Rev 5/2013
These editorial guidelines apply equally to all contributors, including WPEC officers and members of the editorial board.
WPEC encourages submissions to its newsletter, From the Ashes, from all members.
Submission does not guarantee publication in the WPEC newsletter. From the Ashes reserves the right to make any changes necessary to accepted articles and to refuse publication of any submission deemed detrimental to WPEC or its members in the opinion of the editor. Opinions expressed in From the Ashes are those of the individual author/s and are not necessarily those of the newsletter editor, officers, editorial board, Executive Council, WPEC, or AFT-Wisconsin.
Submission of Editorial Content
A clear distinction should be between news or factual reports and opinion. Articles that contain opinion or personal interpretation must be clearly identified.
Original Material and Quotations
WPEC invites members to submit original unpublished work not submitted for publication elsewhere.
For any submission that is not the writer’s original content or that includes portions of another writer’s content, the member submitting the work must indicate in the submission to the Editor that they obtained permission from the original source (such as author, publication where originally published, etc.). This includes artwork, cartoons, photos, clip art, etc. The member is solely responsible for obtaining permission from the original source. If the submission includes only a portion of non-original contribution included with an otherwise original contribution (such as a quote, sentence or paragraph from another source), the source will be identified and credited in the submission.
For example, if quoting the first sentence under “Original Material and Quotations”, the member would contain the sentence in quotation marks and indicate the source like this:
“WPEC invites members to submit original unpublished work not submitted for publication elsewhere,” as indicated in the WPEC Newsletter Editorial Guidelines.
Fact-Checking
Writers submitting work to WPEC are accountable in the first instance for their own accuracy and may, in some cases, be solely responsible for fact-checking. Writers are responsible for verification of all facts prior to submitting their story to WPEC. Sources must be identified.
Research materials (e.g., publications, news clips, specialized journals, etc.) used in the creation of the manuscript should be identified (include date and name of publication) and keyed to the respective section of the article.
Acceptance for Publication
Submissions are published at the discretion of WPEC's Communication Committee. Editors will review all contributions and accept, return to the author for revision, or reject the article. All submissions accepted for publication by WPEC will be acknowledged in writing to the original author (either hard-copy or via e-mail) prior to publication.
Deadlines
Deadlines for submissions for future newsletters will be listed in each newsletter.
Style
• Length for feature articles should be approximately 300 to 800 words
• Include a title and subheads
• Use clear, straightforward English
• Spell out acronyms or abbreviations the first time you use them
• Define all jargon
• Double spaced copy is preferred
• Every effort must be made to ensure that news content is accurate, free from bias, in context, presented fairly, and addresses a Union perspective.
• Editorials, analytical articles and commentary will be held to the same standards of accuracy as news reports with respect to claims of fact.
• All submissions should be accompanied by the author's/authors' name/s.
• Include charts, graphs, diagrams, photographs, illustrations, cartoons, etc. when possible to break up wordy articles. JPG format for illustrations and photos is preferred.
• Suggested captions and credits should accompany artwork.
Quotations and References
Readers should be able to assume that every word between quotation marks is what the speaker or writer actually said. Unless the writer has detailed notes or a recording, it is usually wise to paraphrase long comments, since they may turn up worded differently on television or in other publications. Credit must be given to the source of any material referenced by an author, including any material from newspapers, magazines, books and broadcasts, as well as news agencies.
Revisions
All contributions are subject to editing for space, clarity and conformity with WPEC's house style.
The editorial advisory committee reserves the right, when necessary, to request manuscript revisions from the original author or to incorporate revisions directly. Editors may send edited articles to the author for one final review before publication if time and workload allows. Response deadlines will be dependent upon the relevant publication schedule. If an author is unable to respond by the identified deadline, WPEC reserves the right to be able to move forward with publication of the edited article.
Corrections
WPEC recognizes an ethical responsibility to correct all factual errors, large or small, brought to its attention. Significant known errors of fact, as well as errors of omission, will be corrected promptly and prominently. If a correction is warranted, it will be published immediately.
Technical requirements
To facilitate production, all editorial contributions to WPEC (should) shall be submitted as Microsoft Word documents. Contributions submitted via e-mail should be sent as an attachment to the e-mail, not in the body of the message
Include the name and contact information, including e-mail address, of the original author (and source, if different) when submitting to WPEC.