PA TIMES Editorial and Submission Guidelines

February 2008

Please Note

• Editorial Policy: On a daily basis, editorial policy is guided by Christine Jewett McCrehin, director of communications/editor, PA TIMES and Antoinette Samuel, executive director/editor-in-chief, PA TIMES with consultation given by the PA TIMES Editorial Board.

• The PA TIMES Editorial Board:  Members of this Board are appointed by the ASPA President and guide editorial policy.

• Bias:  The PA TIMES is dedicated to full and fair coverage of the arena of public service.  Our intent is to report without bias, without favor, without intimidation and without callous disregard of the impact of said reporting and articles.

In keeping with those goals, the PA TIMES recognizes that in a democratic society all segments of the population should have the opportunity to be heard.  It is our intention to provide a forum for the views of the oppressed as well as the favored, minorities as well as the majority.

The PA TIMES encourage submissions from and about all minorities and  will not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, gender or disability.

• Plagiarism: The PA TIMES will not borrow some one else’s words without attribution and expects submitting authors to follow this rule.

• Letters to the Editor: The PA TIMES accepts letters to the editor with the understanding that the editor may edit or reject letters.  All published letters must have a name and current contact information.

• Publication of submitted articles: The PA TIMES is under no obligation to print submitted articles, solicited or not, ASPA member or not. Authors are not to assume that their article is to be published unless explicitly told so by the PA TIMES Editor.

• PA TIMES Views: It is understood that the views expressed in the articles of the PA TIMES are those of the individual and are not necessarily the views of the PA TIMES, ASPA, or the organization they represent.

Editorial Information

PA TIMES, a publication of the American Society for Public Administration, is a monthly newspaper/letter serving public servants on a federal, state and local level, as well as academic. 

Our 9,700 members and subscribers are public servants on a federal, state and local level, as well as public administration academicians and students. 

Editorial goals include:

• Covering news and trends about the organization and management of the federal, state and local government as well as trends and innovations in public administration academia;

• Helping public servants improve the quality of their agencies’ services by reporting on management innovations;

• Explaining governmental problems and failures in ways that offer lessons about pitfalls to avoid;

• Creating a greater sense of community along the elite corps of public servants to whom the magazine circulates;

• Improving the image of the public service by reporting on the successes and learning experiences, as well as innovations in the field of public service.

Types of Articles we publish:

Feature/News Stories:

These usually range in length from 1000-1200 words. Any sidebars must be figured into the total word count. Feature/News stories fall into these general categories:

• Special Section Topics. Special Section topics are the monthly topics published on our editorial calendar.

• Management issues. These focus on topics of broad interest. Topics could include downsizing of agencies; reinventing government; recruitment and retention; ensuring that computers succeed in improving productivity and upgrading training. 

• Commentary. The PA TIMES invites reader opinios regarding the issues discussed in the paper or public management issues in general.

• Agencies. These stories often focus on one agency with an eye toward finding generally applicable lessons for public servants.

• Public Servants. Some articles are organized around certain professions within public service.

• Civil service issues. These include articles about pay, executive training, ethics, politicization of the civil service and the impact of technology on the workplace.

Occasional Columns

• Our Solutions for Public Managers and International Commentary columns are good forums for members of our audience to share an opinion or their experiences. Solutions columns should include advice that would be useful to managers in a variety of fields. International Commentary columns express opinions on issues relevant to international experiences. These columns are usually about 1,000-1,300 words long.

Other Departments

• These are usually 1,000 words or 1,300 words, except as noted. Monthly departments for which we use freelance contributions include:

• Where Things Stand: A series of short news items, 100-500 words each.

• Career Center: Career information for students and new, current or transitioning professionals.

• Information Technology: government applications of computer technologies.

Author Guidelines

Story submission checklist:

Stories may be submitted via e-mail. Along with your article, please include:

• Article length.  Articles should remain between 1000-1300 words unless otherwise advised by editor. Articles grossly violating the length limit will be returned for revision.

• Spacing. Many authors are accustomed to inserting two spaces after a period. However, most publications, including
  PA TIMES, insert only one space after a period. Authors are urged to conform.

• Inverted Pyramid.  We prefer the inverted pyramid style of writing–get key points and facts in the first few paragraphs, with less important details following, for ease of cutting.

