Shield was founded by a student in the War Studies Department, King’s College London (KCL). King’s students, staff and alumni are all welcome to write for us, however, you don’t have to be part of the KCL community to be published here. This is a platform for people interested in defence and security – including students, staff and alumni of other universities, and practitioners working in the industry.

So, if you’re interested in defence and security, and you have something to say, please get in contact. We welcome new authors and guest contributors. If you haven’t published with Shield before, we recommend that you read through our FAQs.

You’re welcome to contact us to pitch your article idea. A pitch shouldn’t be lengthy – it’s just a few sentences summing up what you’ll be writing about, and what your essential argument will be. Alternatively, you can also submit a finished article for consideration.

We are particularly keen to hear from you if you are a practitioner with experience in defence or security; your views and expertise are valued.

Submission checklist

Please note that by submitting your work to Shield, you confirm your agreement to the below terms.

Articles

-Articles should be approximately 500 to 1,000 words long. If your piece is longer, consider whether it could be submitted in two parts. Rare exceptions to this wordcount requirement may be permitted in discussion with the Managing Editor.

-By submitting your article to Shield, you confirm it is your own original work and declare that you have not infringed copyright or committed plagiarism in any way.

-You are responsible for keeping a copy of your own work. Shield does not guarantee that a copy of your work will be indefinitely available online (although we hope and plan to operate successfully for many years, we are not immune to data loss and unforeseen circumstances). If you wish to keep evidence of your publication, we suggest that you use the print to PDF function to save a copy of your article on Shield.

-You are responsible for the accuracy of your work. Your editor will help you fine-tune the piece but will not fact-check it.

-Submit your article in a word processor file format (ideally Microsoft Word). Other word processors are also acceptable if they can be edited in Microsoft Word.

-If you are referencing information available online, please use embedded hyperlinks. Hyperlinks should be placed on the most relevant verb in the sentence. For instance: The cat jumped onto the chair.

-If your source is not available online, please use the Chicago (footnotes and bibliography) referencing style.

-All articles must be submitted in house style.

-Ensure your work is spell-checked before submitting.

-Submit your work in Times New Roman, point 12, left aligned, with single line spacing. Insert an empty line between paragraphs (e.g. press the Enter key twice before beginning a new paragraph).

-You should write your title in title case (Title Case Looks Like This: Subtitles are Permitted)

-The Managing Editor may make changes to your article at the point of publication. This is done to save you editing time and would only be for small changes, such as an obvious spelling or formatting error.

Images

-All posts must be accompanied by a relevant image (you should submit the image in .jpg form, along with a link to the website you downloaded it from, alongside your article).

–Shield only uses images that are free for commercial use. There are many websites that offer images that are both free and suitable for professional use. Good places to start include Morgue File, Pexels, Pixabay and StockSnap.

Bio and social media

-All articles must be accompanied by a few lines of biographical information. Please submit this along with your article. See earlier blog posts by way of example.

-If you have a social media presence (such as a Facebook or Twitter account) and you want us to tag you when we promote your article on social media, please provide the details of your account(s) when you submit your article to Shield.

Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in Shield articles are the views of individual authors writing in their personal capacity. Authors’ views and opinions are not attributable to Shield, nor to any other person or organisation (unless this is expressly stated, such as where a co-author is listed).