The ECW Editorial Process

ECW has a robust program for reviewing guest posts. This post looks to outline and demystify the process of writing for us. We would love to have you! We invite students, public historians, academics, authors, writers hoping to reach a broad audience, and those aspiring towards any of those titles to write. All topics related to the broadly defined Civil War era are welcome, including battles, microhistories, primary source analysis, veterans, political history, Reconstruction, memory, home front, average soldiers, and more.

Prospective authors begin by emailing us at emergingcivilwar@gmail.com. They send in either a draft article or a topic proposal. That message is forwarded to the Editorial Board Chair. The Chair then assesses a topic proposal and responds whether it is something ECW would like to consider. If an author has already prepared a piece, the Chair gives it a general check for conforming to ECW’s mission and basic requirements like length. The Chair writes back to the author and places the article in the Editorial Board’s workflow.

The Editorial Board conducts double-blind peer review of submitted articles in a similar style to academic journals. Basically, authors do not know the names of reviewers, and reviewers do not who submitted the piece. This is a professional review that offers notes on grammar, composition, and content and is a great way to work with others to improve writing skills.

Here are some things the Board looks for:

• Historical accuracy and a strong source base. Articles should be accurate and have reliable sources.
• It should be readable for a broad audience, with context for readers unfamiliar with the specific events or people.
• Introductions and conclusions. Should be strong, catch interest, and clearly introduce or summarize the piece.

The board usually has 3-5 editors read through a submitted post. Each of them offers comments either as line-items in the document or general comments on the piece as a whole. As their perspectives and research background vary (we work hard to make sure we have editors with different specialties), each generally has something unique to add to the review.

The Chair then compiles the Editorial Board’s comments and returns them to the author. This usually takes a few weeks, since there is usually a queue of submissions and editors have some time to fit review into the regular schedules. Remember, we’re volunteers!

Authors may then revise based on these notes and return the revised article to the Chair. Sometimes the board passes on further review or publication, though feedback is still returned to the author who may wish to try again with a different topic. Once the piece is revised and accepted, the Chair processes it for publication on the Blog!

Here’s a few tips for writing:

• Word count must be in the 800-1500 range. Longer form content is generally not appropriate for the blog format and does not do as well.
• Articles should also be submitted with photographs that can be published as well as a short professional biographical note on the author.
• ECW does not pay for articles. Our members (and editors) create content on a volunteer basis.

• Guest post submittal can be a direct path to official membership consideration, or just a one-time thing.

Be sure to read our submission guidelines here: https://emergingcivilwar.com/mission-statement/submission-guidelines/. This will have all the information you need, especially the “For the Blog” and “To Be Considered for Authorship” categories.