Quick Submission Guidelines
Please read the full text on this page if you intend to submit material to The Electronic Intifada. For those familiar with EI’s content submission guidelines, here are the main points for quick reference:
- Text should arrive as plain email, MS Word document, or other word processor document saved in RTF format.
- Text with auto-formatted endnotes will not be accepted. Please mark endnotes in square brackets, not using automated footnotes (see below for more information).
- All submissions must include a short two to three line bio.
- Submissions with well-captioned photos that you took or have permission to use are appreciated.
- Write FOR PUBLICATION or SUBMISSION somewhere in the e-mail subject box before sending to EI’s contact address.
- If you are submitting a first-person narrative or human interest feature, please let us know what location you are writing from.
Introduction
The Electronic Intifada (EI) is an edited publication that welcomes unsolicited text and visual contributions from writers, photographers, multimedia content creators and filmmakers. EI puts a high priority on well-written original analysis and reportage, contributions from people on the ground, and strong visual imagery.
EI is one of the most widely read publications about Palestine. On any day, most of the editing, illustrating, publishing, and promotional burden is carried by two to three persons. Whatever you can do to ensure submissions require minimal processing is appreciated, and please give us a few days to acknowledge your submission (we will always prioritize material dealing with highly newsworthy current issues or ongoing events). Please read this page carefully before submitting material to EI.
Implicit understanding: By submitting your work to EI, you are giving us a non-exclusive right to use the material on our website and in multimedia presentations (ie. video, DVD) in perpetuity. If you wish to republish the article after it has been on EI, please ensure the publication notes the article was originally published by EI and if it is a web publication, it offers a link to EI. In the case of submissions of material published elsewhere, please let us know where and when the article was published so we can do the same. Do not submit material that you do not hold the rights to.
As a web-only publisher seeking to reach the maximum possible audience with limited resources, one of our strategies is to seek reprints of EI articles in print formats – newspapers, magazines, and newsletters. By submitting material to EI, your material may also end up in friendly print publications, which will increase both your and our own visibility. This does not apply to photographic submissions, where EI will guide publications directly to the photographer.
EI articles are not removed from our server. We believe that this archive adds to the value of EI. We may edit your piece for clarity, grammar and brevity. If we substantially edit your piece, we will clear the edits with you. Headline, summary and illustration decisions are made solely by EI’s editors although feel free to suggest a headline.
General notes for contributors
- What we like: Contributions that have strong factual information, that are written compellingly, display good research and background knowledge, make sense, and where possible include images to illustrate them.
- EI does not have the resources to pay all contributors at this time, but we do credit your work and can offer a link to your website and pass on correspondence relating to your contribution. Many of EI’s contributors have seen their work republished in books, have been interviewed in the media, and may use their work on our site as part of a portfolio. The limited resources that EI can use to pay honoraria to writers are focused on investigative work discussed and agreed in advance with EI editors, and other content that requires a significant time investment such as reviews that we have commissioned. We are happy to discuss story ideas with prospective contributors.
- Submit finished material: Material that requires extensive editing is less likely to be published. Spell-check and review your work carefully before submitting it. Please don’t send us revisions once you have submitted it.
- Where possible, please don’t submit your material to multiple publications. EI prefers original content. This works to everyone’s advantage. EI is committed to a high standard of professional presentation of content. Please let us know if you are submitting content to us that has been published elsewhere or that you are submitting to other publications. Exceptions to this are press releases and reports issued by organizations.
- Article length: For regular articles, 600-2,000 words is an acceptable length, although 600-1200 words is more standard. For articles longer than this, it is best to send a query to the editors before submitting.
- Text format: EI prefers plain text, Word, or RTF document submissions in email with clear captioning of any photographs following, a brief biography, and any images attached to the e-mail.
Sourcing and citations:
Most of the time it suffices to credit the source of an idea or quotation in the text of an article, eg “In December 2008, The Electronic Intifada reported, ‘…’”
Endnotes are acceptable when such reference is essential for the credibility of the writer’s argument.. In this case, endnotes should be marked in square brackets, eg.
… noted John Pilger writing in the Guardian. [1]
The bottom footnotes should appear after the article as numbers followed by a period, eg.
[1] John Pilger, “Why my article is under fire,” Guardian, 23 September 2002.
Please note that a web link does not suffice as a citation. Citations must include in this order: the author(s), article/broadcast title, publication/program title or body that published the cited material and date, eg.
[1] Anno Gravemaker,”Israel’s Aeronautics to supply Dutch UAV service,” Flight International, 18 January 2009.
