Sidelights Submission Guidelines

Sidelights welcomes your articles, comments, illustrations and photographs. All submissions will be reviewed, but are not guaranteed to be published. Sidelights’ goal is not to regurgitate the news, it is to use that news and explain how it affects the Master and industry, both pros and cons.

General Good Writing Guidelines

  • Clear, concise to convey meaning.

  • Source statisics and quotes.

  • Define acronyms when used for the first time e.g., Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS)

  • Use pronouns like it, them, this, that as little as possible. Reader will eventually lose track of what these pronouns are  referencing.

  • Verbs, adverbs, and adjectives are your friends, use “is, was, be” as little as possible.

  • Draw connections. Do not assume the audience knows what you mean.

If your article is regarding a controversial topic, a more effective way to get your message across is to explain the problem/situation and propose a possible solution. Don’t accuse. Keep it to business; don’t make it personal. You will be taken more seriously than someone hot off the collar. Though on rare occasions, a hot off the collar approach is necessary.

 Be mindful of copyrights:

Cutting and pasting bits and pieces from various web sites is plagiarism.

You can “quote” other articles; however, reprinting text, photos or graphics requires permission.

Photos from USCG Gallery (send the link so we can use the official credit), Government sites (NOAA) are usually public domain or specified as release for press use, or Wikimedia Commons has many copy photos available for use.

Photos from news agencies are copyrighted; we cannot use these without written permission.

Text Formats

MS Word/Works,PDF or plain text (.txt). Do not spend extra time formatting fonts/sizes; we will reformat to fit our magazine. If you would like words emphasized, bold or italic will suffice. You may use short headlines to section your article. Sidebars will additional information are welcome. Generally, 650-750 words for 1 page with photo/graphic; 1200-1300 for spread (2 facing pages) with 1-2 photos/graphics.

Graphic Formats

  • .jpg - 1024 x 768 pixels  or a file size of 750 KB, andthing less and we may not be able to print the photo

  • Adobe PhotoShop (.psd) or Illustrator (.ai) - include fonts or create outlines.

  • .gif is only for web site publication - they do not reproduce well for print publication.

  • Print (we will scan)

  • Draw your own! (you can submit electronically in formats above, or snail mail for us to scan)

  • Camera Settings for best print reproduction: Highest resolution available, and set to superfine.

  • Scanner settings: for most pages, 300 dpi at 4x6 inches is sufficient, 1200 dpi max. For cover photos, set to 400 • dpi at 8"x10" output size.