• Associated Press (AP) style.  We use AP style, in all but noted instances. (See following pages)

• Art memo. Your graphics submissions may include portraits of your major sources, other photographs, cartoons, illustrations, graphs and charts.

• Author bio. At the end of the story, please include your title and affiliation along with an e-mail address for publication so that readers may contact you for more information.

• Rewriting. We may ask for a second draft of a story, particularly if you haven’t written for us before.

• Accuracy checks. We expect you to check all names, titles, dates and facts for accuracy before your story is submitted.

• Copyright. PA TIMES holds all rights for publication (including publication on the World Wide Web) and all reprint rights.

Guidelines for would-be contributors:

• PA TIMES shies away from articles that seem to be aimed at promoting the fortunes of any individual, product, or program.

• PA TIMES prefers to receive queries about possible assignments in the form of an e-mail that lays out the subject you want to write about, the angle you will take and, if applicable, the sources you will interview.

If you do send us a completed manuscript, be warned that deadline pressure often prevents us from considering or returning unsolicited manuscripts in a timely manner. We do not object if you submit a piece to other publications simultaneously. We do not return unsolicited manuscripts.

Editorial Guidelines

• Cutting Text from Articles: The PA TIMES reserves the right to cut text, while retaining article intent and meaning, in order to make article fit space.

• Ethnic Descriptions:  The PA TIMES does not use ethnic descriptions unless it is relevant to an article’s topic. Hyphenate and capitalize African-American. Capitalize Latino, Chinese, American, etc. when referring to a proper noun. Lowercase any other reference.

• References/Footnotes:  The PA TIMES does not print references or footnotes. When quoting or paraphrasing text; citations should be made within the article.  All book/article reference must list author first and last name. When quoting or paraphrasing the spoken word please cite speaker first and last name, title and affiliation. Please use the following examples as a guide:

• “I like the noise of democracy,” said James Buchanan, U.S. president.

• “Legal principles tell individuals the right way to act in order to live with one another, whereas ethical principles,” according to Ralph Clark Chandler, in a 1998 International Journal of Public Affairs article titled "Conclusion: Exploring the Heart of Civic Darkness," tell individuals the right way to act in order to live with their own consciences.”

• John Rohr, as stated in his book Ethics for Bureaucrats: An Essay on Law and Values, believes that the answer to the pressure to distort ethics does not lie in always doing the right thing.

• Publication and article titles: Newspaper, book, magazine and journal titles are to be italicized. Article titles are to be in quotes (newspaper, magazine, journal).

 

• Capitalization. When in doubt, do not capitalize. The words "city" and "county" are only capitalized when they are an integral part of a proper name (e.g., City of Chicago, Cook County), not when they stand alone in subsequent references. Similarly, titles are only capitalized when they directly precede an individual’s name (e.g., Mayor Richard Daley). Acronyms should appear in all capital letters (after one spelled-out use), while article titles and section headings should appear in title case (each word capitalized).

• Numbers. As a general rule, numbers from one to nine should be spelled out and numbers from 10 to the thousands should be written as figures. Numbers in the millions and above should use a combination of figures and the appropriate word. Dollar amounts are always written as figures following the $ sign (e.g., $500). Likewise, figures are always used in expressing percentages (e.g., 5 percent).

• Academic degrees: PA TIMES prefers to not list academic degrees following or preceding an individual’s name.

• Courtesy titles: As a general rule,
  PA TIMES does not use courtesy titles, however we do use professional titles; ex. vice president of students or professor of public administration.

• ASPA National Governing Bodies: Capitalize and use numerals.

• ASPA Committees: Lowercase (ex. conference marketing committee).  When referring to ASPA voting districts, capitalize and use Roman numerals.

• First Names: When writing about adults, last names only are preferred after first reference.

• September 11, 2001–use full listing on first reference, use Sept. 11 on all following references.

• George H.W. Bush–father, 41^st president, former president, first Bush administration

• George W. Bush–son, 43^rd president, president, current Bush administration

• U.S.–when used as an adjective, spell out when used as noun

• U.N.– when used as an adjective, spell out when used as noun

• nonprofit
• email
• website
• Internet
• vitae
• federal–when used as an adjective

• States: Use postal abbreviations except when referring to a specific state (ex. state of Washington).

