Call for papers...

We are putting together future issues of the SWJMagazine and also welcome content for putting online in the Reference Library -- Small Wars related articles, book reviews and commentary.  Of particular interest are articles that address counterinsurgency, interagency and coalition issues, and papers written by students at Professional Military Education institutions. 

Reference Library

The Small Wars Journal gladly accepts Small Wars related articles, papers and studies for posting to the SWJ Reference Library page.  Papers written by students at Professional Military Education institutions are particularly desired. 

       Submit your reference library item.

Journal and Blog

The SWJ is also accepting material for publication in the Small Wars Journal and SWJ Blog.

       Submit your material.

Material should follow these guidelines.  Material should not be simultaneously submitted to other publications.

Feature articles should run in the neighborhood of 10 pages, 5,000 words. Less can be more.  Ideas must be backed up by hard facts. Evidence must be presented to support logical conclusions. Articles that criticize should include constructive suggestions.

Shorter articles are welcome on the full gamut of professional topics.

Book Reviews should stay below 1,000 words.  Be sure to include the book's author, publisher (including city), year of publication, number of pages, and cost of the book.

Material must be unbiased and must include quotes and comments from at least two knowledgeable experts or reputable sources. If the author is affiliated with a featured corporation, the article must so disclose and must include a comment from someone outside of the organization, such as an end user, competitor, partner and/or financial analyst. We will not run single-source articles. Press releases will not be considered as submissions.

Peer Review and Editing

With our growth, this process has been significantly expanded following volume 7.

Small Wars Journal peer reviews article submissions using the following method:

• A copy of the promising article, with the author's identifying information removed, is placed in a private Peer Review Forum on the Small Wars Council for review and comment by our select community of peer reviewers.  Depending on the topic, we may also selectively push the article to specific persons we respect for their balance and subject matter expertise.
• Reviewers post their comments to that forum or return them to the editors.  Our reviewers may see each others' comments through that forum, although they don't always look and are generally working individually.
• The editors will provide those comments, raw and anonymous, back to the author for consideration.

The peer review comments represent different viewpoints, not a judgment or dictate from this publication.  They are generally provided back to the author in the spirit of true feedback to wargame the topic and its presentation, to ultimately strengthen the article.  After consideration, the author may choose to make changes, or may not.  If there is a mutual desire for the author and reviewer(s) to connect to discuss the topic in direct collaboration, the editors will facilitate that connection.

SWJ generally limits its unilateral editing to minor formatting, typos, and grammar.  We will generally only make more substantial changes in collaboration with the author.  We reserve the right to make any editorial changes we feel are appropriate.

We do not have a hard publishing schedule at this point and are unable to benchmark the time of the process.  But we will be as frank as we can be.

House Style & Mechanics

• Submit  via e-mail in MS Word (preferred) or a basic rich text format.  Only use PDF as a last resort.
• The author's name, credentials, address, telephone numbers, e-mail address and short bio must appear on the first page.
• Articles should be written in third person, past tense, active voice.
• Authors are encouraged to include photographs, charts, figures, tables or any other supporting material that would enhance the presentation of the article.
• To simplify reformatting for publication, please try to minimize extra style junk in the main text.  Avoid extra carriage returns, page formatting and section breaks, and custom paragraph styles.  Try to stay to Heading 1, Heading 2, Body Text, Bulleted Lists, Numbered Lists, and Block Quote.  That's a good habit and you should learn to use paragraph styles anyway, says the Microsoft Office Geek.
• Avoid excessive referencing.  An article with a few references may use in line cites.  If there need to be a number of references, use the footnote reference feature in MS Word.
• We will not print extended bibliographies due to space limitations.  If you choose to include them, we will generally include them only in the online single-article edition.  You must ensure that any citations in the text are stand-alone, as the main "print" edition will not have the bibliography.
• If an article includes a brief list of recommended reading, we will usually include that in the "print" edition. 
• Authors assume responsibility for the accuracy of information, and the Small Wars Journal accepts no responsibility for opinions or statements offered by authors. Articles reflect the opinions of the authors and in no way reflect the opinions of the publisher.
• Before publication, authors will be required to sign a release confirming they own the copyright to the original work, and granting SWJ specific permissions.