How to Submit

We invite high-quality submissions that bear relevance to the U.S. and Allied Spacepower. If your submission is not related to Spacepower, then we are likely not a suitable publication venue. All submissions must be exclusive and original, and not promote a specific corporation, business, or any other non-governmental organization. We are unable to provide payment or royalty to authors, or its all-volunteer editorial board.  

 By agreeing to publish with us, authors agree to abide by the terms and conditions set forth below.  

Know your reader. Our target audience includes mid- to senior level government policymakers, NASA, the United States Space Force and other military services, civilian agencies, international partners, academics, advocates, and business professionals involved in the commercial, scientific, diplomatic, civil and national security space sectors. While many of our readers have military or space experience, for many this may be the first exposure to your topic. Please take care to explain concepts and contexts that are basic for your area of specialty — without dumbing them down. This level of detail information can be easily placed in endnotes to allow readers to delve more into an issue if needed.

Know our standard. Submissions are evaluated for originality, contribution to expanding the field of spacepower, and relevance to our readership. Your submission should be clear and establish a focus by providing your thesis in the first paragraph. Your submission should be well structured allowing ideas are developed through the logical, orderly progression of paragraphs. Your submission should also be well organized at the paragraph level, with each paragraph centered on a single, main idea. A paragraph is usually three or more sentences. Your submission should provide evidence that logically and clearly supports your thesis, argument, and evidence. Since we are an all-volunteer editorial board, it is important that your submission meet the above standard, below format, and be technically and stylistically sound. If you need to have a professional review your work before submitting to us, there are numerous online editors you can consult.  

Cadence of Publication. We aim to publish articles as soon as they are completed to avoid delays.

How to submit.  We only accept submissions as an attached Microsoft Word document format. We do not accept submissions via Google Doc or other such document sharing platforms due to incompatibility causing formatting issues. 

Standard Length. Submissions may range in length between 1,000-3,000 words of main body text.

Abstracts. Submissions should include an abstract ranging between 150-200 words in length, with no acronyms, abbreviations, numbers, references, or citations. The abstract must, however, contain a basic-level introduction, rationale for the work, a statement of the main conclusion, and main findings that move the field forward.

Our promise to you. We pair your essays with our expert board members. They will never know your identity until your paper has been accepted. This process takes time, but it is worth it. If your submission is related to current news event, then we are likely not a suitable publication venue because we have a thorough review process. Our editor-in-chief filter submissions, our editorial board teams review them, work on them, ask authors to make corrections or revisions, and even then might decide to pass on essays for a variety of reasons. However, if we do pass on a full submission, we will provide you substantive feedback and even some recommendations so your essay can find a home elsewhere.

No double submissions. Do not send us an essay that has been concurrently submitted elsewhere and not withdrawn from consideration. We are an all-volunteer effort and our editors devote a lot of time into editing submissions. If we use that precious resource only to discover you have decided to publish your essay in another outlet, you will no longer be welcome to publish with us. If you decide to withdraw your submissions, you must do so in writing.

Cite your work. Any factual statements (speeches, statistics, events, etc.) and arguments of other thinkers must be cited in endnotes. Only one endnote per sentences and each endnote can have multiple sources contained within it.

Avoid unnecessary capitalization. It is the U.S. government, not the U.S. Government. In addition, while we love the U.S. Space Force, when referring to individuals in the Space Force, it is guardians, not Guardians. We think you catch our idea here.

Acronyms and abbreviations. Authors should avoid non-standard acronyms and abbreviations. If used, the author should spell out the term with a tag on the first use. For example, “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a long history of international coordination.” Use United States as a noun and U.S. as an adjective. For example, “The United States landed a man on the moon, which was a tremendous success for the U.S. space program.”

Style. Turabian. Link to online Turabian help tool: https://www.eksendia.com/tm/school_book_print.aspx#errNametag 

Abstract. Times New Roman, 12 point font, in italics.

Text. Times New Roman, 12 point font.

Endnotes. Times New Roman, 10 point font, Arabic numerals in accordance with Turabian style.

Margins. One inch margins all around for 8.5 x 11 inch portrait layout.

Spacing between bodies. The abstract, body of the paper, block quotations, table titles, figure captions, footnote/endnote citations, and appendices should be single-spaced.

Space between sentences. Your submission should only have one space only between a punctuation mark that ends a sentence and the first word of the next sentence.

Indentation. Begin each new paragraph without indenting the first sentence.

Block Citations. Quotes should be blocked if the cited language exceeds fifty words. Block cites should be justified and offset 1” from the left and right margins.

Page Numbers. Do not insert page numbers.

Hyperlinks. Do not insert hyperlinks in the text of your submission. However, you may include them in your endnotes.