Contact

Mailing Address

Thorsten Wetzling
interface / Stiftung Neue Verantwortung
Ebertstraße 2
10785 Berlin

Germany

Email
info@aboutintel.eu

 

Social Media
@aboutintel

@aboutintel.bsky.social

Editorial Brief

If you’re interested to be featured on about:intel, please email your abstracts of no more than 200 words to info@aboutintel.eu. Please also briefly introduce yourself and explain the context and relevance of your proposed article. We strive to reply within one working week.

 

Audience

Our audience consists mainly of professionals & academics in security, intelligence, digital rights, and technology. This means that you’re not writing for a complete lay audience as would be the case in a newspaper op-ed. The people reading your piece might be experts, but likely not in the particular field you’re writing about. It’s best therefore to write with a reader in mind that is a colleague of yours in a related but separate area. You don’t have to explain everything from scratch, but particularities of your discipline, your subject, or your national context always merit an explanation. 


Content

  • We publish articles dealing with intelligence law and practice, surveillance, and privacy. Take a look at previous publications to get a feel for the kind of content we consider. 
  • about:intel is a discussion platform, first and foremost. Your contributions should reflect your personal expertise and opinion on the subject matter. 
  • When responding to a discussion prompt, please consider previous contributions on the subject and refer to them if you can.
  • Our “Spotlight” section is a classic blog feed with opinions, background features, and investigative reports. We welcome submissions in all of these different text forms.
  • A European context is encouraged but not a prerequisite.
  • Articles should be between 1000 and 1500 words in length.
  • Fact checking is the author’s responsibility.


Translations

  • We offer translation services to authors who would prefer to write in their original language.
  • We also offer to translate articles on intelligence practice in various national European contexts originally published elsewhere in another language.


Writing Style

All about:intel articles should conform to British English spellings and language conventions. 

In order to make your text enjoyable to read, we encourage you to:

  • Use accessible language. Just because the audience isn’t a regular newspaper audience, that doesn’t mean that they won’t appreciate an engaging writing style & snappy prose.
  • Use tangible examples to illustrate your points.
  • When referring to sources, please use hyperlinks whenever possible.
  • Provide page numbers if you refer to specific section in a longer document by placing “#page=x” at the end of the hyperlink.
  • If explanatory footnotes or citations are needed, they should be added as endnotes.
  • Keep it concise. Our suggested word count of roughly 1000-1500 words is not set in stone, especially for particularly complex pieces in our “Spotlight” category, but brevity remains the source of wit.


Text Structure

  • Start your text with a brief presentation of the context you’re writing on and an overview of your key argument. Tell them that they will be learning from your article and how you will get there. This will make your text easier to follow and more engaging to read. 
  • Use sub-headers to structure your piece and guide readers as they navigate the text. 
  • Please formulate a headline.
  • Please also attach a separate 3-sentence summary of your article 
    • Example (from Jamie Grace: “Fresh, fair, and smart: data reliability in predictive policing”): “As budgets have been slashed, police departments in the UK and worldwide increasingly use algorithmic analysis tools to augment their intelligence capabilities. Whether the use of this technology is timely or tragic, however, rests largely with the reliability of the data being analysed. If data-driven policing is to become a fair and ethical reality, we must determine what a code of practice for data analytics in criminal justice should look like”.
  • If you want your byline and author profile to feature a picture and short-form biography, please enclose them with your submission.


Editorial Process

If your article is accepted for publication, it will be reviewed and undergo one or more rounds of editing. This might include changes to style, structure, spelling, and grammar. During this process you will likely be asked to address editor’s changes and questions. 

Preparing a piece is an iterative process between the author and editor, who work together collaboratively to ensure the best version of an article is produced. Depending on timeliness of the article, schedules, and turn-around between rounds of editing, it can sometimes be several weeks before an article is published.