Editorial Guidelines:
While we have a number of assigned features and columns, Currents is always looking for additional fresh, well-written and relevant content for our magazine. The following guidelines should be adhered to when submitting an article or an idea.
If you should have any questions regarding the relevance or appropriateness of a particular storyline, contact Cynthia Vega, Currents Editor, at 201-487-0412 or cvega@fisca.org
2010 Editorial Deadlines
Winter 2010
Storyline submission: November 20, 2009
Editorial close: December 21, 2009
Spring 2010
Storyline submission: February 3, 2010
Editorial close: March 3, 2010
Fall 2010
Storyline submission: June 25, 2010
Editorial close: July 27, 2010
Editorial Information:
Currents readers are composed of the Financial Service Centers of America (FiSCA) members, numerous others (including regulatory and legislative bodies) in the financial services industry, and online readers. Our mission is to provide owners and operators of financial services businesses with timely and substantive information that will benefit them and help them grow their business. Currents keeps the financial services industry informed of important developments and trends in areas such as legislation, compliance, technology, employee training, public perception, late-breaking industry news, and FiSCA activities, among others. Currents also offers fresh perspectives on ways to make financial services operations more profitable.
In developing an article, please keep in the mind the timeliness of the piece you are preparing. Our focus is to be as current as possible, and since it takes six weeks between editorial closing and mailing of the finished publication, your submission should contain the most recent information available.
Meeting deadlines and adhering to requested article lengths are extremely important components in assuring that Currents meets our annual production schedule and publishing dates. Writers are notified of their topic, requested article length and the editorial deadline approximately one month before articles are due. They also receive a follow-up reminder one week before the editorial due date.
Ideally, articles should run no more than 660 words per page (approximately 4,350 characters w/spaces) to allow adequate space for accompanying graphics, etc. Currents reserves the right to edit all articles for spelling and grammar, accuracy, continuity of thought and editorial length.
Before submitting any article for consideration or completing an assignment, writers should edit articles to the best of their ability, following the U.S. News Stylebook guidelines (see below for some specifics). Articles may be returned to writers if deemed unacceptable and writers may be asked to re-work articles for acceptance and publication.
Terms:
As an association publication, Currents generally does not compensate contributing writers. Currents also retains one-time editorial rights to all submitted articles for print and Internet publication. Reproduction of articles may take place at the discretion of the Currents editorial staff, however writers will not be compensated for any additional reproduction of their work outside of Currents magazine. |
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Preparing Text for Submission:
- All headlines and text flush left (no centering, no indents, no underlining)
- Use one and one-half line spacing (not two)
- Times is the preferred font (Times Roman, OK)
- No all caps in heads
- No double spaces after periods, colons, exclamation marks
- No foot or endnotes
- No semi-colons or commas after a sentence in a numbered sequence. i.e.
- The defendant was found guilty
- The defendant was sentenced to
- The defendant served
- Any mention of statistics must include an attribution to source and date or origin.
- Names and courtesy titles: in general, do not refer to a person by only their first name. On the first reference, use both the first and last names of the person (Betty Ford, Jimmy Carter). For all subsequent references, apply the appropriate courtesy title or only use the last name.
- Formal titles such as Representative or Senator should be spelled out.
Abbreviations /Word Usage:
- check cashing (when used as a noun)
- check-cashing (when used as an adjective)
- e-mail
- Financial Service Center(s) (all initial caps, when used as a noun)
- financial service center(s) (all lower case when used as an adjective)
- financial services industry (all lower case)
- payday advance industry (PDA)
- Internet (cap "I")
- U.S. (not US)
- USA PATRIOT Act (not U.S.A.)
- D.C.
- All state abbreviations should be two-letter upper case, i.e., CT (not Conn; CA not Calif)
- a.m. / p.m.
- Dates:
- July 2005 (no comma)
- No apostrophe for plurals of numbers (1990s)
- Money Service Business (MSB)
- Money Services Businesses (MSBs) (all lower case when spelled out, upper case MSBs)
- Spell out numbers one - ten
- website
- percent (Use figures except when the number begins a sentence: (Interest was 3 percent.) The % symbol may be used in tables, headlines, and boxes. (Americans who diet regularly: 32%.)
- Associations and other organizations that are commonly known by acronyms should be mentioned by their first names followed by the acronym in parenthesis for the first mention, and by the acronym for following usages, for instance, American Bar Association (ABA).
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