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Letters to the editor, comments and submissions

 

Letters to the editor
Letters to the editor for the print magazine should be 400 words or less and should comment on something you have read in University Affairs. Please send letters to editor@univcan.ca. Unlike online comments, a letter to the editor must include your full name and city, and preferably your title (or role, such as graduate student) and institution. We reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity.

Online comments
Readers may comment on articles online by using the comment function. We review all comments before posting them online to ensure that they are relevant to the topic and meet our guidelines on civility. We reserve the right to remove or to refuse to post any comments that we consider unacceptable. If you believe a posted comment contravenes these guidelines, please email us.

We do not post comments that contain:

  • potential libel
  • obscene, rude or racist language
  • personal attacks or threats
  • product promotions or spam
  • personal information published without consent
  • discussion unrelated to the article

Requesting a correction
Please email to inform us of errors and to request corrections that may have appeared in print or online. We will always publish a clear, appropriate and timely correction when warranted.

Submissions
Many of our best articles come from our readers and we welcome your ideas and submissions at submissions@univcan.ca. All emails to this address will receive an automated response acknowledging receipt. We try to but cannot always respond to readers’ mail individually.

If you send an unsolicited article, it will be read by an editor. However, in all cases we prefer to receive an email describing your story idea first, with a note saying who you are. If you submit a manuscript, we will not publish it without contacting you first. If you haven’t heard from us within four weeks, feel free to email again, but you may also assume that we are not going to use it.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Opinion pieces
We like to receive opinion pieces that voice a strong point of view. We are not interested in pieces that are promotion for a company, institution or department. Our opinion pieces are generally 750 to 850 words. We prefer to be the first publisher to publish your viewpoint or article. We rarely publish articles that have appeared in other magazines, newspapers or websites.

Essays and articles from the university community
University Affairs actively solicits articles and first-person essays written by faculty members, administrators, staff and occasionally students. These may cover a wide range of topics but should have resonance with those who work and study at Canada’s universities. Length of essays and articles varies. We always prefer to receive a summary of your idea first.

Career development articles
If you would like to write an article for our career section, or if you are a graduate job seeker with an interest in a particular subject and would like to suggest a topic for us to cover, please contact the web editor at webeditor@univcan.ca. We also occasionally publish first-person narratives about the issues affecting Canadians academics in their careers. Please contact the web editor for details.

People on the move
University Affairs publishes appointment announcements at the director level and above including:

  • Presidents
  • Chancellors
  • Chairs of boards
  • Vice-presidents
  • Associate and assistant vice-presidents
  • Deans
  • Directors
  • Acting presidents

We also publish, at our discretion, selected awards announcements, such as the Killam Prizes, 3M Teaching Fellows and various prizes from the federal research granting agencies.

Please send appointment announcements to our digital journalist at HLiddle@univcan.ca. Appointments are edited for length and clarity and are posted as they are received. All postings are removed after a maximum of 60 days online.

Freelance guidelines
If you’re interested in writing for the University Affairs magazine or website for a fee, please read the magazine or our website before submitting ideas. We try to respond to queries promptly, but in exceptionally busy parts of the publishing schedule, it may take several weeks.

In general, we work with journalists who live and work in Canada and are familiar with the Canadian university system. When introducing yourself to us, we prefer a detailed query, along with samples of your writing and a short resumé, rather than a completed article.

If we accept your proposal, we buy first rights. We aren’t interested in articles that have been previously published or which have been accepted for publication in another forum or magazine. All articles are edited for clarity, length and style, and authors are informed of any significant changes to their work.

We use the Canadian Oxford Dictionary for spelling and follow the latest edition of the Canadian Press Stylebook. For French-written articles, we use Le guide du rédacteur of the Bureau de la traduction of the Federal Government of Canada for style. We use honorifics with names, so it is helpful if you determine whether the person you are citing has a doctorate or is a professor.

If you have any questions, contact us.