Author’s checklist
To assist in considering your article for publication in the Fulbright Chronicles, please ensure that you have completed all the items on the author’s checklist before submitting your draft.
This requires that your article follows closely the Author’s guidelines:
- Articles’ limits are 2,500 words, commentaries’ 1,200 words, and letters’ 500 words.
- Uses Times New Roman style and a 12-point font and one inch margins
- Includes an abstract of no more than 75 words
- Identifies 3-5 key words to assist with indexing
- Provides sub-headings using capitalization
- Paragraphs are indented
- Includes a photograph that captures your Fulbright experience and a headshot
- Provides three to five notes at the end of the article to assist readers who want to learn more
- Includes a short bio with your affiliations, email address, Fulbright program and dates
Once your article is accepted, we will ask you to sign a copyright form that will allow you unlimited use.
Aims and scope
Fulbright Chronicles (FC) is a quarterly, open access, peer reviewed periodical. We seek articles from both US Fulbright Scholars as well as Visiting Fulbright Scholars (to the US) from other parts of the world. We will consider submissions from all former Fulbrighters regardless of the category of their award and their disciplinary affiliation. Importantly, Fulbright Chronicles is not a blogpost, newsletter or travel log. Rather, we are looking for articles that lay out in a thoughtful, nontechnical and accessible style how the Fulbright experience contributed to knowledge and cross-cultural understanding; e.g., a new approach, a pilot project taken to scale, insights that were foundational to pioneering research or a novel artistic collaboration. In short, we want articles —- that go beyond the personal experience towards an enduring impact. The goal of the journal is to have an indexed publication covering the many different types of topics and projects related to the Fulbright program.
We look for an informative and lively writing style that is meant to acquaint readers with the important work of former Fulbrighters. Manuscripts should be short and well written, free of technical jargon and understandable to those from all disciplines. They should not use statistics, graphs or tables.
To the extent possible, every effort will be made to balance each issue with articles and commentaries from equal numbers of US and Visiting Fulbrighters as well as Fulbrighters from different regions and countries of the world. Each issue will include 6 to 8 accepted contributions (articles and commentaries) and no more than four accepted letters. Please see an example of each type of submission on our website.
Manuscript types
Articles. Articles must be no more than 2,500 words. The intent of each article is to describe the important work of Fulbrighters from around the world, their accomplishments during their Fulbright experiences, and the impact of their work on their teaching and research careers, public policy, cultural understanding and world peace, and their home and host institutions and countries.
Commentaries. Commentary must be no more than 1,200 words. These submissions express opinions and ideas on issues and policies affecting the Fulbright program as well as those that explore through the author’s experiences some aspect of the larger Fulbright community.
Letters to the editor. Letters to the editor must be no more than 500 words. They represent brief comments on an issue of importance to the Fulbright program and/or a recently published article or commentary. This can include both supportive and critical thoughts.
Manuscript preparation
Structure. The manuscript can be organized in the format thatbest suits the work.
Editing. We edit all manuscripts approved for FC and we will follow the Chicago Manual of Style. We encourage authors to take special care with writing style in the preparation of articles.
Language. Submissions must be written in American English (be sure that the language of the Word document is set to US ENGLISH before you enter any text into the document). We hope to provide translations of the abstracts in a few of the world’s other international languages.
Length. Articles in FC must be no more than 2,500 words in length including the abstract. Commentaries in FC must be no more than 1,200 words including the abstract. Letters must be no more than 500 words. Please write concisely and to the point. Submissions will be returned without review if they exceed the word limit.
Formatting. Please do not use any text style other than italic or bold. Please use 1- inch margins all around and Times New Roman 12 point font. Use single space throughout with an additional space between subheadings.
Author affiliations, contact and social media information, and Fulbright Award dates and host country. Please provide your name, title or position (for example: professor, lecturer, associate director, etc.), institutional affiliation, e-mail address, Fulbright Award dates and host country and, if relevant, Twitter account at the end of your manuscript.
Title, abstract, and keywords. Please include a 75-word abstract of your article or commentary and up to five keywords (keywords may be used to identify reviewers). A short and catchy title and a concisely written and effective abstract increase the visibility of your article in Google and other search engines.
Subheadings. Please use several subheadings to highlight the sections of your article. Subheadings should be kept short.
Capitalization. All titles and subheadings should be capitalized. For example: A Fulbright Stay at National University of Singapore.
Indentation. All paragraphs should be indented.
Abbreviations and acronyms. Acronyms should be spelled out and written in English.
Lists. Authors should avoid presenting material in the form of numbered or bulleted lists.
Tables and graphs. FC articles and commentaries do not contain tables or graphs.
References. FC articles and commentaries do not include references. An exception to this is in the abstract of articles and commentaries where authors are encouraged to place a reference to one of their journal articles which may be a published longer or shorter version of what they have submitted to FC. It is also permissible to include a Notes section at the end in which no more than 3 articles can be listed for additional information. A Notes section is optional.
Photos. Authors must supply a digital version of their head shot at the time of submission of a scholar article or commentary which will be included in the final version of the article if accepted. For authors of articles, we would also like a second photo, an “action” digital photo, that would illustrate to readers an important moment that captures your experience while you were a Fulbrighter. Please provide a caption for this photo as well.
Copyright Form. You will be asked to sign a copyright form once your scholar article or commentary is accepted. You will be able to freely use your article.
Editorial process
Submitting an article. If you are interested in submitting an article, commentary or letter to FC, please send your draft as an attachment to bsvare@albany.edu. The submission criteria include:
- Authors are Fulbright alumni and their articles address the work and impact of the Fulbrighters.
- Not previously published, nor under simultaneous consideration by another journal. (It is allowed, however, that the main results of the research are published in a specialized technical journal; although self-plagiarism should be avoided in any case.)
- Instructions in the Guidelines for Authors have been followed.
- Quality of English language is sufficient.
Initial screening. Each submitted article undergoes an initial screening by the Co-editors. Screening criteria are as follows:
- Article is written within the scope of the journal;
- The journal guidelines were followed;
- The article is suitable to address an international audience;
- The article uses proper English
Reviewer selection. The Co-editors will assign an article to an associate editor. The associate editor will select two reviewers among reputable experts in the field of the manuscript.
Peer-review. The principle review criteria are two-fold: 1) Is the article within the scope of the journal and 2) does the article make a substantial impact on understanding the work of Fulbright alumni.
Final Decision. The final decision is made by the Co-Editors.
After acceptance
Page Charges. There are no article processing charges or subscription costs of any kind.
Visibility. Once your article is published, we encourage you to increase its visibility and the FC readership by using social media (Fulbrighter network, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and sharing it with colleagues and partner institutions.
Sample pieces
Ahead of our first issue, we present here three sample pieces – an article, a commentary and a letter – to help prospective submitters understand what we are looking for in terms of style.