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Become a contributor

Share your ideas, learning and experience with thinktankers, funders and policy experts worldwide.

Our community is especially interested in articles that:

  • Reflect on developments in the think tank or evidence-informed policy sector.
  • Reflect on implications of global/regional/national trends for think tanks.
  • Share practical advice or lessons grounded in your experience/context.
  • Share challenges/successes based on your individual or organisational experience.
  • Ask questions or provoke debate, inviting readers to respond or share.

How to contribute

  1. Email your draft article to [email protected]. We’ll let you know in a few days if it’s a good fit for the OTT platform and readership.
  2. We’ll edit it for spelling, grammar and clarity. The editorial process takes around two weeks, you will always get to review suggested edits and sign off the final copy.
  3. We’ll post and share it via our social media and newsletter. Be sure to give us your handles so we can tag you!

Get inspired with these suggested formats

  • Lists e.g. ‘Six top readings on think tank governance in 2023’ or ‘Five takeaways for think tank funders from COP28’.
  • Lessons learned e.g ‘Setting up a think tank amidst political uncertainty: lessons from Peru’.
  • How tos e.g. ‘How to rethink your think tank monitoring, evaluation and learning framework’.
  • Explainers/arguments e.g. ‘Why funders should be paying more attention to the whole evidence ecosystem’.
  • Counter-intuitive statements e.g. ‘Why think tanks should employ fewer researchers’.

Writing guidance

We aim for all OTT blogs to be accessible. Below are some writing tips to help communicate your ideas in the most impactful way for busy online readers (our editor can help with this too).

  • 800-1,000 words in length.
  • Make your key argument or message clear in the first paragraph – give your reader a reason to continue reading.
  • Make it relevant. Refer to recent news events, contentious debates or major developments in your field, telling the reader why they are reading this.
  • Write in the first person – refer to your work, research, experiences, so the reader knows where the ideas/perspectives come from.
  • Keep the tone conversational. This doesn’t mean ‘dumbing down’ your work, but less formal than an academic article or research report. Try writing as you would speak.
  • Write in short, concise sentences and paragraphs. Online readers have short attention spans and concise writing helps keep them engaged.
  • Use subheadings to break up text, help the reader navigate the article or to highlight key messages.
  • Avoid jargon and spell out acronyms – our readers are intelligent and engaged, but may be new to a specialist topic, don’t assume they know something.
  • Embed links to further information where relevant – like where to go for more details, latest developments or background information.

 

We look forward to reading your contribution!

Any questions, get in touch: [email protected]