Thank you for your interest in writing for the Armed Forces Journal.

We are always interested in receiving articles from outside contributors on military and defense-industry-related topics. The articles we publish are both informative and opinionated, and are designed to provoke thoughtful debate.

We prefer that before sending us an article you first send an abstract describing your purpose and themes.

While a positive response to a query is not a guarantee that your article will be accepted for publication, it will at least let you know whether the work will be considered. The articles themselves should be between 2,000 and 3,000 words in length, unless otherwise stipulated in our response to your abstract.

An AFJ article must be original work and should be a “good read” that is easily accessible to an expert audience across all services, agencies and defense-related industries. We therefore do not publish white papers or technical documents, marketing material, organization charts or flow diagrams. Nor do we publish footnotes. The use of acronyms and jargon is kept to a minimum.

We edit for house-style and make cuts to fit. All AFJ editor decisions are final.

When an article is accepted for publication, the author will be emailed our publishing company’s mandatory form that he/she must sign and return prior to publishing. This proves we have obtained the author’s permission to publish. We also will require a short author bio and a high-resolution head-and-shoulders image of the author. This must be emailed direct to the editor as a stand-alone JPEG file.

If you have an idea with a defense angle and aren't sure whether we would be interested, don't hesitate to ask.

Queries, abstracts and articles should be sent to afjeditors@armedforcesjournal.com.

WHO WE ARE: Armed Forces Journal began as the Army-Navy Journal in 1863 and quickly became the fashionable forum for the exchange of military ideas. It existed under that name for about 100 years, until it became the Armed Forces Journal. Today, AFJ is produced by the Army Times Publishing Co., which is owned by Gannett. It is independent of the government, but appeals to readers based on their professional affiliation with the military.

WHO OUR AUDIENCE IS: The target readers of Armed Forces Journal are field- and flag-grade officers. The current circulation of the magazine is about 27,000.

ISSUE DATES AND DEADLINES: New editions of the Armed Forces Journal are published on the first of each month. Articles for each magazine are planned several months in advance. We expect completed manuscripts to be submitted six to eight weeks before a given publication date to be considered for that issue.

RIGHTS: Armed Forces Journal accepts only original articles, and requires that the author give us complete rights to use the articles in print, online and however else we may deem appropriate.