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We encourage submissions by academics, journalists, researchers, activists, students (post-graduate and above), consultants and policy experts analysing recent developments in South Asia. Our remit covers Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and articles accepted for publication should fit into one or more of the following themes:

Economics and Development

Health and Education

Climate Change

Gender Equality

Democracy and Government

Security and Foreign Policy

Media, Society and Culture

Style Guide

To help authors with their submission process, we’ve compiled a list of some of the main style issues to keep in mind when drafting an article for South Asia@LSE.

Length and format

The length of posts should be between 800 to 1,200 words.

We are also happy to post long reads of over 2,000 words if appropriate for the topic. Please discuss this with the Editor.

Photo essays are also welcome – we ask that these are no more than 800 words. They can feature 4-9 images.

Please send us your draft article in Word format, with your name at the top.

Audience, writing style and language

 Please keep in mind the importance of writing accessibly and in a manner that can be readily understood by an ‘educated general public’ audience.

We also encourage links to direct readers to more detailed reports, other research, news items or blog posts where relevant.

Try to avoid jargon and minimise acronyms; our audience is very international so will not necessarily be familiar with less common terminology.

Use British spelling and grammar (e.g. ‘colour’ rather than ‘color’/’democratisation’ rather than ‘democratization’).

Posts include a short biography and headshot for the author (as .jpeg or .png attachments). Please provide these when you submit your article.

Referencing

The South Asia blog uses links rather than citations for references.

Links should direct readers to more detailed reports or other pieces of research, news items or other blog posts.

Open access sources are preferred to those behind paywalls.

Please insert a hyperlink at the relevant point of your argument that you’d like to reference: e.g. “Joe Bloggs has said…” The easiest way to insert a hyperlink in Microsoft Word is to copy the address of the website, highlight the phrase you’d like to appear as a link in the text and press “ctrl” and “k”. This will bring up an option menu that allows you to paste in the web address.

Please try to avoid using footnotes wherever possible and integrate material directly into the text.

Titles

We use narrative titles – a single sentence that sums up the main argument of the article. The more descriptive and catchy the title, the more likely the article is to be read. Try to avoid questions (Why is Bangladesh so exposed to the effects of Climate Change?) or general topics (Bangladesh and Climate Change).

Try and keep titles to twenty words or less, if possible.

Graphs and Charts

We are keen to include charts, maps or relevant photographs where possible.

Graphs and charts are preferable to tables, as they are easier for readers to interpret quickly.

Each chart needs a clearly labelled heading, labels for the X and Y axes or histogram bars, including units of measurement and a readable scale or background grid.

There should be a clear legend distinguishing multiple data series from each other and a brief note on sources. Lines must be thick enough and distinctively coloured. Charts should use a numerical progression to make comparisons more visible.

Biography and contributor photo

Along with your article, please send a three to four line biographical note, with your academic or professional position, research interests, and research history, should you have any.

Please also send a small colour photo headshot. The blog’s preference is for a more formal portrait style, rather than a photo taken from an event.

LSE South Asia Centre

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