Thank you for your interest in contributing to the Logos Academic Blog. Officially known as theLAB, our blog is intended to be a meeting place of biblical scholars and serious students of the Bible, including the many subdisciplines that fall under the general umbrella of biblical, theological, and religious studies.
Due to the unique nature of online publishing, that is, scholarly work published on a blog versus social media or an online peer-reviewed journal, we are particularly interested in reading content from contributors that fits this middle publishing space. In other words, we want content that is perhaps not ready (yet) for publishing in a more traditional format, such as a monograph or journal article, but that engages in an argument longer than is suitable for a post on Twitter or Facebook. theLAB is the ideal place to flesh out new ideas, claim fresh perspectives as your own, and engage in critical discussion of the Bible, Early Judaism, the DSS, Philo, the Church Fathers, and more.
In short, we are interested in publishing exceptional content that falls within the general scope of biblical, theological, and religious studies and respects the ECPA Statement of Faith. If you are uncertain whether your submission is suitable, either due to content, length, or otherwise, please don’t hesitate to ask; we are happy to read the material first and discuss it with you.
Our desire is to see scholars at all levels write to their strengths and interests in order to open up a new space for serious discussion of the Bible. Our readership is large, so you are bound to either find an audience already engaged with your topic, or a new audience whose interest is sparked by your ideas.
General Guidelines
- Please limit submissions to 1-3 at a time, and opt for your best (unpublished) work. We will never reject work without giving sincere and constructive feedback.
- We will happily consider suggestions for book reviews and author interviews. Logos can usually acquire advance copies of new books due to our relationship with the larger publishing world. Please choose books aligned with your expertise and/or research interests.
- Consider our audience: we are reaching a highly diverse, biblically literate, and educated readership, many of whom are not officially in the “guild” of academia (although we have many readers that are). So write in an accessible manner, but don’t shy away from specialized jargon. theLAB aims both to educate outsiders and to generate insider discussion.
- Content: Although you might want to write a new article from scratch, if pressed for time you might consider submitting any of the following: excerpts and synopses of peer-reviewed articles; an exceptional research essay or exegetical paper from your postgraduate studies; a conference paper from a regional SBL or other conference; a “rabbit trail” exegetical study with a provocative idea that could generate discussion. These are just some basic ideas to get you started if you are struggling to find time to write fresh content.
- Length: we are less interested in word count than in quality of content. We will happily read articles from 500 to 5000 words (although do be prepared for more honing to occur with the latter). Send us what you have and we can work together to decide if your contribution needs to be lengthened or edited down.
Submitting
Send your content in any normal word processing format (Word, PDF, Mellel, etc) to tavis.bohlinger@logos.com. Once we receive your submission, our team of editors will read the work and, if it is selected, make suggestions if necessary. This step is done through a shared Google Doc, where our suggestions are either accepted or rejected by you, the author. We will not publish any work that an author is not ultimately comfortable with.
Publication
We request that authors send us a short bio and headshot (see recent posts at theLAB for examples).
If you have suggestions for graphics and images that would work well with your post, please send those to us as well, either as a link or jpeg. We do, however, reserve the right to make the final decision regarding formatting, images, headlines.
We highly encourage contributors to add a line to their CV for any articles published on the Logos Academic Blog. These are best listed under the designation “Digital Academic Publications,” or in some related manner which differentiates these from “Peer-Reviewed Journals” and “Monographs.” In any case, you deserve recognition for your intellectual contribution. See this post by Cathy Davidson for a helpful discussion of why it is important to make your digital publications matter.
Comments
Authors have the option to participate in any online discussion generated by their post. The editors of theLAB reserve the right to approve or disapprove comments according to the guidelines set forth on the Faithlife online forums.
Questions?
Please direct any questions regarding contributing to theLAB to tavis.bohlinger@logos.com.
We look forward to reading your work soon.
The Editor