About submitting an article

GRADBritain is a magazine for and by postgraduate researchers in the United Kingdom. We invite submissions from postgraduate researchers, postdocs, and those with an interest in postgraduate education. We pay £50 for each article that we use.

Articles for consideration should be emailed to the editor, Liza Filby (gradbritain@vitae.ac.uk) as a Word document. Within the file, be sure to include your full name, address, email address, institutional affiliation and the discipline of your PhD.

Please try to keep your article brief and to the point, a maximum word limit of 800 words is encouraged. Your article may need to be edited for clarity and layout, and all editorial decisions are final.

A few tips:

• spelling and grammar should have been checked thoroughly before submission
• the best articles are those that take a novel or unique perspective on a relevant issue and explore it in depth. Articles that briefly touch upon a variety of issues are unlikely to be accepted.
• humour is always appreciated
• avoid using long sentences; if you read it out loud and it's taking too long to read, cut it into shorter sentences
• avoid stating the obvious in an introductory paragraph; make your opening sentence punchy and direct
• peer review can be helpful. Before submission ask a friend to read over your article and make constructive criticisms. This can be particularly helpful if English is not your first language so that it is clear what you are trying to say.
• in addition to traditional articles, we will also accept other submissions such as photos, cartoons, humorous boxouts, top tips. These may be reimbursed at a different rate, please contact the editor to gauge interest before committing substantial amounts of time!
• originality is important; we do receive quite a few articles suggesting that doing a PhD is tough, or that being an international student is different, or that the viva is scary. What can you contribute that provides a truly unique perspective? The PhD process is full of challenges; we are most keen to receive articles that detail how you overcame those obstacles so that other people can benefit from your experience.
• due to the volume of submissions we receive we are unable to offer individual feedback. Authors who are unsuccessful will receive an email around the time of the issue launch with a summary of some of the most common reasons articles were rejected. Please remember that we have tight constraints on space and sometimes we have to reject good articles because the topic is too similar to other articles that have already been selected. Feel free to email the editor if you would like to discuss ways you could improve an article that has been rejected.