Submissions

About The Policymaker

The Policymaker, a digital publication of the James Martin Institute for Public Policy (JMI), invites contributors to make an argument drawn from their expertise or experience. Articles analyse public problems, present evidence, and propose solutions. The opinion article format is an opportunity to step back and offer a more reflective and rigorous perspective on an important or emerging policy challenge facing Australia at a local, state, or national level.

In keeping with JMI’s broader ethos, The Policymaker has a strong commitment to analytic rigour and clarity, as well as expanding policy imagination, while our editorial stance is independent and non-partisan.

Articles on The Policymaker are typically too specialised and detailed for a newspaper opinion piece but shorter than a full policy brief. Articles should focus on policy innovations and new insights on a significant, neglected, or especially hard policy challenge facing Australia, including in the future.

The Policymaker is aimed at an informed reader, without presuming specialist knowledge. The intended audience includes politicians, other policymakers, experts across disciplines, practitioners in relevant fields, and the interested public.

JMI’s tone is always constructive and respectful, with an eye to enabling government to solve problems. Critical analysis has its place – describing and contextualising a policy challenge – but the primary orientation and emphasis of articles on The Policymaker is forward-looking: meaningfully expanding policy options, and creating more space for policy pathways and experimentation that serve the common good.

We work collaboratively with contributors. Drafts are subject to editing for style, clarity, and length. Headlines and presentational elements are ultimately the prerogative of the Institute’s editors.

Approximately between 800 and 1,500 words. But our word length is flexible to ensure each article has enough scope for substantive policy discussion.

Articles should be submitted as a Word document.

We welcome authors submitting graphs, diagrams, pictures, or similar that add or enhance meaning, analysis, or comprehension to your article. For graphs (and other forms of data visualisation), please supply (if possible) source data so we can generate a version consistent with our platform’s style and appearance. Pictures or photographs are subject to appropriate permissions.

Embedded hyperlinks are required for references/sources, where relevant, including official documents (no footnotes/endnotes). Editors may also check for factual information on assertions made in the article.

Authors are expected to take care to avoid any conflicts of interest, or the appearance of such conflict. This includes declaring any potential conflict of interest. Authors must certify that submissions have not been plagiarised. Submissions must not be copyrighted elsewhere.

The Policymaker articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This means they can be copied and redistributed by others in any medium or format, so long as this is done for non-commercial purposes and appropriate attribution and credit is provided.

How to submit

Please send short pitches (1-2 paragraphs) for an article, or entire draft submissions, to thepolicymaker@jmi.org.au. When
submitting an entire draft submission, please include a one to three sentence biographical note, highlighting relevant
experience, a portrait headshot photograph, and link to your Twitter handle (if applicable). We will normally respond within
five working days.

Structuring your opinion article

One common technique for structuring an opinion article is to use a four-part formula. It is provided here as a resource to assist
the writing process when you are preparing your opinion article, not as a prescriptive formula.

The hook (5 percent of total length)

An attention-grabbing explanation of why this issue is important or topical. It might involve referencing a recent news event, a
significant development, an anecdote, or a startling fact. It also needs to set out the main argument in no more than one or two
sentences. (For example, “In recent weeks both rising energy prices and natural disasters have made headlines around the world.
For economic and environmental reasons, it’s time to bring on Australia’s renewable energy transformation.”)

The background (20 percent)

A brief setting of the scene for the reader so they understand the existing state of affairs and the key players. But this should only
be as much as is necessary to set up the argument. Often it is best to write this after you have written the argument section so
that you keep this as tight and short as possible. (For example, “Australia has a mixed record when it comes to policies aimed
reducing carbon emissions, but shifting sentiment among investors and ordinary people means there is now an appetite for
policy initiatives that will dramatically accelerate Australia’s transition to a net zero economy.”)

The argument (60 percent)

The core of the article in which you make your main argument and lay out the strongest pieces of evidence (including examples) which support it. Care should be taken to structure this part of the article clearly. For example, if you have three key points to support your main argument, each of these points should be clearly stipulated.

The punchline (15 percent)

A punchy and memorable restatement of your argument, with a call to action if appropriate. (For example, “A comprehensive
effort to tackle climate change is not just sound public policy, it is about survival. Policymakers need to think hard and act
quickly.”