Contributor Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in contributing to The Forge. We trust these guidelines will help you with your submission, and we welcome any feedback you may have if we can improve your experience with The Forge.

Purpose

The Forge embraces a wide range of online content to provide a rich and varied offering to our community, with our primary focus being aspects of:

  • Joint Professional Military Education (JPME)
  • Command, Leadership and Ethics
  • National Security, Policy and Strategy
  • Joint Warfare
  • Technology and Capability

If your contribution does not fit neatly within the primary 5 focus areas, it may still be of interest and benefit our community. Contributions outside the 5 focus areas will be considered.

If your contribution is single service focused, please consider contributing to one of our partners:

Authors and Creators

Please provide a brief biography with your contribution. No more than 100 words is ideal but can be longer if necessary.

This provides context that helps people understand where you are coming from. If you use social media, it is also a good opportunity to expand your network by sharing your social media handles, such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Content

✓ Keep your content clear, concise and jargon-free.

✓ Please use English (Australia) spelling.

✓ When using acronyms, use the word/s in full in the first instance, then use the acronym thereafter.

✓ You are welcome to convey your personal experiences and lessons learned if you think this will inspire or help The Forge audience with their professional development.

✓ The ideal length of written contributions is between 800 and 2000 words. Longer contributions may be considered.

✓ The ideal length of video and audio is up to 15 minutes. Longer contributions may be considered.

✓ Content must be original and preferably not previously published. The Forge may accept previously published work provided the original publisher provides written permission.

✓ To avoid the risk of plagiarising, acknowledge all sources with full references and use quotation marks when transcribing material.

Sensitivities

The Forge is an unclassified site, and you should be mindful of any sensitivities in your contribution. If you identify any sensitivities, the onus is on you to obtain appropriate approval before submission and to highlight those sensitivities to The Forge with your submission.

Format

Please submit written contributions using unprotected Microsoft Word document or another compatible format.

For video or audio formats please contacts us via email and we will provide a temporary drop box link to upload your content.

Editing

The Forge reserves the right to edit and adapt content as necessary for accuracy, comprehensiveness and audience experience. This may include adding or editing images, the title, headline and blurb to promote the content.

If we consider that substantial edits are required for your submission, we will ask you to review and approve any changes before publishing. For written content, this will be done using tracked changes and comments.

Citations

The preferred citation style for The Forge is the Chicago Manual of Style formatting.

Academic papers

The Forge is focused on promoting discourse through well-considered but accessible contributions. Academic or research topics should be simplified for a wider audience. Further, the Australian Defence College’s Centre for Defence Research welcomes academic content and may identify a more suitable outlet for publication.

Copyright and Other Third Party Rights

Each contributor warrants that they are the author/creator of the material submitted. They are the owner of or otherwise entitled to exercise the copyright in the material submitted to The Forge.

Each contributor warrants that The Forge’s publication of the material submitted will not infringe any third-party rights.

Each contributor agrees that The Forge may authorise third parties to publish, reproduce, modify and edit the material for publication on The Forge.

Each contributor agrees that The Forge may authorise third parties to archive and store your material for whatever period of time The Forge determines.

Approval Process

All submissions will be reviewed and considered by The Forge. We aim to do this within 4 weeks of submission. However, this is not always achievable.

The decision to publish the contribution is at the discretion of The Forge.

By submitting a contribution, each contributor agrees to the above guidelines.