General
Secular Nation strives to contain mostly first-time published material. In those rare cases where previously-published material selected for publication, it must be treated very carefully. We cannot reprint material from other publications without written permission from the publisher. If you quote substantially from other publications, you also must obtain permission for Secular Nation to use the material, credit the author and give the publication title and date--even if you are quoting from your own work that has been published elsewhere. You are not always protected by changing some of the words or paraphrasing, so please be sure you have permission where needed. For further information regarding the "fair use" doctrine, see the websites: http://publishing.about.com/cs/fairuseinfo/ and http://www.publaw.com/fairuse.html.
We need your help:
Please understand that we at Secular Nation are working with limited staff, so we must ask those submitting material to help us as much as possible. We cannot use everything we receive and what we do use must be in the correct form. Well-written material that incorporates the following rules has the best chance of being published in Secular Nation.
Deadlines:
| Secular Nation Issue | Article Submission Deadline |
| Fall-Winter 2008 | August 25, 2008 |
| January-March 2009 | November 1, 2008 |
| April-June 2009 | February 1, 2009 |
| July-September 2009 | May 1, 2009 |
| October-December 2009 | August 1, 2009 |
If you have any questions, please contact Tom Melchiorre, Editor-in-Chief, via email at
.
Articles:
The best length for articles is 1,000 to 2,000 words, with articles in the 500-1,000 welcome as well. Some articles can be longer than 2,000 words, but we prefer that you inquire first before sending longer material. In very few cases will we use an article that exceeds 3,000 words. Rarely, long articles may be split between two issues, but this will also be an exception. If your article has been published before, you should obtain written permission from the publisher to reprint it in Secular Nation, and include it with your submission, even if we have your (the author's) permission. If you've retained First North American Rights, please provide a copy of the contract stating so. However, we seldom reprint previously published articles. Please see the information above about fair use.
When sending an article, please include a short bio: a few lines about your background and affiliations. Use other authors' bios in Secular Nation as a guideline. Please include this information with your article, preferably at the end, so we don't have to ask for it later. We also would to have a small head-shot photo of you to accompany the article. Include an email address and phone number where you can be reached, as well as your mailing address. If your article is printed, we will send you a copy of the magazine.
Secular Nation is a publication of the Atheist Alliance International and is unlikely to publish articles that are inconsistent with its philosophy of being a positive voice for atheism. Certainly any atheist publication will include some criticism of religion, but our emphasis is on atheist-humanist activism. If you wish to publish disagreement with any of our policies, Letters to the Editor is the best place for such criticism.
Letters to the Editor:
Letters on any subject appropriate to Secular Nation are welcome. They may be on a new topic or politely critical or supportive of previous articles or letters or of Secular Nation as a whole. Letters should be 50 to 500 words. If you have questions, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.
All letters must contain the name of the writer, city and state. Letters sent anonymously will not be published. Secular Nation may, on rare occasions, agree to not publish a letter-writer's name, but Secular Nation must know the writer's name and contact information. If letter writers would like to be contacted by email by Secular Nation readers, they should note this and include their email address. We won't publish email addresses except by permission, which should be included with the Letter to the Editor.
Extremely long letters will either be rejected or shortened, or possibly reformatted as an article at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Letters chosen for publication may be edited for correct usage or length. Abusive letters will not be published. If a letter is critical of an author or article, we will allow the author to respond. If it is not possible to include an author's response in the issue where a critical letter appears, a response may be included in the following issue.
Books:
We welcome ideas for our Freethought Bookshelf. Please include the title, author, publisher, and price, and a paragraph or two about the book and why it would be of interest to Secular Nation readers. Readers are welcome to send reviews of books they have read. Reviews should be in the range of 300-500 words. Occasionally a longer review will be accepted. The reviewer should include his or her name and city and state, plus some bio information. As with other material, if the review has been published elsewhere, we must have the permission of the publisher to reprint.
Suggestions:
We welcome ideas and suggestions about Secular Nation, including those that you are not submitting for publication. If your letter is for our information only and you don't wish to have it published, please make note of that on the letter itself.
