Before you submit your work to the Africa Center for Strategy & Policy, please read the following Writer’s Guidelines & publication formats.

Current scholarship on Africa seldom represents the continent’s opportunities. At the Africa Center for Strategy & Policy, we enhance the opportunities within Africa. We are currently seeking contributions from scholars and practitioners from across the continent and around the world, that will advance the conversation about empowering Africa’s stability, peace, growth, and development. We strive to maintain diverse representation across the globe.These guidelines are to help you submit relevant policy work that meet high scholarly standards.

Types of Posts We Publish:

While we are open to all submissions, please note that our primary focus is work that is policy relevant in nature. We ask that SUBMISSIONS OF ANY TYPE follow this basic guideline:

Statement of the problem – Analysis/status of the problem – Policy recommendations/implications

Please see attached document regarding our citation / reference expectations: Reference Examples for What We Publish

• Authors may choose to use either British or American English spelling style if it is consistent throughout the piece. Foreign words and phrases should be italicized with the English translation provided in parentheses immediately following the first usage of the word or phrase.
• Blog references should be hyperlinked. All other submissions must include endnotes (for citation purposes).
• Submission without references will be returned and requested to resubmit with references when appropriate. This is to ensure that supporting evidence is provided in the author’s claims.
• If images or figures are used from a third-party source, please ensure you credit the source if it is available for public use (e.g. Twitter image). If it is not available for public use, please secure permission from the owner of the image or figure prior to publication.
• Please note that any submission must be an original piece of work, i.e. not published or considered for publication elsewhere.
• Submissions must be upheld to high ethical standards in research production, whether this pertains to academic guidelines, journalism ethics, or practitioner codes in the respective field.
• Submissions are received any time throughout the year, but every month, we select only a handful for publication. Submit your work in a WORD (.doc and .docx format) to our editorial team at the SUBMISSION LINK and  we will review it. We will get back to you as soon as possible with the next steps, which will likely include revisions prior to publication. If you are wondering whether your topic or paper would be a good fit, please send up to a 300-word abstract and a short biography to the editors listed above.

Policy Briefs (1000 – 7000 words) Keep it short. A policy memo is not a research report or white paper. Define the problem or issue. Highlight implications or state significant findings based on the data. Do not merely present data. Show how you arrived at the findings or recommendations through analysis of qualitative or quantitative data. Draw careful conclusions that make sense of the data and do not overstate or misrepresent it. Summarize your findings or state recommendations. Provide specific recommendations or findings in response to specific problems and avoid generalizations. Provide criteria for evaluating options. Describe the key assumptions underlying your analysis and prioritize the criteria you rely on to assess evidence. Make sure to analyze each option according to those criteria.  Support your assertions with relevant data. Remember your credibility as a policy maker rests on your ability to locate and account for counterargument. You should be especially sensitive to the likely counterarguments your decision-maker faces in implementing or acting on your recommendations or findings.   Suggest next steps and/or implementation of the recommendations. Distill the conclusions succinctly in a concluding section and remind the stakeholders of the big picture.

Expert Commentary | Perspectives (500 – 1500 words: the shorter the better) Expert commentary and/or opinion pieces should draw on the author’s personal expertise to analyze or inform on issues relevant to Africa today. It may take the form of an article, letter, editorial, etc. It appears in publications under a variety of names: comment, commentary, editorial comment, viewpoint, etc. In addition, this type of post may also be a response to previously published material.

Book Review (500 – 1000 words) Critical analyses of books, research articles and other monographic works.

Backgrounder (2000 – 6000 words) A backgrounder is a long-form article which analyzes complex and ongoing issues and debates. Unlike blog posts (which are specific, short articles drawing attention to an issue) or policy briefs (which provide specific recommendations), backgrounders focus on the historical development of a given issue and explain the range of current perspectives on that issue. Backgrounders strive to be as objective as possible, and, as such, often require extensive research. The also must be accompanied by a bibliography. Example backgrounder titles are as follows:

• The Electoral College: Origins and Potential for Reform (this would explain the history of the electoral college, why it is used, the difference among the varying proposals to reform it, and what would be needed politically/legislatively to do so, all without advocating a specific path)
• The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Energy Politics and Competing Economic Interests (this would provide a history of the controversy, explain the various geopolitical and economic interests at stake, and would investigate proposed resolutions to the issue)

Reports – Analytical & Research Papers (2000 – 5000 words) Our reports are research presentations with a deep look at still-evolving issues that may be followed by evaluative studies that eventually lead to a policy recommendation. Research & Analytical papers will ideally provide in-depth background on a range of concerns regarding the continent and its polity.

Blog Guidelines (500 – 750 words) Blog posts should be within the word limits above depending on the format of your publication. Any posts that exceed that limit will be at the discretion of the Africa Center for Strategic Progress; you may be asked to shorten your post to fulfill the length requirements. We welcome submissions from all practitioners working on, in, or around Africa, as well as expert commentary from scholars conducting policy-relevant research.