SUBMISSIONS
All articles and article pitches should be sent to Editor in Chief Morgan O’Rourke (212.655.5922).

Please note that RM does not publish announcements product releases, nor does RM publish the announcements of hirings, promotions or other such executive activity.

When sending in your story, please entitle your submission along the lines of “Article Proposal” or “Article Submission” so we can minimize the chances of your submission falling through the cracks.

STORY TOPICS
Risk Managment Magazine strives to explore existing and emerging techniques and concepts that address the professional needs of those who are dedicated to protecting the physical, financial, human and intellectual assets of their companies. Your story should always keep this in mind.

Your submission has a much greater chance of publication if it is on a topic we are interested in covering. Before submitting, take a look at the RM Editorial Calendar, which should give you a good idea of what kinds of stories the magazine is currently most interested in. If you have a story idea that does not appear on the editorial calendar, that is okay. The editorial calendar is not set in stone, and we often run articles that were never on the calendar. That said, we prefer to fill the calendar first, so any stories that follow those set up for each issue will be looked upon more favorably than those that do not.

In addition, before submitting to RM (or any publication, for that matter), it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the last few issues of it, at the very least. The full contents of each issue of RM are posted here online, as well as an archive going back for more than a decade. Browsing this should give you a good sense of what topics have been covered and what have not.

RM works well in advance of its publication date, so a general rule of thumb is you should query us about a story three months prior to whichever month you wish to appear in. That will give you a month to write the story, a month for us to produce it, and a month for our printers to print it. The submission deadlines for all issues are included on the Editorial Calendar.

RM STYLE
Risk Management Magazine adheres to the Associated Press style as defined by the Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, 5th Edition. This source will answer 99% of any style questions you may have regarding RM. In the rare case where the AP Stylebook does not answer the matter, refer to the 14th Edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.

THINGS TO AVOID
Do not use contractions. Generally, Risk Management Magazine does not use contractions. The main exceptions to this are if the article requires an informal tone (e.g., a humorous piece) or if the contractions appear in a quote.

An excessive number of quotations. Stories that simply string together quote after quote to make their points are “talking head” pieces that do not sit well with most readers. If a source absolutely must be quoted, try paraphrasing what they have said instead of quoting it directly. Save the direct quotes for times when a source has said something in a truly unique way.

Academic citation. RM does not encourage the use of footnotes or endnotes except in articles where legal cases must be cited.

Do not overtly promote a particular product or service. RM articles must be factual and insightful. They are not a promotional platform. Promotions thinly veiled as an objective article will either be rejected or sent back to the author to be rewritten.

Bulleted lists. Generally speaking, bullet lists are best when they are short, contain brief items and are used sparingly. Long lists, or multiple lists within a single story are distracting to the reader. Likewise, if the items in a bulleted list are more than a sentence long, they ought to be incorporated into the text as straight prose.

STORY LENGTH
Feature stories should be 1,800-2,000 words long. Risk Management Magazine will publish stories as long as 3,000 words or as short as 1,000 words, but we prefer to keep it around 2,000.

STORY PITCHES
If you have a story pitch to submit to Risk Management Magazine, send a brief summary of the story outlining its central point and what kind of information you will bring in to make that point. The summary only needs to be a few paragraphs long.

Your proposal will be reviewed as soon as possible, and the editorial staff will contact you to inform you of the proposal’s approval or denial. If your proposal has been approved, you will receive copies of the RM Author’s Agreement Form and RM Copyright Form. Both of these forms must be signed by the author(s) and sent back to RM immediately.

You will also be given a deadline by which your completed story must be submitted. All deadlines are determined by a production schedule, which is not flexible.

FULL MANUSCRIPTS
If you have already written your story and wish to submit it to Risk Management Magazine unsolicited, simply send in the full manuscript. Please note that RM prefers to receive manuscripts as a Word document.

Upon receiving the manuscript, we will review the story and inform you of its approval or denial. Again, if approved, you will receive copies of the RM Author’s Agreement and RM Copyright forms to be signed and returned.

AUTHOR INFORMATION
On all submissions to Risk Management Magazine, please include your name as you would like to see it published, your full job title, the full name of your company, and your company’s headquarters location. If your office and your company’s headquarters are in different places, please list them both. In addition, please include your full contact information, including ground address, phone number, fax number and e-mail address. Also, please include a brief author bio at the end of your story.

THE EDITORIAL ADVISORY COUNCIL
Prior to the publication of your article, it will be submitted to the Risk Management Magazine Editorial Advisory Council, a team of risk professionals that reviews all stories and submits their comments on how they might be expanded, reduced or improved.

COMPLIMENTARY COPIES
Risk Management Magazine publishes on or about the first of every month. When your story is published, you will be sent two complimentary copies of the magazine. If you wish to purchase additional copies of the magazine, please contact Circulation Coordinator Carole Ireland.

CUSTOM REPRINTS
Risk Management Magazine also provides, for a fee, custom reprints and PDFs of stories. For all price estimates, please contact Senior Designer Karen Arbasetti.

REPRINT PERMISSIONS
And finally, many of our submitters seek to reprint their stories elsewhere, either in hard copy for distribution, or online at a separate website. Risk Management Magazine has a liberal reprint policy, but we do need to receive all permission requests in writing for our records. All reprint permission requests should be sent to Editor in Chief Morgan O’Rourke.