Submission Guidelines

 

 

General Guidelines for Submissions to Inside Higher Ed

Inside Higher Ed welcomes articles and proposals for pieces from our readers for our Views, Letters to the Editor and Careers sections. 

For Views

For Views, we are particularly interested in articles that have a strong argument and point of view and that give our readers recommendations for new policies, strategies, actions or ways of thinking about issues in higher education. We welcome pieces from all perspectives; we definitely have no party line. We are looking for articles that cover new ground and offer thought-provoking ideas for our audience of savvy higher education professionals. We love timely pieces that offer informed and insightful perspectives on the news of the day (or week). We also like first-hand narratives that explore, through the author’s experience, an issue or aspect of higher education or academic life in ways that would appeal to a wide range of readers. And finally, while we don’t typically publish single book reviews, we are interested in critical essays that explore multiple books or ideas as part of a broader, overarching argument about higher ed and/or academic life and the life of the mind.

For Career Advice

In the case of the Careers section, we are primarily looking for articles that provide concrete advice for college and university faculty members and administrators, as well as graduate school students. Topics include searching for a job, managing and reporting to others, publishing, the graduate-school experience, and other subjects related to careers in higher education. We are also interested in pieces about teaching and the experience of working in the classroom or online with students today. Finally, we look for pieces that offer insightful perspectives and ideas for ways that institutions can better support faculty members, administrators and graduate students to produce their best work and advance in their careers.

For Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor have long been a traditional part of news media, and we admire that tradition. If readers disagree with an opinion or idea expressed in an article, they may submit a letter to the editor to respectfully challenge that point of view. We will aim to publish letters that add to the debate on an issue and say something different from what’s been said to date. A letter that simply repeats the points made by previously printed letters may not be printed. A letter should reference the article or opinion piece it is about.

FAQs:

Can I submit a piece to Inside Higher Ed that has appeared elsewhere?

No. We will only publish pieces that have not appeared in another publication, either print or online, except for personal blogs with relatively limited readership.

Do you take anonymous submissions?

We strongly prefer that authors be willing to cite their name and organization for publication, although we are occasionally willing to publish pieces anonymously to protect the author’s career or safety.

What is your word limit?

Our Views and Careers articles tend to run between 1,000 and 1,500 words, but we accept and publish those that run both shorter and longer. Letters to the editor should be no more than 500 words.

How should I cite sources?

We don’t use footnotes but rather highly encourage authors to include hyperlinks to sources of further information in their pieces. Our readers like seeing such source material, and we use it to help check the facts in each article we run.

How should I submit a pitch?

We are willing to review brief proposals or short outlines instead of the completed article. That said, we will ultimately still have to see the entire piece before we make a final decision about publication.

We prefer to receive any Views or Careers submissions in an attachment, with the author’s name, title, organizational affiliation and contact information on that attachment.

Please submit articles and proposals for pieces to opinion@insidehighered.com. Letters to the editor may be sent to letters@insidehighered.com. As always, you are welcome to communicate with the editors (without anything being published) at editor@insidehighered.com.

To contribute to Student Success news hub, guidelines can be found here.

Can I write for you if I work with a private company?

We consider all submissions on an individual basis and value openness, transparency and disclosure. When submitting, please disclose any relevant potential conflict of interest (e.g., for a piece on artificial intelligence, an affiliation with an ed tech company that provides AI services) clearly in the submitted manuscript or the associated email.

What is your policy for using AI in opinion submissions?

If you used generative AI in any way in the creation of the manuscript, please disclose how you have used it—e.g. to assist with generating ideas, with organizing or structuring the essay or with editing and proofreading— clearly in the submitted manuscript or the associated email. While we recognize this is a fast-moving area and writers are relying on AI tools more and more, we have a strong preference that authors not use generative AI to generate their core ideas, as we’d much rather hear what humans have to say, and suspect most readers feel the same.

When will you respond to me?

Though we attempt to respond to highly time-sensitive pieces more quickly, it usually takes us one to two weeks to review and discuss a Views or Career Advice piece or proposal among ourselves, and then get back to let the author know if we plan to publish or move ahead with it.

We aim to publish letters to the editor that meet our editorial requirements within a day or two of submission.

What is your editing process like?

All Views and Careers pieces are edited and fact-checked. Authors will receive an edited version with any questions to review prior to publication. Our timeline for editing pieces varies depending on the nature of the piece and the subject matter as we work around the rhythms of the breaking news cycle. We make every effort to get timely pieces published quickly and efficiently.

Thank you for your interest in Inside Higher Ed. We look forward to hearing from you.