When you submit an article, it goes into the "queue." We have 30+ editors who participate in evaluating the articles in the queue. But they don't all work every day or even any day in one week, so it can take up to a few days for an article to be evaluated and "processed."
When it is processed, it is either accepted and published as an article, accepted and published as a diary, rejected for revisions or rejected. You get an email regardless of which case your article fits into.
Editors look at the title. Does it actually tell what the article is about, or is it a cute play on words. We discourage cute plays on words.
We now require a brief description. Usually the beginning of the article can do the job, but not always.
We make sure the article is properly formatted. Sometimes, especially if you are copying directly from MS Word, the paragraph formatting is lost. It is your responsibility to preview your article to be certain the formatting is still intact. If you have a problem with formatting, try copying the article to your email program text field, then copy it from there to our text entry field.
We check for spelling, proper grammar, missed typos... If you haven't done your job and edited your own article, we may reject it, sending it back to you to do what you should have done in the first place.
Frankly, if we start an article and it's formatted poorly, if we encounter a multiplicity of typos or misspellings, we may reject it without really getting any further, without getting to see if it's well written.
We look for great writing-- words that evoke crisp images ideas and feelings, new ways of thinking about old issues.
We look for hot News Is there hot news in your article? We love breaking news. Make sure your title tells us about it!
We look for solid documentation and sourcing. Making some strong claims? Be sure to support them with documentation, preferably links.
We look for well crafted summary articles. We know you can't be on the scene, but you can find the five best articles on a new story and excerpt quotes from them, putting your own personal touch into your article. We don't get enough of these.
