Submissions and Letters

Many of the articles in Arms Control Today (ACT) are solicited by the editors, but ACT also welcomes unsolicited submissions. To ensure that your submission is appropriate for ACT, please familiarize yourself with the magazine and the guidelines below. Even if you have submitted an article to ACT before, please review the guidelines, since they are revised periodically.

Once an article is accepted for publication, it undergoes a multi-stage editing process. The amount of time is dependent on a number of factors, but you should expect this part of the process to take about two weeks.

Overall Guidelines
Images
Feature Articles
Book Reviews and "Looking Back"
Payment
Letters
Endnote Examples

Overall Guidelines

We strongly recommend that potential authors submit a detailed outline and/or abstract of articles before submission. By e-mailing us first, you give us a chance to work with you on the piece and solve problems in the early stages of the process. If you submit a full article without that step, please follow the detailed instructions below:

• Please consult recent issues of ACT for guidance on most issues of style (rules for capitalization, abbreviations, punctuation, etc).
• ACT generally follows the Chicago Manual of Style. ACT has some variations from Chicago, but use that manual as your guide. This is particularly important for citations (see below).
• Submit articles as a Microsoft Word document.
• Include in the text of the submittal your detailed contact information (name, address, phone, e-mail). Please do this even if the information also is contained in your e-mail cover note.


• Word Count, Headlines, Etc.
  • Features are limited to 3,000-4,000 words, while reviews and “Looking Back” articles are limited to 2,000-2,500 words. (Word counts do not include endnotes, charts, graphs, or other supporting material.)
  • Headlines should be limited to 75 characters. (For examples, please see headlines from May 2009 to the present.) Try to make the title of the piece punchy and interesting; this is a chance to draw in the reader. Note that headlines usually require two or three lines (“decks”). Try to avoid multiple long words in the headline, as they can cause the headline to “break” in an awkward way.
  • Subheads should have a single deck and should be limited to about 35 characters. ACT now uses only one level of subheads (i.e., no sub-subheads, etc.).
  • Note that in ACT’s layout, the first paragraph of feature articles is short, in larger type, and set off from the rest of the article. It should indicate a main theme or conclusion of the article (rather than, for example, simply providing the historical background for the issue that is going to be discussed).
• Citations

• • ACT uses endnotes, not footnotes. (Please format the endnotes so that when a reader clicks on the endnote number in the body text of the article, s/he is taken to the corresponding endnote at the end of the document. See www.office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP052302261033.aspx for detailed instructions.)
  • See previous issues of ACT for endnote style. Examples of basic entries are at the bottom of this document.
  • Submissions must be original works based on original arguments. Endnotes should be minimal (no more than about 20), and used primarily for pointing to sources of information.
  • If you cite a web resource, check the accuracy of the URL, and include an access date for the link cited.

Images

Generally, the editorial staff chooses images and graphics to accompany articles. If, however, you have an idea for a graphic/photo, it should adhere to these specifications:

• The photo or graphic must be in high-resolution (300 dpi) .jpg or .tif format.
• You must have permission to run the photo from the person or organization that has rights to it. (We provide attribution to the photo's source.)
• For bar/line graphs and pie charts, either provide a vector graphic (line art as opposed to a pixel image) so that the graph can be scaled to fit the space we have allotted, or send the data in an Excel file so we can convert it into an accurate graphic (bar or line, pie chart, etc.).
• If you submit an image or graphic, please also submit a detailed caption.

Feature Articles

ACT welcomes submissions on topics in the field of international arms control and disarmament, including nuclear proliferation, strategic weapons reductions, missile defense, chemical and biological weapons, missile proliferation, and conventional arms exports. Proposals for articles on other topics also are welcome. Feature articles should stimulate debate and offer constructive policy suggestions. ACT articles are not purely academic discussions or journalistic accounts; we seek articles that detail and analyze a current policy problem and propose appropriate means for addressing it.

