Maine Policy Review: Submission Guidelines

Maine Policy Review encourages article submissions.  The journal provides timely, independent analysis of public policy issues affecting   Maine  and/or the region.  Articles with a national or international focus also are considered as long as their relevance to public policy formulation in   Maine  is clearly established by the author. 

Maine Policy Review is nonpartisan and encourages debate among its contributors.  It is intended for a diverse audience including state policymakers, government, business, and nonprofit leaders, and general readers with a broad interest in public policy. Many of its articles are based on some form of applied research or independent inquiry; Occasionally, the journal includes more technical or scientific articles; however, the article must be understandable and informative to a diverse readership. 

Submissions should represent original, previously unpublished material.  However, the journal sometimes does consider printing material that has been published elsewhere (assuming all requisite permissions are obtained).  This is not the norm and the editor should be contacted prior to the submission of non-original material.

FEATURE ARTICLES

Length
Articles should be roughly 15-25 pages in length (double-spaced text, 12-size font, one-inch margins).  Do dnot include an abstract; accepted articles will have introductory text written by the editors. Longer articles will also be considered at the editor's discretion.

Stylistic Considerations
Articles should be written in an enjoyable and readable style, the kind of writing you would expect to find in The Atlantic Monthly or The New Yorker.  You are writing for a general audience, not a technical or academic audience.  You might imagine you are addressing a member of the legislature or a government, nonprofit, or business leader in the state.  You should provide sufficient background on the issue so that readers can understand the issue.  However, it often makes sense to avoid cumbersome details that, while interesting to technical readers, would confuse a general audience.  Avoid jargon, vague bureaucratic words, and alphabet soups of abbreviations.  Define all technical terms and any abbreviations on first use.  Whenever possible, provide concrete examples to clarify terms or concepts.  If an abbreviation is used only once or twice, use the entire phrase.

Author Information
Submissions should include the author’s name, address, telephone, fax and e-mail address.This information should be provided for each author; however, please indicate to whom all editorial correspondence should be sent. For articles that are accepted for publication the journal requires a concise biographical statement (2-4 sentences) about each author that conveys his/her background in the article’s subject area.  Each author must also submit a head-and-shoulders photograph(a high resolution electronic version is fine) in color or black-and-white.  All paper photos are returned.

Figures and Tables
Tables and figures should be included in the body of the text, in the approximate place they would appear in print.  Because all figures will be recreated in the sizes and formats most appropriate for presentation in the journal, authors of accepted articles may be asked to send original data files on which the figure (chart or graph) is based (e.g., an Excel data file).  (Please contact the editor if this is not possible or is unusually cumbersome.)  Also for accepted articles, please consult the editor about any maps so they can be provided in a format suitable for editing.

Footnotes / Endnotes 
Footnotes are not accepted.  If a note in your article contains important material, either format it as an endnote or include it in the text in parentheses.  If the note is of limited relevance to the text, then leave it out.  Endnotes are numbered sequentially throughout the text and will appear at the end of the article.  Please limit your use of them. References are cited using in-text citations, not notes, e.g., About 90 percent of Maine's land is privately owned; the state owns 8.7 percent; and the federal government 1.8 percent (Hagen et al. 2005: 9).

References
Many authors include references.  However, please avoid long, exhaustive reference lists that are not central to your analysis.  MPR uses a modified version of The Chicago Manual of Style.  Use authors' full first names.  For on-line sources, indicate the exact Website address and the data accessed.  Examples are listed below.

Headings
We prefer no more than two levels of headings within the text.  Level 1 heads are all caps; level 2 heads are capitalized on the first letter only.  Both are centered on the page.

Article Submission 
Articles should be submitted to the editor in electronic form.  

The text of the article should be submitted in Microsoft Word (*.doc), WordPerfect (*.wpd), or ASCII (DOS) Delimited Text (*.txt) format.  Please use character formatting, that is, formatting you can do on single characters or words (e.g., bold, italics, indentations), but do not use your processor’s special features (e.g., hanging indents, auto-endnote placement, etc.).

Permissions
If a figure, table or more than 100 words of text from previously published material are included in the article, then the author must obtain written permission to use it from the copyright holder.

Occasionally, after an article’s publication in Maine Policy Review, the author requests permission to post his/her article on a website other than Maine Policy Review’s, or to submit the article in its published form to another journal.  We encourage both practices.  However, before preceding authors must obtain permission from the editor.

COMMENTARIES
Commentaries are shorter pieces, generally 1,000-2,000 words in length. They may be in the following forms: 

Please submit commentaries to the editor following the guidelines above. 

THE MARGARET CHASE SMITH ESSAY
Each issue of Maine Policy Review begins with an essay in honor of Senator Smith.  The purpose of the essay is to express an idea or perspective about public affairs, our society, or the world.  The essay expresses the informed perspective of the author and often is challenging or provocative.  Recent essays have covered such topics as education, civil society, campaign reform, and welfare policy.  They can address the future as well as assess recent events or public policies.

Essays are short (800-1,200 words), are written in plain English, and the use of references or footnotes should be avoided.  They are similar in style and purpose to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal or New York Times.  In fact, occasionally the essay is a reprint from these or other national publications.  Past essays are available on request for review.

EDITORIAL REVIEW
All submissions to Maine Policy Review are subject to editorial review.  The journal employs a double-blind method of review that involves expert as well as practitioner assessment of the article’s quality, policy relevance, and suitability for a general audience.  Authors can expect to hear from the editor within three months of the date of submission as to whether the article has been accepted for publication.

Authors should expect to make revisions to their original submissions.  Typically the reviewers' comments indicate additional background that should be supplied for readers, suggest details that may be unnecessary or confusing to readers, and ask for stylistic changes that conform the article to the journal's style. 

CONTACT INFORMATION
Articles, commentaries, Margaret Chase Smith essays, and/or your questions should be directed to the editor at the address below:

Ann Acheson, Editor
Maine Policy Review
Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center
5784 York Complex, Bldg #4
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-5784

Ph: (207) 581-1567
Fx: (207) 581-1266
Email:  ann.acheson@umit.maine.edu