitted as a Word .doc file.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
MULTIMEDIA SUBMISSIONS<\/b><\/p>\n
Truthout<\/span><\/i> is on the lookout for online video content, photographs and images that highlight news topics with national appeal.<\/span><\/p>\n
We are open to republishing work that has appeared elsewhere, as long as you currently hold the rights to reprint your work.<\/span><\/p>\n
When sending your multimedia content, do not include any attachments. Send us a link \u2014 private or password protected if necessary \u2014 to your content. For example, Flickr offers privacy settings, and Blip.tv allows videos to be password protected.<\/span><\/p>\n
If we determine that we wish to use your content, we will email you with more information on how to send it to us.<\/span><\/p>\n
Please use this format to submit content:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
Videos should not be longer than 10 minutes and should be non-compressed and in .MOV or .FLV format.<\/span><\/li>\n
Photos and images should be minimum 490\u00d7300 pixels and can be in .PDF, .JPEG, .GIF, .PNG or .TIFF format.<\/span><\/li>\n
Audio files should be in .MOV, .FLV, .MPEG-4 or MP3 format.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Send your submissions to the multimedia editors via editor[at]truthout[dot]org with the link and password information to your work. Please include your name, contact information, a brief bio, and proper credits and captions for photos.<\/span><\/p>\n
Place \u201cMultimedia Submission:\u201d in the subject line of your email, followed by the title of your work. You must be the sole copyright holder of your submissions, including any images that appear in your videos.<\/span><\/p>\n
REPRINT SUBMISSIONS<\/b><\/p>\n
We are occasionally open to republishing work that has appeared elsewhere, as long as you currently hold the rights to reprint your work and have permission from the outlet where it has first appeared. If you are submitting an article for <\/span>republication<\/b>, please follow the formatting suggestions below for <\/span>reprints<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Please send the original URL with the text of the article in the body of the email to editor[at]truthout[dot]org.<\/span><\/li>\n
The subject line of your email should begin with \u201cREPRINT:\u201d followed by your last name, the name of the publication in which your work originally appeared and the article title.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
See an example of a correctly formatted reprint submission.<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n
(Your submission should be copied and pasted in the body of an email.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
Publication on <\/b>Truthout<\/i><\/b> is voluntary, and both parties shall hold one another harmless from any damages resulting from said publication.<\/b><\/p>\n
Please do not submit items that:<\/b><\/p>\n
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Are not yours (by rights) to submit, post, disseminate or transmit;<\/span><\/li>\n
Are unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, obscene, harmful, tortuous, libelous or invasive of another\u2019s privacy;<\/span><\/li>\n
Infringe or violate any party\u2019s copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent or other proprietary right;<\/span><\/li>\n
Contain any viruses, worms or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files, code or programs;<\/span><\/li>\n
Include any unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, chain letters, spam, junk mail or any other type of unsolicited mass email to people or entities that have not agreed to be part of such mailings.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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Truthout welcomes submissions from both well-known and emerging writers, video and audio reporters, photographers and artists. We regret that we are only able to publish a small portion of these submissions and, in general, only respond to those we plan to use. Any submission that does not conform to the formatting and substantive guidelines below … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-about.blade.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-235239","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/235239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235239"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/235239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329492,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/235239\/revisions\/329492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}