Author guidelines

Diggit Magazine has a rigorous independent editorial policy. To streamline the publication flow, we provide future authors with guidelines on both form and content. In the first phase only students, lecturers and researchers connected to the Department of Culture Studies at Tilburg University and those linked to the Department through institutional networks are able to submit. In the next phase (Fall 2016) submission should be open to all.  Most answers to pratical questions are addressed in the Diggit tutorials (only accessible when you are logged in).

 

Form

Language  & style

Diggit Magazine publishes content written in English and Dutch. Contributions in these languages are welcome.  

Please pay attention to the quality of the language of your submission. Submissions will be checked for spelling, word choice and grammar before publication, but we of course cannot write the papers ourselves. 

Please remember that you are writing for an online medium that targets a broad audience. Submitted texts should be characterized by clear, accessible and explanatory language that combines academic rigor and journalistic style. Diggit Magazine favours short sentences and paragraphs over long ones. We urge you to explain the concepts you use, and make your argumentation clear. You will only impress us when you are able to clearly express your ideas and analysis. 

Keep in mind that many of the readers and authors of Diggit Magazine are multilingual, and in many cases English is the second or third language in their repertoire. 

Layout 

As an author, you have your own profile and your own publishing tools. This means that you are both an author and also part of the publishing process: you are responsible for the layout of your text which you can manage in the content field by using the WYSIWYG-editor.  Please take a look at our layout-example.

Some general (layout) guidelines: 

  1. The easiest way to start this process is to copy/paste from a Word file (with endnotes). Make sure you don't format your text too much in Word - use the WYSIWYG editor to do that. Please make sure you do not underline anything in your text. 
  2. Upload a good cover image. Please make sure it is copyright free, or that you own the copyrights.
  3. Align all of your content to the left (use the 'align left' button in the WYSIWYG editor).
  4. Use the headings (H2, H3, H4, H5) in the WYSIWYG editor. Please be consistent! 
  5. Regular 'scientific' quotes (from your data or quotes from literature) should be marked in italics.
  6. For journalistic quotes (quotes you highlight to get readers to read your text) you should use the WYSIWIG editor. With these quotes you can break up the text, make it more attractive to read and draw the attention of your readers to these highlights. You may want to aim for an average of one quote for every 1000 words. How to go about doing this?
  • Highlight quotes by selecting a sentence and pressing the " button in the WYSIWYG editor, or 
  • First click the quote button and then type or paste the quote.
  1. Include pictures in your text. You cannot copy/paste pictures from Word. Pictures should be uploaded.  This can be done easily by clicking the picture button in the WYSIWYG editor. An average of one picture for every 1000 words is perfect. And again, remember copyrights!
  2. Endnotes and references are possible. Endnotes you can copy/paste from Word. This enables clickability and is encouraged. Use APA as a guideline.
  3. The use of hyperlinks is highly appreciated, but please do clean them up. Try to replace the entire url by using the link-button in the WYSIWYG editor. Please choose 'a new window' as target. 

If you need more detailed information, you can take a look at the Diggit tutorials

 

Content

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is of course prohibited. It damages the rights of authors and the credibility of Diggit Magazine. All potential content will be checked for plagiarism. Students have to provide the plagiarism report as an attachment to their publication.

Facts & peer review

The basic (empirical) facts should be accurate. 

High-quality content

Diggit Magazine focuses on publishing high-quality content, while the Diggit blog can be used as a space for reflection, trial-and-error products and questions. Diggit Magazine provides academic quality. What are the criteria for that?

  • Empirical data and academic literature. Publications should as much as possible be based on empirical data and/or academic literature. Where possible the data discussed is also provided to the readers through attachments and hyperlinks.
  • References. Diggit publications include whenever possible references (endnotes) to academic literature and sources.
  • Arguments. Articles, analysis and opinion articles are based on solid arguments, not on opinions or feelings. Ad hominem attacks will be rejected.

 

Societal relevance and democratic impact

Diggit Magazine is a niche magazine that wants to be relevant to the larger society. The knowledge we produce is aimed at ‘understanding society’ and advancing a democratic society. Diggit Magazine wants to strengthen democracy and as such it places itself in a long tradition. Democracy here is understood within its historical radical enlightenment context and thus inseparably linked to equality, freedom, solidarity and unalienable human rights. Democracy thus entails more than certain practices such as elections or being present in parliament. Democracy is also not limited to the actions of politicians, but instead is based on democratic women and men engaging with society through critical and rational debate and actions. Citizens are not only owners of their own rights, but they are at the heart of democracy.

Publications on Diggit Magazine should (1)  inform citizens to enable them to take up their democratic roles, (2) strengthen democracy by providing information and (3) reflect our role as fourth estate by taking democracy and human rights seriously. This means that the following has no place on Diggit Magazine:

  • Forms of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and discrimination in general
  • Vox populism, hate speech and calls for non-democratic action
  • Anti-human rights and anti-democracy discourses