Politiikasta publishes popularized scientific and research articles and reviews from the field of societal themes and social sciences in Finnish, Swedish and English. Reviews can focus on books, movies, plays, conferences, music or anything else that has an interesting political angle. These instructions help prospective authors to formulate their manuscript according to editorial guidelines; all submissions should follow the following instructions.
Length
The recommended length for all manuscripts if 10 000 characters (all included).
Language
Politiikasta publishes in Finnish, Swedish and English. Articles in English are accepted to the editorial process only when they are submitted by researchers doing research in Finland. In exceptional circumstances it is possible to publish the article in both Finnish and English. Politiikasta does not offer translation services.
All quotes in the text should be translated into the language used in the article.
Structure of the article
The article consists of the header, an introductory ingress, the main text interspersed with section headers and the author information (incl. the author’s name, academic position and affiliation).
The ingress is a short, introductory paragraph, which completements the title and is highlighted in the beginning of the article. A good ingress is short, no more than two to three sentences.
On average an article has 3-5 section headers. The recommended maximum length for one text section is one page (depending on the font and paragraph spacing).
Headers
The title of the text should be short and simple; the same applies to section headers. The title should refer to the article’s theme or central argument.
Format
When writing a popularized article for online publication, it is important to keep sentences and paragraphs simple and clear. The suggested length for a paragraph is between two to four sentences, depending on sentence length.
Please use short but full sentences, but no lists. Avoid using lengthy direct quotes – rather write out the central point in your own words and include a link to the original source text. If a direct quote is necessary, it shouldn’t be longer than 2-3 sentences.
Avoid using academic jargon, as the journal is aimed at popularizing social sciences to broad audiences. Scientific terms should be popularized whenever possible e.g. by writing out their meaning in simpler terms, when they are used for the first time. The same applies to acronyms, excepting the most common ones (e.g. EU, NATO, UN, etc.).
Foreign or borrowed words are marked in cursive and the original word and source language expressed in parentheses. Mark person names in bold when they are mentioned in the text the first time.
Images, graphs, tables
The managing editor will select an image to go with the published articles, unless the author wants offer one, in which case they should have full permission to use the image (and instruct on copyright).
If necessary, it can be possible to add 1-2 graphs, tables or images, that are directly and integrally relevant to the argument of the article. Again, the author has to ensure they have the copyright to include this material in their article.
References
References will be written out in the text if they cannot be attributed as an embedded link (“President Niinistö argued already in his New Years’ speech, that conflict on the Ukrainian border was intensifying.”). When drafting the article, the reference links should be added in square brackets to the position they are supposed to be embedded or embedded directly into the text.
References can include scientific articles, books, or media sources. When referring to books, please link to the publisher’s page for the book, never to web shops. Google Books references can be used, if no other links are available. Even if the book of research article is behind a paywall, it should be used as a linked reference.
Articles should not contain links, that force the reader to download a file, unless cleared by the editors. The author takes full responsibility over the references – all links must be to secure websites and content. Authors are recommended to use links to content that matches the language of the article. In other words, an article in English dealing with French politics can include references in French, if there are no sources available in English.
Do not use full English titles of books in the text, but rather try to encapsulate the main point in your own words.
References should not be used to cut corners in argumentation; the reference is there for authors to read more, so the text should already capture the main point expressed in the referenced source.
Do not use footnotes or endnotes or a separate bibliography. However, it is possible to add a bibliographical note to the end of the text, if this popularized article is based on a published scientific article (or PhD).
Author information
Author information is added to the end of the article in the ”order” of authors as with any scientific article. See previous publications for examples. It is acceptable to include a link to e.g. research project homepage into the author information details.
Editorial process
The editorial process usually takes 1-2 weeks from article subnmission. During or just before holiday season the editorial process might have a relatively long queue, which will be communicated to you upon submission. Please have patience.
All submission go through the editorial process: the head editors decide on publication upon reviewing all finished submissions. Editors will also give the first round of editorial comments or change requests to the manuscripts.
Once you have submitted and received editorial comments, you can decide if you want to continue with the editorial process. By sending an updated version of the manuscript you have committed to publishing the article at Politiikasta. See the copyright information in the footer: https://politiikasta.fi/terms-and-privacy/
Social media
All published articles are advertised on Facebook and Twitter feeds under Politiikasta(.fi). You can propose a social media advert to the managing editor.
Other
Politiikasta is committed to publishing only texts from researchers or those in researcher training (i.e. PhD students). Master’s student articles are only published by special arrangement (contact the editors in advance).
Finalized manuscripts following these instructions can be submitted to toimitus@politiikasta.fi.
Thank you for your interest in Politiikasta!
