Statewatch is a small, non-profit organisation and our work is greatly enhanced by our network of volunteer contributors across Europe. If you would like to contribute to Statewatch, please read the following and contact office [at] statewatch.org. If you require it, you can find our public PGP key here.
We accept the following types of contributions:
- news articles – 200-1,500 words;
- analyses – 1,000 – 10,000 words;
- documentation – official documents; and
- links – to articles, reports, analyses or information relevant to Statewatch’s work.
Translations of material into English are always welcome, provided that permission is sought from the original author/publisher (where necessary).
News articles can be based on: first-hand reporting; relevant reports published by NGOs, government bodies or other organisations; write-ups of academic work; official documentation; official speeches; book reviews. You can find examples of news articles we have published here, here, here, here and here. They should report the facts and other peoples' opinions, but not the author's own opinions.
Analyses should take an in-depth look at an issue or situation and be between 1,000 and 10,000 words in length. An analysis should provide the author's opinion on the topic in question, as long as that opinion is backed up by evidence.
We frequently publish official documentation, both from the EU institutions and national governments. Documents themselves are very welcome contributions, as are summaries of their content. If you have material you would like to send to us securely, you can find our contact details here.
We provide hundreds of links every year to material published by newspapers, NGOs, official bodies and other organisations. You are welcome to send us links to relevant material; at the same time, summaries of the content of those links would be much appreciated, in particular summary translations into English.
Bear in mind that we are a small organisation with limited time and resources. If you wish to submit a longer article for consideration (1,500 words or more), please send us an abstract/summary first.
Articles should be submitted to office [at] statewatch.org with minimal formatting. If you are affiliated to an institution (e.g. university, NGO) that you wish to be published alongside your name, please inform us. If you require it, you can find our public PGP key here.
Style guide
Spelling and capitalisation
Statewatch uses minimal capitalisation - e.g. for the first word of a heading or title of an article; lower case for terms like prime minister, mayor, etc.; 'black' or ‘brown’ are normally lower case, however the author's preference will be followed.
Use British spelling, not US, except where necessary in quotations. Use -ise form, not -ize. US, not U.S.; Mr not Mr. but Jenny M. Russell, not Jenny M Russell.
Numbers one to ten should be spelt out unless they are the first word of a sentence, ages, percentages or statistical material. Use %, not per cent.
Quotations
For all quotes, use double quotation marks (“”), except for quotes within quotes, for which use single quotation marks (‘’).
Full stops should follow quotation marks unless the quotation itself forms a complete sentence; commas should be placed within punctuation marks when authors’ text follows (as necessary).
Quotes of more than two lines should usually be indented and italicised.
Square brackets [] should be used to indicate matter inserted into a quotation, and three stops followed by a space to indicate matter omitted. Please indicate where emphasis is added in any quotation, either before or after the quotation as appropriate.
References, footnotes and links
The following format is preferred for references: author, title, publication/publisher, document number, date, URL. Where any individual item within that format is irrelevant, it should be discarded but the remaining items preserved in the same order.
Footnote/reference markers in the text should be numbered with Arabic numerals (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4...) and placed after punctuation marks.
Links may also be embedded in the text, if the author does not wish to use a footnote to add detail/explanation.
Where links lead to another file type, this should be indicated in brackets (e.g. pdf).
Abbreviations
Where abbreviations are used, the full name/title should be provided first, followed by the abbreviation in brackets. Subsequently, generally only the abbreviation should be used.
Copyright
Before publication, authors are requested to assign copyright of original material to Statewatch. They retain their right to reuse the material in other publications written or edited by themselves. If another form of licence applies (e.g. Creative Commons), we will abide by the requirements of that licence.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permissions from copyright holders for reproducing material in their work that has previously been published elsewhere.