Article Submission Guidelines

Before you submit an article for publishing, please read the guidelines as following them will maximise the chance of the article being accepted.

Key link: article submission page

Format

Articles published on the LCS website must use its standard article page template. We do not simply link to another website. The LCS will create the article page and copy the text and any images to it.

The article authorship is shown and fully acknowledged. Links to other related websites are maintained and there is an option to include the author’s employer/role and short biography if desired.

For how it’s published, see this section below >>>

Topic

Article topics should be:

• Related to lean thinking and continuous improvement.
• Relevant and of interest primarily to lean practitioners – ie those working in organisations teaching or applying lean thinking.

Lean is, of course, a cross-functional body of knowledge, so it encompass a wide area, including innovation, leadership, organisational design and behaviour.

Article Types

• Case studies: lean implementations in organisations, innovations, successes and failures.
• ‘White paper’ article: that is, “an authoritative report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body’s philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision”.
• Trends or innovations in fields relating to lean thinking
• Research report: an account of lean related research that has relevance to the practitioner community.
• Teaching related: delivery methods and innovative approaches to teaching
• Educational and knowledge development: exploring a topic or theme, thought leadership (including, challenging the status quo), uncovering new knowledge or insights

Articles should not be promotional or ‘advertorial’ in nature and not be a blog type narrative based around an unsubstantiated opinion.

Structure & Format

Length

From 500 to 2,000 words.

There should be a summary of the article of c.150 words. This will enable a reader to quickly discern what it is all about and hint of the key findings, insights, focus or thrust.

Structure

There is no prescribed structure, as this will vary depending on the type of article. In general, articles should have an introduction, a main body with the narrative or discussion, with conclusions at the end.

It should use headings and sub-headings to break it into logical sections. These also improve the visual appearance on the web page.

A project based article could be broadly structured as follows:

1. Background/context – what was the problem to be solved or the issue? Author’s role.
2. What work was done – methodology, approach,
3. What happened – analysis, results.
4. Conclusions – original aims achieved? Impact, implications, further work required, sustainability.

Category & Tags

If using the article submission form, select an article Category (use ‘other’ if not sure) and add some Tags  -ie key words that will be used to search for the article – up to three.

Images & Graphics

The use of hyperlinks, images and graphics is encouraged, though you must have permission to use copyrighted material and acknowledge according to the usual conventions. There will be an overall article image that appears with the summary – if you do not have one, the LCS will source something appropriate. If you are submitting via the form, you can use up to two images.

Style

Common website article writing style guidelines apply. Googling ‘website article writing guidelines’ will reveal many useful sites. The list below is a summary of the typical advice provided:

1. Keep your audience in mind.
2. Be concise.
3. Make content scannable.
4. Write meaningful headers.
5. Limit paragraphs to 70 words.
6. Use bulleted lists whenever possible.
7. Use active voice.
8. Use common language.
9. Be professional and human.
10. Include relevant links.

Publishing Process

1. Submit your article by providing a link to it if already published, or via the article submission page in one of two ways:
   1. As a document (Word or PDF), or
   2. Add text to the submission boxes
2. LCS approves or rejects the article
3. If approved, the article is published on the website.

The LCS will acknowledge the article author and provide a link to the original source. The LCS may undertake article promotion via social media and the LCS newsletter.