Blog Policies

Submission Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in contributing to The Metropole. To make sure that authors and editors collaborate successfully and efficiently, we ask guest bloggers to adhere to the following guidelines.

The basics:

• Guest blog posts must be original pieces not published elsewhere on the web
• Please pitch the editors in advance by emailing themetropole@urbanhistory.org
• We are open to submissions by non-members, but encourage guest bloggers to join the UHA

The details:

Posts

• We accept original pieces on any aspect of urban history or on topics that are of interest to urbanists. These may take the form of research essays, historiographical essays, interviews, reviews of books or other media, overviews of special collections, travelogues, or news analyses.
• Posts should range from 800-2000 words, with the exception of book reviews, historiographies, and bibliographies, which may be longer. Posts should not exceed 2000 words.
• Posts should generally include 2-3 high resolution, captioned and cited images, with any necessary permissions secured by the author
• Posts should also include a high resolution header image, which serves as a title card for the blog post
• For essays, reviews, historiographies, bibliographies, and news analysis, use links or Chicago Style footnotes to properly attribute others’ scholarship and reporting. When linking to books, please avoid booksellers; we prefer you link to the publisher’s website or Google Books.

Submission

• We ask that you email a 100-200 word pitch to themetropole@urbanhistory.org, describing the topic of the post, format, and why readers may find it of interest.
• Please submit posts in a Microsoft Word file (.docx). Include a title for the post.
• In the email, please provide your name, title, affiliation, an author image, and a short bio.
• Please provide accompanying images (images must be copyright free or the author is responsible for assuring permission to publish). Citation information should be provided for images, including a link to the original source, where possible.

Editing

• The Metropole is not a peer-reviewed publication.
• Editors reserve the right to edit your article for grammar, spelling, and clarity. If more significant editing is required, the post will be returned to the author with a list of requested changes. Please do not be offended if we ask for revision—it is with the goal of making the author look good and providing the best possible product to our readers.
• Editors will format posts to make them consistent with blog content.

Republishing and Publicity

• Our goal is to provide the members of the Urban History Association with a space to share their interests and promote their work. As such, we allow authors to republish posts on their personal websites and blogs, but ask that a note is included indicating the post originally appeared on The Metropole and providing a link back to the blog.
• To ensure maximum exposure for your hard work, please help us publicize your post via social media!

Posts on The Metropole represent the view of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Urban History Association or its Board of Directors.