Blog Submission Guidelines

The CPS blog is being developed as a space to take research from within CPS to an external audience. The blog is intended to host research articles, think pieces, explainers, historical perspectives, opinions, and other policy related articles.

To submit an article, send it in MSWord format to cps.iitb.website@gmail.com

What to Write About

The CPS blog is dedicated to addressing public policy issues in India and the world. Articles are invited on public policy issues such as

• Research updates
• Field ethnographies
• Commentaries
• Analysis of current policies/frameworks
• Commemoration of World/National XYZ Days
• Reports from events, conferences and seminars
• Opinion on recent events/news
• Explainers
• Policy histories
• Methodological insights

This list is merely indicative and not exhaustive. Other ideas are welcome as well.

Quick Submission Format

Note: These are just the basic guidelines. Please make sure to look at the CPS Style Guide to ensure that your quotations and references are done in the correct format.

• 500-1000 words
• simple language accessible to layperson (minimize jargon!)
• short paragraphs, and subheadings for easy readability
• citations (see CPS Style Guide for more details)
• put in a title
• send it to cps.iitb.website@gmail.com in MSWord format
• add a good quality copyright free accompanying picture (if available)

How to Write a Blog Post

Blog posts are different from journal articles. First, since the audience may not always be research peers, it is important to write in clear, simple language; avoiding the excessive use of jargon. It should also be kept in mind that reading online is a different experience from reading books or printed articles. Attention spans on the internet are notoriously short. To ensure maximum engagement, we suggest the following:

• The word count for a blog post should be between 500 and 1000 words.
• Use clear subheadings to make navigating the piece easy. Readers tend to skim to relevant key words
• Write short paragraphs to enhance readability
• Include a suggested title for your blog post
• Include citations and references (See Style Guide); and wherever possible provide hyperlinks to other websites, links to pdf papers, videos, tweets, etc
• Use informational graphics such as charts and maps (with sources and links).
• Provide accompanying photographs (Copyright free or with adequate permissions, giving due credit)
• Be sure to back up your claims with research and data, and always provide sources

What NOT to do

• DO NOT plagiarise. Always attribute material to the original source
• DO NOT be libellous or defamatory.
  Be extremely careful while making negative comments about people or institutions. While negative criticism is an important part of opinion and critique, it must be reasonable, responsible, and substantiated by research and data
• DO NOT use unparliamentary language
• DO NOT take photos from Google without checking copyrights and permissions

Image credits: Bnleez for Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0]