Submit your proposed Impact Blog contribution to impact@acgr.edu.au in MS Word format. Submissions that fit with our submission guidelines will be assessed for their suitability.

Submission Guidelines

We have provided the following guidelines to help guide you with our quality expectations:

  • Is it a good read?
    Is it well-written, easy to follow, with a clear message related to graduate research impact (see more about this below)? Are you providing new insights or advice? Or telling an interesting or educational story?
  • Is it written with the reader in mind?
    Have you been mindful of our broad audience? Does it have a compelling title that explains what the post is about and good use of sub-headings to guide the reader?
  • Is it clear?
    Does it use clear and concise (plain English) language, proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
  • It is neat and tidy?
    Is it formated with clear paragraphs, spacing, section breaks, quotes, and free of typos and errors?
  • Is it complete?
    Have you included the names and affiliations of authors, full URL links, image attributions (if applicable), and social media handles for sharing?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the format?

We will accept original articles, case studies, opinion pieces, personal stories, or summaries of research findings. They should be ~1000 words in length, with hyperlinks to relevant information, and can include videos and other media. The reading time should be ~5 minutes.

We will accept submissions on a broad range of topics related to graduate research impacts:

  • Career impact – personal stories of impact from your career (after your graduate research degree).
  • Economic impact – specific examples of impacts on the economy.
  • Environmental impact – specific examples of impacts on the environment.
  • Health impacts – specific examples of impacts on the health sector.
  • Industry impact – broader industry impacts of graduate research e.g. skilled workforce etc.
  • Knowledge impact – examples of how new knowledge is leading to potential impacts.
  • Research impact – broader impacts of research training for a knowledge-based economy.
  • Social impact – specific examples of impacts on society and culture.

These might include stories about individual research projects that have lead to specific outcomes and impacts e.g. guidelines, policies, practice; stories from end-users of research; case studies of impacts to business; broader whole industry impacts; graduate research education best practice that enables impact; application of researcher mindset and/or transferrable skills (developed during graduate research) that have impacted your career beyond academia; broad impacts of research training for a knowledge-based economy.

Can anyone submit an article?

We accept submissions from anyone with a genuine interest in graduate research. This includes academics, professional staff and graduate researchers from universities and affiliated research institutions as well as those from the public and private sectors who are engaged with graduate research. That said, we will exercise due diligence and may seek endorsement from our Editorial Review Panel.

What type of content do you accept?

Articles may have appeared elsewhere online or in print. Please note, we do not accept posts from professional marketers. If you are interested in sponsorship opportunities, please drop a line to our Executive Officer at exec@acgr.edu.au

What is the process?

Submit your proposed contribution to impact@acgr.edu.au in MS Word format. Submissions that comply with the below checklist will be assessed for suitability by the Managing Editor. By submitting you agree to our terms and conditions. Please ensure you include the following:

  • Proposed title of submission
  • Name/s and titles of all author/s
  • Role/s and/or affiliations of author/s
  • Any declartions or disclaimers you want to include (e.g. personal opinion vs employers)
  • Article is ~1000 words
  • Full URLs provided if linking to further information
  • Social media handles are included for tagging
  • Images or other media are attached as separate files with appropriate attributions
    • high resolution, 300 dpi large format image if applicable
    • approval for the image to be used
    • Image caption: who, where etc.

When will I know if my submission will be published?

We will post new blogs weekly and all approved contributions will be published on a sequential “next in, next published” basis. We reserve the right to jump the queue with particularly topical submissions. You will be notified within two weeks if your submission is to be published or if it has been excluded.

Do I get paid for my submission?

Sorry, unfortunately, we can’t pay you. Our aim is to promote the impact of Graduate Research and your submission is provided to support this aim/cause.

What are the terms and conditions for publication?

ACGR will accept no liability in respect of any material submitted by users and published by us, and will not be not responsible for its content and accuracy. The views expressed are the personal opinions of the authors named. They may not represent the views of ACGR or any other organisation unless specifically stated.

Authors who submit material for publication, do so under the following terms and conditions:

  1. Publication of any material will be at the sole discretion of ACGR. ACGR reserves the right to make additions or deletions to the text or graphics prior to publication, or to refuse publication.
  2. Authors grant ACGR a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide Attribution/No derivatives license to publish and communicate to the public any material submitted in any format, including without limitation print and electronic format. Authors also agree that ACGR may permit other parties to publish and communicate to the public any material in any format.
  3. Authors warrant that any material submitted is their own original work and that they own the copyright and any other relevant rights. If authors include material that isn’t their copyright they must warrant that they have sought and received permission to republish.
  4. Authors agree not to submit material that is deliberately intended to upset other users.
  5. Authors will take reasonable steps to ensure that any material they submit is not defamatory of any person

Authors agree to indemnify ACGR in full and permanently against any third-party liabilities, claims, costs, loss or damage it incurs as a result of a breach of conditions (3) to (5) above. They must act honestly and in good faith in their dealings with ACGR and (if requested) must provide ACGR with reasonable assistance to settle, defend or investigate any third-party claims arising as a result of publication of material submitted.

What are the licensing arrangements for submissions?

All submissions are published under a Creative Commons — Attribution/No derivatives license. This means others are free to republish posts form the blog online or in print for free, provided the guidelines are followed. Photos are published with consent from the authors, or are copyright free (i.e. sourced from free stock photo sites).

In summary this means:

  • Others can’t edit the material
  • Republishers must credit authors and their institutions, ideally in the byline.
  • Republishers must credit ACGR Graduate Research Impact and include a link back to either our home page or the article URL.

What is the blog’s moderation policy?

We have installed an automatic comment moderation function. This means we will moderate all comments to ensure there are no spammers etc. Other than that, we will let most comments through as we want to engender a strong community of ideas and practice for Australian graduate research issues, opportunities and outcomes.

Please note, this means you may not agree with some of the comments posted. We encourage thought provoking content, but we do not want trolls or bullies. That is, critique is acceptable, but please be civilised/polite – if you’re going to disagree, do it nicely. We will delete any comments that appear to be attacking an author/commenter or are sexist, racist, or otherwise offensive.

The comments system will operate under the following guidelines:

  • Email Privacy: Email addresses are required for commenting, and they are not published on the blog, nor shared. They may be used by the Managing Editor to privately contact the commenter.
  • Language and Manners: This blog is for a wide audience, and comments which include offensive or inappropriate language, or considered by the Managing Editor and to be rude and offensive, will be edited or deleted.
  • No Personal Attack Comments Permitted: No personal attacks are permitted in this blog’s comments. You may question or argue the content, but not attack the blogger, nor any other commenters.
  • A Comment is Conversation: A comment which does not add to the conversation, runs off on an inappropriate tangent, or kills the conversation may be edited, or deleted.
  • Commenters Blocked: Anyone who violates this Comments Policy may be blocked from commenting on this blog.
  • All Rights Reserved: The ACGR reserves the right to edit, delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments. They also have the right to block access to any individual or group of people from commenting, or from the entire blog.