• Cities: List state abbreviation following a city name except for the following: (From AP Stylebook): U.S. Cities-Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Denver, Detriot, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Anotonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, Hollywood. Foreign Cities- Beijing, Berlin, Djibouti, Geneva, Gibraltar, Guatemala City, Havana, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Kuwait, London, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico City, Monaco, Montreal, Moscow, Ottawa Paris, Quebec, Rome, San Marino, Tokyo, Toronto, Vatican City.

• Graduate Programs: MPA, DPA and Ph.D.

• Acronyms: Spell out first reference, followed by the acronym in parenthesis.  Each reference thereafter is abbreviated.  Acronyms may also be used in headlines.

Writing Tips

The editors of PA TIMES carefully edit all manuscripts to ensure that they conform to the publication’s style, tone and quality requirements. Poor writing can undermine the best of ideas, so authors should take great care in preparing their manuscripts. The tips below will assist authors in this regard:

• Organization. Articles should be carefully organized to facilitate readability. One of the most common deficiencies of submissions to PA TIMES is poor organization. As such, before you sit down to write, take a moment to clarify exactly what the article must do in order to be successful. You may even want to compose a written objective statement. An objective statement will help you stay on track as you write and will give you a specific benchmark for evaluating your document after it is written.
  
  Written documents typically consist of the following major components: opening, body and closing. Each of these elements is briefly discussed below.

• Paragraphs. Paragraphs break text into shorter chunks that appear more readable. The effective use of paragraphs can significantly improve the quality and aesthetic appeal of your article. Paragraph quality can be evaluated on the basis of these major attributes: unity, development, organization, coherence and appearance.

• Unity. All sentences in a paragraph should relate to the same topic. Therefore, when you have said all you want to say about a particular topic, start a new paragraph. Otherwise, readers will assume that you are still writing about the same subject matter and will be offended when they discover that you are not. Extremely lengthy paragraphs (more than 13 or 14 lines) should be broken up even if all of the sentences relate to a single topic. However, the break should be made at the most logical point, not at the exact midpoint.

• Development. A sentence contains a basic idea. A paragraph can be used to develop that idea more fully. As the writer, you have the responsibility to determine how much you develop an idea. This decision must be based on your analysis of each situation (i.e., how much information you want to convey and how much the reader needs or wants to know).

• Organization. Most paragraphs can, and should, be organized with a topic sentence at the beginning.

• Coherence. Words show relationships among the different content elements and explain how the text is organized. As a writer, you have the obligation to provide the appropriate text as well as to clearly reveal how all the text fits together. Without effective coherence, your writing will be nothing more than a list of ideas requiring the reader to figure out how they are organized and how they relate to each other.

• Appearance. Paragraphs should be visually appealing. Good visual appeal can be enhanced by keeping the paragraph height and width relatively short. Because readers react negatively to long, uninterrupted passages of text, avoid paragraphs longer than seven or eight lines.

• Sentences. Use the active voice except where passive voice is more effective (i.e., when the action or the recipient of the action is more important than the actor). Consider the following examples of active vs. passive voice:

• Not: Sometime during the next month a recommendation will be generated by the planning committee. (Passive)

• But: The planning committee will recommend a new site next month. (Active)

• Not: I have hired Samantha Jackson to fill the vacancy. (Active)

• But: Samantha Jackson has been hired to fill the vacancy. (Passive: Samantha is more important than the person who hired her.)

• Sentences should flow logically from one to the next. Avoid choppy writing. Also avoid excessive words and phrases and long, complex sentences. Break complex sentences into two or more sentences. Variety in sentence length is important, but the average sentence should be relatively short. In the end, the most important consideration is the clarity of the message. No one likes to have to read something twice to get the message. Although there is no single right way to express any thought, writers should try to achieve the following qualities in each sentence that they write:

• Select effective words.

• Keep sentences concise and simple. Omit unnecessary or weak words. Avoid complicated arrangements of words, phrases and clauses.

• Maintain clear and consistent relationships among sentence parts. Make sure subjects and verbs agree in number, gender and person. Avoid ambiguous references and unclear modifiers.

• Maintain parallelism. Make sure parallel ideas follow the same grammatical construction.

• Maintain a consistent point of view concerning person and tense.

• Make sentences forceful. Use active, rather than passive, writing.

• Follow accepted standards of punctuation and number usage.