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Missouri Policy Journal

Guidelines for Authors

Guidelines for Authors

Providing a guideline as to the length of articles submitted is difficult since we aim to publish pieces which cover a topic in-depth and with a policy emphasis. Potential contributors may want to contact the editor at mpjeditor@yahoo.com to better determine relevancy and length. We are interested in receiving proposals for articles and will quickly respond to such inquiries. We are interested in a wide variety of issues affecting Missouri affairs.

Furthermore, our interest can extend to topics that touch upon interstate and Midwest issues that highlight Missouri. National issues that focus on Missouri are equally welcome. Manuscripts that address Missouri might include a focus on another state with a program or policy that should be of interest to Missouri. Usually, this has been characterized as a term known as Laboratories of Democracy, where states can learn from each other. Everything cannot necessarily easily be duplicated from another state, however, and manuscripts that emphasize the limitations of applying a program or policy from another state are also of interest to us.

Bear in mind that the words “detached and analytical” and “can be read by the average educated adult reader” used in the Purpose Statement are of paramount importance. Submissions will be sent to a reviewer (Missouri Policy Journal is a peer review journal) as well as a copy editor.

Submissions should follow Turabian style (which is based on the Chicago Manual of Style). Please look at a past issue of the journal for examples of our Turabian footnote style. Please take note of how authors’ names are listed (we do not put last name first), and that a date accessed and URL are included for online sources in addition to typical information found in footnotes (such as article or book title, publication title, date, etc.) An abstract will also be needed. We do not use endnotes or a bibliography.

The journal is published annually, although we will publish a special issue in addition to the annual edition if needed. In addition to journal-length articles, we are interested in shorter pieces by policymakers. These pieces are not necessarily written in the same way articles are written, but are more like commentary pieces, or they might provide insight policymakers, public officials, newspaper editors, and journalists would like to share. Furthermore, we are also interested in review pieces which address publications or websites that are relevant to Missouri.