Contributor Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in contributing to The Forge.

These guidelines are designed to assist you with your submission, and the Forge team welcomes any feedback you may have about the submission process.

How to Submit

Please use the Submission Form to submit your article. The form contains fields for all the information that we need to expedite the publishing process. You may still submit via our email address but please be aware that if you do not provide all the necessary details in the email, it can slow the approval and publishing processes significantly.

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

Purpose

The purpose of the Forge is to build and hone the intellectual edge of those involved in the Profession of Arms. As we move into the next phase of the Forge development, we will be shifting our focus to the Joint Military Professional Education (JPME) Continuum 2.0. As such The Forge is looking for articles that support the Continuum. It is recommended that authors download and familiarise themself with it. The Forge is looking for articles that fit within these topic areas:

  1. Defence
    1. Cognitive Ability
    2. The Profession of Arms
    3. National Security Policy and strategy
  2. Technical
    1. Employment Category
    2. Core Military Skills and Joint Streams
  3. Social
    1. Influence
    2. Military Ethics and values
    3. Character
    4. Culture

If you have an article that you would like to publish that was written for the JPME Continuum 1.0 then the Forge Team can assist you in mapping the metadata to the new continuum.

If your contribution does not fit neatly within the continuum, it may still be of interest and benefit our community. Contributions outside the continuum will still be considered if they are concerned with military education, and have a focus on international topics or are of interest to Australian members.

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

Sensitivities

The Forge is a publically available, 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 send that approval to The Forge along with your submission.

Content

General Notes

  • 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.

Text

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

  • If using Microsoft Word, please use the Styles available in a default styles panel to assign headings as they will be used to assist in the transposing of your article to html.

  • Please 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 after that.

  • 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. 

    • If your content is over 3500 words, we ask that you consider serialising your content before submitting it. Please email the.forge@defence.gov.au for additional details on how to achieve this.

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

The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Writing

  • The Forge does not ban the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the writing process, as it can be of use in the research phase of content creation.

  • The use of AI in any aspect of the writing/production process must be acknowledged, and the degree of usage must be stated unambiguously. 

  • AI should not be used to write the whole article, nor should not be used to write significant portions of the article either. AI is not perfect. It can result in ‘soulless’ prose, and in a research setting it has been known to provide inaccurate or even completely false information presented as facts (this is called ‘hallucinations’). Never take AI content at face value.

  • Any attempt to hide the use of AI in the creation of an article, or presenting an AI-generated article as your own work is considered by the Forge to be plagiarism. 

Images

  • We encourage you to make suggestions for images, graphs or figures to go alongside your text; this may reduce the length of time it takes for your article to be published.

  • If you submit any graphic material, please also supply all necessary copyright information, and/or the location that you sourced the artwork from. The Forge cannot reproduce copyrighted work without the express permission of the copyright holders; however, we can assist in determining the copyright status if it is unclear.

  • Please note that while the Defence Image Library is available for use, the Forge is an external facing site and, as such, The Forge Team is required to contact the Defence Image Library for additional clearences to use Defence images on the site. This will take additional time, and will delay the publication of your content.

  • If your article contains graphs or charts please also include the raw data that created the charts and graphs in a table at the end of the article. The Forge may need to recreate the items in a size or format more suitable to being published on a website.

  • Please ensure that all images, graphs and charts etc. have appropriate captions that include the copyright information (if applicable) and the sources of data for charts and graphs.

Audio & Video

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

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

  • The same rules for focus of the content, copyright conditions and rules for AI assisted content generation apply to video and audio as for written articles.

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, and the summary 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. 

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 The Forge determines.

Approval Process

All submissions will be reviewed and considered by The Forge. We aim to do this within 6 to 8 weeks of submission. However, this is not always achievable.

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