New Compass publishes articles on a range of topics such as direct democracy, social ecology, rationality, moral economy, equality and diversity. If you are unsure of whether your text is relevant for what we do you can read more about our views and our editorial policy, browse around on our webpage to see what kind of content we have published before, or even ask us if we are interested in your idea by sending us an e-mail (general@new-compass.net).
We do not have any particular limitations to what kind of texts we publish, except that we normally do not publish fiction such as short stories or poems. As you can see from our webpage we publish in a wide variety of formats such as commentaries, analysis, theoretical articles, news stories, interviews and book reviews.
Book manuscripts
It is also possible to provide us with a manuscript for a book or pamphlet. There are specific guidelines for book manuscripts. If you are interested please contact our book editor (general@new-compass.net).
Article
- Length of article and paragraphs
The articles should be divided into paragraphs that are about 600 characters long (including spaces). For longer articles the length of the paragraphs can be a little longer.
- Title and subheadings
The title should be short, informative and catchy in order to make visitors interested in reading your article. For each 3-4 paragraphs the article should also have a subheading that explains the content of that particular section of the article.
- Teaser and summary
The title is accompanied by a teaser on the front page. The teaser is meant both to explain the content of the article, as well as to “tease” the visitors to open the article. It is minimum 240 and maximum 280 characters long (including spaces).
Every article begins with a summary (in bold) that summarize the main content/argument of the article and also intrigues the reader to read on. However, it should be a little different from the teaser. The summary should be between 300-400 characters long (including spaces).
- Links and other sources
Including web-references in your article is generally a good thing. These links should be presented in parenthesis next to the word(s) where you want your hyperlink to be placed.
Example: Local food projects like my own the Fife Diet and through networks like Blasda are beginning to bring together the global politics of Via Campesina with the everyday lives of thousands of people.
Although we prefer hyperlinks it is also possible to list sources or suggest further readings in the article. These sources or further readings should be listed at the end of the article.
In general we do not want to use references through footnotes, but if you have a theoretical article this might be the only choice. In such case, make sure that the place of the footnotes is clearly visible in the text with number 1), 2), 3) etc., and list the references of the footnotes at the end of the article.
(We use Chicago 16th in book manuscripts and in articles. Please be strict in following the rules. Here is a quick guide.)
- Quotes
Lengthy quotes should include a link to the text that you are referring to, and the page number of where your quote is taken from (it it is a printed/pdf text). If you are referring to a book, please find an online reference to the book and if it is possible even a link to the page of the book where the quote is taken from. This is possible through for example Google books.
- Image
All articles are accompanied by at least one image (photo or illustration). The image should have clear colors and close-ups of people or objects that are related to the content of the article. The specification for the image is width 220 pixels x height 165 pixels, at 72 dpi. If you do not know how to crop and compress an image for the web, please send us the image as a jpeg file or a normal format and we will make the necessary adjustments.
It is also possible with more images/embedded videos in the text. If you wish to include several images or embedded videos, send us the full size image and link to the video and we will make the necessary adjustments. Indicate where you want the image/video to be presented in your text.
- Keywords/tags
Please provide us with 15-20 keywords that describe the content of your text.
- Format
We would like to get the text in a rich text format (.rtf). Please keep formatting to a minimum and only include italics. We will understand what is the title, teaser, summary, subheadings, quotes etc.
News or reviews
- Length of news/reviews-articles and paragraphs
The news/reviews are normally between 400 and 1000 words long, but since the form of news/reviews-articles varies quite a lot this is not an absolute requirement.
- Title and subheadings
The title should be short and as informative as possible. It the text is about 700-1000 words long it should have subheadings for each 2-4 paragraphs that explain the content of that particular section of the news/reviews.
- Links and other sources
Web-references should be presented in parenthesis next to the word(s) where you want your hyperlink to be placed.
- Quotes
In reviews quotes are quite normal. Lengthy quotes should include a link to the text that you are referring to, and the page number of where your quote is taken from (it it is a printed/pdf text). If you are referring to a book, please find an online reference to the book and if it is possible even a link to the page of the book where the quote is taken from. This is possible through for example Google books.
- Images/videos
There are normally no images in news/reviews-articles, but if you reviews a book an image of the cover is a good thing. Please send us a full size image and we will make the necessary adjustments. If you are referring to a video, send us a link to the video and we will embed it with the necessary adjustments.
- Keywords/tags
Please provide us with 5-10 keywords that describe the content of your news/review-article.
- Format
We would like to get the text in a rich text format (.rtf). Please keep formatting to a minimum, but include bold and or italics where that is necessary.
Contributor information
- Presentation of author
If this is the first article you write for us, we need you to send us some information about yourself to use on our contributor-page (/contributors). Minimally, we need short introduction of you for the summary that should be in between 250-300 characters long (including spaces). You are encouraged to add a longer presentation, as well as bibliography, links etc. —much as you like to be presented. Have a look at our list of contributors (/contributors) to see what we mean.
- Photo
We also need a photo of you in color. The specification for the image is width 220 pixels x height 165 pixels, at 72 dpi. If you do not know how to crop and compress an image for the web, please send us the image as a jpeg file or a normal format and we will make the necessary adjustments.
Spreading your article
There are millions of articles and blog posts being put online every single day. In order not to drown in this massive stream of information the author and the editors of New Compass will have to cooperate in order to make your article known to a wide audience. Here are a few tips on what you and New Compass can do to make your article known.
· Facebook: Most of our readers have been referred to an article on our webpage on Facebook, so this is a great place to start. Post your article on your own Facebook wall, and also on the walls of friends and contacts that you think might be interested in reading your article. Furthermore you can search for other groups/pages that are relevant for the theme of your article, and post on these walls or ask the administrators of these groups/pages to share your article online.
· Twitter: Another place to spread the word is Twitter. If you have a Twitter profile you should send a series of tweets where you inform that your article have been posted online. The tweets can use a variety of hashtags and also refer to specific users that you think should read your article, and people who might retweet your message.
· Blogs/other webpages: Normally there are several other blogs or webpages interested in reviewing your article or to post excerpts of it online. You should notify relevant blogs/pages and ask if they would like to do this, as this will generate more traffic to your article.
· Email: You should also send emails to friends, contacts and others that you think are interested in reading your article. Often, it is more personal to receive a direct message rather than a referral on a social media.
· Other: There are many other social media and channels through which it is possible to spread your article. The more imaginative you are, the more people will read what you have been writing.