Submitting to Pragmatic Papers

Submitting your work is easy. Create a folder of your documents in either Google Docs or Microsoft that includes the paper for your submission and any image files. You can email us at [email protected] to submit your work.

Length

1000-2000 words excluding descriptions of images and sources. We aim for articles to be a 4-8 minute read.

Title

Titles don’t have to be clickbait, but they should be an interesting description of your overall work. Please center and bold this at the top of your submission. Although titles can be longer, we recommend keeping them under 60 characters. 

Authorship

Please put your authorship name under your title. You may use your actual name or a screen name. 

Example:

The Strain of Economic Downturns on Public Education

Dr. Cara

Description

Provide a short 50-150 character meta description of the article. See this link for guidelines. 

Headings

Headings set expectations for a section of writing and organize writing. We can use three different levels of headings for your work. Please use left hand, bold heading for the first level (NOT including your title); left hand, italic for the second level; left hand, tab, bold for the third level. Use sentence casing. This is not how it will appear on the PP website, but this will help us get it right when we publish. 

Example:

Where does public education funding come from?

Inequality of local funding

State funding as a buffer

Style

We do not set any style parameters for fonts, font size, or spacing. We use our own formatting on the publishing website. 

Images

You may include images in your works. Please provide the image in both the document where it should be placed when published and as a .png in the folder you share with us. Provide a caption that describes the image and credits the image. 

Citations

We follow a simplified IEEE format. This includes Title, Author, and a link to the item. Titles are capitalized. This is also a footnote system. Place a number in the text where the citation should be and create your reference list in that order NOT alphabetical order. Separate each with a comma. 

Example.

Local tax funding often causes inequality in public school quality as wealthier school districts can raise more funding than their poorer counterparts [1], and some states have implemented a  state tax based funding formula can help equalize this problem[2]. 

[1] The Stealth Inequities of School Funding, Bruce D. Baker, Sean P. Corcoran, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-stealth-inequities-of-school-funding/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

[2] Co-creator of Ohio’s Public School Funding Model Pushes State to Implement Final Phase, Susan Tebben, https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/02/17/co-creator-of-ohios-public-school-funding-model-pushes-state-to-implement-final-phase/#:~:text=John%20Patterson.,know%20what%20is.%E2%80%9D%3C/

Keywords

Below is a list of keywords. Selected 1-3 that match your subject. This helps us put your articles under the correct area so readers can find it easier. Put these after your sources. 

Policy

Electoral Politics

International

Commentary

Science

History

Political Action

Timeline

Once you have submitted, your article will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief. If the article is a good fit, then it will be assigned to an editor who may communicate to you further about your article. They may suggest small copy edits or larger substance edits. Please respond to your editor quickly to ensure your article is published in a timely manner.

First Time Authors

If this is your first time submitting, you can email us to get closer guidance from an editor to walk you through the process or provide you feedback. Have an idea? Let us know! We’re happy to help you.

Contact us if you are interested in joining the editing team!