We’re always looking for articles throughout the year for the International House Journal and the following guidelines should give you an idea as to what we consider before publishing.

Authors

If you are an ELT expert, teacher trainer or teacher from within the IH network or beyond and would like to contribute to the IH Journal, we would be delighted to hear from you. Past authors include Scott Thornbury, Philip Kerr, Gavin Dudeney, Martin Parrot, Dave Willis and Brita Haycraft, so your contribution will find itself in good company.

Readership

The IH Journal is read by practising English language teachers, teacher trainers and managers all over the world. When submitting an article, do bear this in mind and think about what you would be interested in reading. The original editorial from the first edition states:

“It [the IH Journal] is written by teachers for teachers. Anyone and everyone can have their say. It will contain articles on action research (i.e. classroom investigation) projects, conference papers, practical ideas, news items, and work in progress from leading thinkers within the organisation. We want to encourage debate, give people a platform, create new ideas, refloat old ideas, debunk myths and generate a new sense of adventure.”

We still adhere to these original principles and advise that articles are focused on practical classroom application of ideas. Reading past editions of the Journal before submitting your work will give you an insight into the type of articles typically published.

Length

Articles are typically 1,000 – 1,500 words in length, which makes them between about one and a half and two and a half pages long in Microsoft Word. We will consider longer submissions, though it is rare to publish these (see readership above). Reviews can be up to 1,000 words long.

Referencing

If you quote from a published source, be that online or in-print, please reference it appropriately. We suggest you use Harvard for simplicity (see here), though any recognised referencing convention is acceptable. However, remember that the IH Journal has a focus on classroom application and so overly academic articles with long lists of references will not be considered.

Editing

All articles are carefully considered before publication and in many instances the editor may contact you to ask you to revise certain sections or provide other feedback to help you improve or develop your work – we will help you as you go in a supportive manner, particularly if you are a first-time writer. However, we also cannot guarantee that every submission will be published, though will do our best to publish as many as possible and may advise that an article will be published in a later edition.

Submission

Here are some suggested steps to follow when you are considering contributing to the Journal:

• Contact the Editor on IHJEditor@ihworld.com and express interest, briefly outlining your ideas.
• Write your article taking the above points into account and then have someone else proof-read it for you.
• E-mail your article as a Word document (.doc or .docx) titled ‘your name article title’, e.g. “Chris Ożόg – Observations on Observations”. Please do not submit PDFs. Also, please send a 50-60 word mini bio describing who you are, where you work, experience, etc., and a photograph.
• Read through any feedback given on your work and make any necessary changes, ask follow-up questions, etc.
• Read your article in print online!

Please e-mail IHJEditor@ihworld.com with any questions you have.