Our readership includes experts and non-experts; articles should be written so that they are of value to both groups. Avoid jargon and unnecessary technical detail. If terms of art are used in the article, they should be explained on first reference. Avoid cluttering the article with abbreviations.

Book Reviews & “Looking Back”

ACT book reviews cover relevant titles in the field of arms control, and run in alternate issues. Book reviews are essays; they need not restrict themselves to an assessment of the book that is being reviewed. They should avoid jargon and unnecessary technical detail. Potential authors should model reviews on those previously published in ACT and/or the style in the New York Review of Books. Reviews should summarize the arguments and style of a particular work, but primarily focus on commenting on the relevant topic at hand.

ACT‘s “Looking Back” section alternates with the book reviews and includes historical essays on relevant arms control issues. These articles often consider the current policy situation and contextualize it within the larger legacy of important treaties, conventions, nuclear tests, etc. Potential authors should consider pegging the article to an anniversary (particularly the fifth, tenth, etc.) of a major arms control event.

The features guidelines (see above) also apply to book reviews and Looking Back.

Payment

• A feature article by a nongovernmental author comes with an honorarium of $300.
• A book review/”Looking Back” by a nongovernmental author comes with an honorarium of $150.
• Multiple authors must split honorarium totals.
• Authors must sign an author’s contract governing ownership and distribution of the work.

Letters

ACT welcomes letters from readers. Letters are limited to 600 words, and should be formatted in size 12 Times New Roman font, with 1.5 line spacing. Please include in the letter the writer's full name, address, and daytime phone number. (Letters may be edited for space.) ACT does not provide an honorarium for published letters.


Letters and submissions may be e-mailed to Daniel Horner (dhorner[at]armscontrol.org), with copies to Elisabeth Erickson (elisabeth[at]armscontrol.org) and our submissions mailbox (submissions[at]armscontrol.org). In the subject line, please indicate what type of submission you are attaching.

If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your submission within a week, please send an e-mail to Daniel Horner (dhorner[at]armscontrol.org), with copies to Elisabeth Erickson (elisabeth[at]armscontrol.org) and our submissions mailbox (submissions[at]armscontrol.org). Our goal is to decide within a month of receiving a submission whether we will accept it. If you need a quicker response, please indicate that when you submit the piece.

Endnote examples:

Books

Steve Coll, Ghost Wars (New York: Penguin, 2004).

Scott D. Sagan and Kenneth Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003), pp. 93-95.

Wolfgang Zellner, Hans-Joachim Schmidt, and Götz Neuneck, eds., The Future of Conventional Arms Control in Europe (Baden-Baden: Nomos Publishers, 2009).

Reports
EastWest Institute, “Euro-Atlantic Security: One Vision, Three Paths,” June 2009, p. 1, www.ewi.info/euro-atlantic-security.

See Jeffrey D. McCausland, “The Future of the CFE Treaty: Why It Still Matters,” EastWest Institute, 2009, http://www.ewi.info/future-cfe-treaty.

[Never use “op. cit.”; use short form instead.] McCausland, “Future of the CFE Treaty.”

Newswires
"Tennessee: Plea Deal in Nuclear Case," Associated Press, January 27, 2009.

Newspapers/Magazines
John Lancaster and Kamran Khan, "Musharraf Named in Nuclear Probe; Senior Pakistani Army Officers Were Aware of Technology Transfers, Scientist Says," The Washington Post, February 3, 2004, p. A13.

John Barry, "How to Fight Al-Qaeda Now: An Ex-CIA Analyst Talks About the Terrorists' Power and Their Vulnerabilities," Newsweek, October 27, 2008, www.newsweek.com/id/165952.

Testimony/Statements
Gen. James Cartwright, Testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, June 16, 2009.

Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, “Statement by the President on Beginning of Negotiations on Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty,” May 29, 2009.

Zamir Akram, Statement before the Conference on Disarmament, Geneva, June 4, 2009 (hereinafter Akram June 4 statement).