Editorial Guidelines

Updated July 2021 

Contents

Summary 

Adamah Media is an online magazine focusing particularly on social, cultural, and spiritual topics. We seek to provide a platform for open-minded thought and enriching content, welcoming different perspectives that challenge assumptions. Though our fundamental vision is rooted in Christianity, our magazine is open to all, including those who might think very differently from us but who like us pursue truth, what is good and right, and the development of the human person. We seek genuine dialogue with people of all views, aiming always at fairness and truth and striving to build up and propose, not knock down and criticise. We are proud that many writers of a wide range of religious views or none have published high quality articles for Adamah. 

These guidelines will govern our relationship with all writers, varying from these guidelines should be agreed by both the writer and Adamah Media. 

Picking your topic

We seek to publish articles about topics or perspectives that are relevant, much-needed and sometimes overlooked in current discourse. These can range from the analysis of major social, cultural, religious or political events to articles about family life, local issues, or events which will never hit the headlines. They can be news reports, commentaries, or opinion pieces. Writers should always assume an international audience comprising people of a wide range of beliefs and political opinions. Our Managing Editor is happy to discuss and support the development of article ideas. 

Length

We don’t have a strict word count, but recommend articles should be between 1000 and 1500 words. Much longer than this and we’re fighting against people’s time and attention span. 

Timeline

It is really helpful for us to know when we will be receiving pieces. We ask writers to suggest a deadline that works for them, and is suitable for the topic chosen.

We then aim to get your article back to you with editorial feedback within a fortnight. 

References 

We ask our writers to make sure their articles are well researched. We do not use footnotes, but a moderate use of hyperlinks within the article is advised to substantiate writers’ claims. 

Editorial Process

We are under no obligation to accept an article and are not required to give a reason for rejecting any submission. If we do accept your article, our editorial team will work on your first draft and send you back a version with our proposed edits or suggestions for redrafting. Writers will then exchange the article with one of our team members until both parties are happy with it.

While we would never add anything of substance without the author’s permission, we reserve the right to remove text at our discretion without necessarily consulting the author, either to shorten the article or for another reason.

If a writer fails to respond to our proposed edits within a week, we will take for granted that the writer accepts our edits. Failure to respond will therefore be taken as consent on the part of the writer.

Once the writer’s approval has been gained, we will upload and publish the article. Once published, it is assumed that the writer is happy with the article and that Adamah Media cannot be required to make any further changes. Any further changes  (beyond corrections not spotted previously or small stylistic improvements) can only be made for a major reason and by mutual agreement of both Adamah Media and the writer. The writer also accepts that the article belongs to Adamah Media and must seek our permission for its re-use elsewhere. 

Our editors usually give the article its title and introductory blurb. You are welcome to make suggestions for these, but we are not required to follow them.

Publishing your article

We will choose appropriate photos for your article and may link to relevant articles that have previously been written for Adamah within your article. 

If you have photos directly related to your article, you may send them over with your draft. All images should be legally credited for copyright purposes, otherwise these images will not be used and alternatives will be found for publication.

If writers are on social media, we will tag and thank our writers and expect them to use their social media feeds to help us spread the word and to help increase our readership. 

It is helpful for you to let us know your social media handles so we can thank and tag you as we share the articles. 

Adamah’s standards of respectful dialogue

We aim for elegant and accurate use of the English language and a clear openness to dialogue.

Our editors will support you in order to ensure all published articles reach this standard in both areas. 

We are a space where people of many different views can come together in a respectful, intelligent and even loving exchange. 

We expect every writer to work in agreement with our passionately understanding approach.

And we expect every article to point towards a solution or hope, we’re always seeking to strive for a better world. Constructive communication!

We will not publish articles that are demonising, tribalistic or polarising. 

Payment

At present Adamah is only usually able to pay staff writers, i.e. those with whom we have made an agreement to write for us on an agreed regular basis. If you would like to be a staff writer for Adamah, you would have to submit at least some unpaid articles for us to assess your work in order to judge whether we would like to invite you to be a staff writer. We are, however, prepared to pay well-established journalists/writers at a mutually agreed rate.