[2] Elizabeth Bone and Christopher Bolkom, “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Background and Issues for Congress,” Congressional Research Service, 25 April 2003.
Web links may be used to supplement the citation and to make it easy for readers to find the cited material on the web. Please note when material was last accessed in the inevitable event of a link no longer working, eg.
[13] Bing West, “The Watchdogs of Fallujah,” Slate.com, 10 November 2004 (accessed 28 January 2009).
Pseudonyms and anonymous sources
EI strongly discourages the submitting of content under a pseudonym. While there are individual cases where it may be justified, in general pseudonyms should not be used simply because a writer would feel “more comfortable,” wishes to anonymously criticize a certain position or public figure, or because of general concern over the consequences of writing with a real name. Many writers faces these risks daily with their real names and are not afforded the shield of anonymity. Using real names is also very important for accountability and verifiability.
Accountability and verifiability are two principles that also come into play when considering anonymous sources in an article, and authors may only use anonymous sources in exceptional cases. EI editors must be able to verify a source even if the published version of an article protects the identity of that source.
- EI does not publish plagiarized material under any circumstances.
- Include a bio: Please include two to three lines explaining who you are, where you are, and focuses on facts relevant to, and your experience of, the Palestine, Palestinian culture, Palestinian solidarity or the Palestine-Israel conflict.
- Prohibited content: EI does not publish content that encourages discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. While we are committed to conveying the realities experienced by people in Palestine, we generally avoid publishing images that gratuitously depict violence or violate the dignity of any person. Please do not submit material that you do not hold the copyright for.
- We will do our best to acknowledge submissions and give those who make clear that their submission is exclusive to EI a time frame for editorial review so writers may have suitable time to submit their material to another publication if we decline to publish. We cannot offer critiques of your submission unless we intend to print it and believe it needs revising.
The following details section-specific contribution information:
- Opinion and analysis: Anyone may submit an opinion or analysis piece to EI. However, please note that we receive a large number of such submissions. Those most likely to be published will go beyond merely stating an opinion; they will also include factual or analytical content. We prefer to publish articles that offer sound arguments backed up by facts. We also welcome incisive analysis, especially media criticism.
- Living Palestine/Diaries - Our diaries section is open to anyone living in or visiting Palestine or writing about the experience of Palestinians in exile and the Diaspora, or their own experiences engaging in Palestine solidarity work or in other ways with Palestinian communities. Photos are especially important for diary entries. If you can send them, please do. Please let us know what location you are writing from when you send us your article.
- News features - Stories that have an investigative component and shed new light on an issue related to Palestine, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or Palestinian society and culture. Original reporting from Palestine or the Diaspora and related to the solidarity movement is especially valued. Interviews and articles rich with quotations are especially encouraged.
- Arts features - EI welcomes high-quality reviews of books, performances and films, as well as interviews with Palestinian culture-makers and others producing work related to the question of Palestine, as well as feature stories on cultural phenomena. It is advisable to contact us if you are interested in writing a review to avoid a situation where you submit a review for a book or film that we have already asked someone else to write about.
- Letters to EI - This section is intended to function as letters pages do in newspapers. If you are submitting a letter to EI, please keep it under 400 words, give us your name, phone number and e-mail address, and let us know that the letter is intended for the Letters to EI feed. This helps us distinguish what is intended as private comment from what is intended for publication.
Guidelines for photographic submissions
EI seeks stock images of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestinian life and society to illustrate articles. Photographers are credited and links offered to their websites if they have one. If you have been to Palestine and have a collection of photos, we would be grateful if you would allow us to use them for our site. We are also interested in events concerning Palestine from around the world (e.g. Palestinian refugees, a demonstration, cultural/art event, or other kind of solidarity event). Please email all photographic submissions to photos@electronicintifada.net.
- General format requirements - Images should be submitted digitally via e-mail to EI. Image size should not be in excess of 1MB per image. JPGs are the preferred file format. Images should be captioned clearly, including what is depicted in the image, the place the image was taken, and give the date of the image (where possible). If you have a website that you would like us to link to from your credit, please include the link.
- Photo Essays - Photo essays include 5-20 images that together tell a story of a specific event (e.g. a demonstration in Bilin) or a more general theme (e.g. Palestinian youth under occupation). It is prefered if you include at least one or two paragraphs of text explaining the body of images. General format requirements should be followed, including captions for each individual image.
If you have a question about something we have not addressed here, please contact us at info@electronicintifada.net.
