Submission Guidelines
About Mine Action News & Submissions
Mine Action News features the latest research and topical debate on issues in humanitarian mine action (defined widely). Article submissions are open to practitioners and researchers alike. They should be written in an engaging, accessible, fashion and provide relevant insights worthy of our reader’s attention, such as distinctive academic research/insights, unique data collection/fieldwork, or professional insights from practice.
All articles must be presented to a high standard in one of two different formats that conform to our style guide, as outlined below. The editorial staff reserves the right to reject submissions that include text copied from other sources in part or as a whole. Works that have been published previously and for which the author retains publishing rights may be submitted, but Mine Action News requires the author to provide notification of this when submitting the article and give contact information for the original publisher so that republication permission may be verified. Republication submissions for which this information is not provided up front may be rejected.
Authors who submit articles to Mine Action News are expected to do so in good faith and are solely responsible for the content therein, including the accuracy of all information and correct attribution for quotations and citations.
Article Formats
1. RESEARCH articles (guide length: 1500–3500 words) may test out new ideas or approaches, reflect on technical innovations, or challenge existing or emerging practices. We also accept student research (e.g. term papers, excerpts or summaries of bachelor / master / PhD theses). Research articles may also be published as a series of several articles. To support accessibility, research articles should contain a brief abstract (less than 500 words) summarising the key arguments or topics. They should then start with a basic overview of the issue they are exploring and reference supporting material throughout via hyperlinks and/or footnotes. We do not seek overly dense jargon-laden writing, so please write as accessibly as possible throughout. If used, bold-set and left align headings.
2. INSIGHT articles (guide length 800–1500 words) reflect on topical/newsworthy issues in a way that engages an audience of HMA practitioners. They can be field notes or programme narratives, and they may also be responses to or reflections on other articles / publications. Opinion Pieces should give a basic summary of the issue before developing an analysis over an engaging series of concise paragraphs with a range of links to wider reading embedded to the text via hyperlinks. Please do not include footnotes, endnotes, headings, or academic references in insight articles, but instead provide a range of helpful hyperlinks embedded in the text.
Style Guide
Prepare all articles as follows:
-
Prepare your article in Microsoft Word format (.docx) in well written, publishable English (any variant is fine).
-
The use of AI to generate text for insight articles must be kept to a minimum, and is discouraged for research articles. Your thoughts must be your own. AI tools are permissible in an assistive capacity (e.g. translation, editing).
-
Submit a short professional biography (no more than 100 words) and a high-quality headshot for each author. You may include professional / academic affiliations, titles, positions and preferred pronouns (as applicable). We are happy to include notable publications and web/social links.
-
Share a catchy title that directly describes the content. It must be 85 characters or less and in Title Case.
-
Do not indent the first sentences of paragraphs. Leave one clear line of space between each paragraph.
-
Referencing, depending on the type of article you are preparing (see above), should be via embedded hyperlinks and/or your preferred referencing system. In research articles footnotes or endnotes for referencing are also accepted.
-
Indent quotes longer than two lines. Do not italicise quotations.
-
Do not use a double space after each period / full stop (single space please).
-
If you have used figures/tables/images, compile these at the bottom of your article and provide captions. If used, these must be relevant to the content and be created/owned by you, or supplied with attribution and a destination link to the source confirming it is public domain.
Submission and Publication
When ready, send your article to mineactionnews@gmail.com with the email subject/title ‘SUBMISSION’. It must be attached in word format (.docx) and include an author bio at the top.
Our Publishing Agreement covers all content associated with Mine Action News. Submission of your article confirms you have read and understood this agreement.
We are a small team of volunteer editors with busy professional and personal schedules. After submission you should get a personal response noting that our editorial team will get back to you within 14 days – please do not chase us for a response until 14 days have passed, and check your spam folder if you do not see an email from us within that period. Our response will be either a notice of publication, a revise and resubmit request, or a rejection.
If we publish your article we will typically make a range of minor presentational copy edits and formatting amendments as we deem necessary, though nothing that will alter your meaning. We are always happy to make post-publication amendments – if you spot any issues please let us know.
Publishing Agreement
Mine Action News is pleased to have the privilege of publishing your work. By submitting your work for publication you agree to the following terms between you and Mine Action News:
Submission of your content grants Mine Action News a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license to the work. If the work is accepted for publication, Mine Action News;
-
May reproduce the work in any form,
-
Shall attribute the work to you (unless otherwise requested – see the section on anonymous submission below),
-
Will charge you no fee for publication, but will pay no royalty or honorarium to you,
-
Will publish the work under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license. This also allows unlimited non-commercial and educational uses of your content by other services under open access principles (e.g. students, educators) and publishers (e.g. non commercial websites, academic publications), and
-
Will require you to attribute the work’s original publication with Mine Action News in any subsequent use of the work. You retain all other rights to the work.
In addition, upon submission you represent and warrant to Mine Action News that,
-
You have legal capacity to agree to this Publishing Agreement,
-
You are the author(s) of the work,
-
The work is original and has not been previously published, or the work has been published previously and the author retains publishing rights. In such a case, Mine Action News requires the author to provide notification of this when submitting the article and give contact information for the original publisher so that re-publication permission may be verified.
-
The submitted work must be primarily your own intellectual contribution. AI tools may be used for limited assistive purposes (e.g., language editing, outlining, or idea exploration), but the core analysis, arguments, and conclusions must be developed by you,
-
You remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of your submissions,
-
There is no previous agreement to publish the work,
-
The work is not currently under review with another publisher,
-
No part of the work infringes any copyright,
-
The work is not unlawful and contains no statement known to be false or libellous,
-
The work does not pose a danger to the life or security of any person, including the author(s), and,
-
Submission gives consent to your work being published, with the understanding that it may be ‘unpublished/removed’ at a later date upon the author’s request or at the discretion of the editorial board.
This Publishing Agreement will remain in force for the entire copyright term of the work.
Mine Action News is operated by a small team of volunteers. You agree to indemnify the Mine Action News team against any claim alleging facts that constitute a breach of any term of this Publishing Agreement.
This is the entire agreement between you and Mine Action News.
Anonymous Submissions
At Mine Action News we believe that avoiding the hard conversations is not keeping the peace – it just keeps the tension. Some opinions challenge long-standing practices and standards, but if they are sincere, serious, expressed in good faith and constructive, aimed at naming and addressing an issue, then we believe that they should be heard. Mine Action News therefore recognises that some authors wish to have their article published under a pseudonym rather than their real name to protect against personal or career backlash.
The editorial team of Mine Action News has not, does not, and will not publish any of their own articles anonymously / using a pseudonym. We do reserve this option exclusively for external authors, and only if we find their request justified. The intention is not to provoke, but to see how mine action professionals react to a new idea and if this can be the starting point of a conversation.