Publishing with MIT SPR is different from other journals–instead of submitting a complete manuscript, we accept pitches and applications from teams or individuals to write or edit on a general topic, then work closely with participants throughout the year to take selected pieces from conception to publication.
If you are interested in writing or editing for us, we’ve summarized the key expectations for our primary types of published pieces (review articles and interviews) in the sections below. Please read this information before applying to ensure that MIT SPR will be a good fit for you and your schedule.
General Expectations
Teams:
We typically provide a list of topics that we are interested in publishing with each volume. If you apply for these topics with a pre-formed team, we will not assign other individuals to your team unless you explicitly indicate an interest in additional authors.
You may also apply to write as a solo individual. In this case, you will likely be assigned to work with other applicants who expressed an interest in the same topic.
Schedule:
Our editorial team works closely with writing teams, providing guidance and feedback from the planning stages through to final publication. All authorship teams will be assigned an executive editor who will help manage their article. Review articles will also have an additional associate editor. If writing or editing for MIT SPR, you should expect semi-regular deadlines throughout the publication cycle.
Failing to meet deadlines or produce work that meets MIT SPR’s standards may result in the rejection of your piece at any point before publication. An offer to contribute to a volume does not necessarily guarantee publication at the end of the cycle.
Here’s what a publication cycle might look like for review articles, based on the deadlines from previous years:
And here’s what a cycle might look like for interviews:
Style expectations:
We also have rigorous style formatting standards to promote consistency.
All published pieces must be submitted via a MIT SPR branded LaTeX template, which we request teams manage using Overleaf. If you are new to publishing and you’ve never worked with LaTeX, we can provide a tutorial.
We have a clearly defined style guide and citation requirements. Pieces must adhere to this style guide to be published.
Review articles can be up to 9 pg long (including references) in the official template.
Interviews are typically somewhere in the 4-6 pg range.
Please see the following previously published articles for examples of the MIT SPR style:
MIT SPR’s goal is to connect with policymakers and the public on science policy issues regardless of their level of expertise. Published works should be accessible and contain minimal jargon so that anyone–whether they have never heard of a topic or they spend every day discussing it–can understand the content of the piece.
Additionally, MIT SPR’s goal is to remain objective and unbiased, serving as a source of information on a topic rather than providing policy recommendations on behalf of our authors or the journal itself. Review articles should clarify challenges in the science policy space, discuss potential policy solutions to those problems, and consider the benefits, drawbacks, and limitations of those solutions. Similarly, interviews should discuss the viewpoints and arguments of the interviewee without making active judgments on their perspective or how it should be interpreted.
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