How to submit a news article on sportanddev.org

Want to submit a news article to be published on sportanddev.org? Follow this step-by-step guide.

To submit content for publication on sportanddev, sign up as a new sportanddev user or log in with your existing username.

This step-by-step visual guide will help you post your own news articles for inclusion in the sportanddev.org news feed and social media channels. Please read the instructions carefully to avoid common errors, especially when uploading images and selecting your article tags. When inputting your content, fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required. Need more help? Contact the sportanddev operating team.

Step 1: Click Submit Your Content

Make sure you're logged in to your account. Then, navigate to the top of the site and click Get Involved > Submit Your Content.

Step 2: Under the Article tab, add the title for your news item

Step 3: Select a banner image

The preferred image ratio is 16:9 and at least 1300x782 (width x height). Images must be horizontal, under 2MB and uploaded as PNG, JPG, JPEG or GIF. Please ensure that you have the right to publish the picture or ensure that it is a Creative Commons image. Don't have an image? Search Creative Commons stock image sites like Pexels and Unsplash to find your image.

When uploading an image, a brief image description in the Alt text field is required.

Step 4: Add your introduction

Summarize your news article in maximum 150 words, preferably one sentence. This will appear in bold at the top of your article. Try to avoid repeating language that is in the title.

Step 5: Add the body text of your article

Use the Body field as the destination for the main text. Usually, you can just copy and paste the text from another site, a PDF or an email.

Formatting issues

Sometimes, when pasting text from another source, there are formatting issues to be solved. For example, when copying from a PDF, the text sometimes doesn't stretch all the way across the Body field, and inserts line breaks in odd places. Use this line break remover tool to fix that issue.

Article and paragraph length

News articles around 400-600 words are recommended, while opinion and commentary pieces should be between 800-1000 words. Readers prefer paragraphs which are 1-4 sentences in length. If your article is much longer, publish a shorter version on sportanddev with the link to the full article published elsewhere.

Acronyms

The first time an organisation is mentioned, use its full name (with the acronym in brackets). Use only the acronym thereafter. Bear in mind that some organisations are better known by their acronyms only (e.g. FIFA), and it's better in that case to to use the acronym only.

Bulleted and numbered lists

Each bullet point should begin with a capital letter and have no punctuation at the end of the point. Bullet points should use the same standard language. For example, if the first point starts with an “ing” verb (eg “promoting”), then all bullets should do the same.

Tone and relevance

Please ensure that your article is relevant for the broader sport and development community. We discourage articles that are self-promotional or evangelical and encourage those that promote debate. Of course, we recommend the sharing of good practices, but it is important this is relevant.

Inserting links into your text

Use the link icon in the Body field menu to insert links into your text. First, select the body text you want to be a link, then click the small link icon.

This will make a dialog box appear, where you can enter the destination link and change the link text:

Inserting article sub-headings

Use the Body field menu to change text types. First select the text you want to change, then click on the word Normal and use the dropdown menu to convert it to Heading 2 or 3 subtitles into your article:

Using bold and italics

Use the B and I buttons in the Body field menu to add Bold and Italic text. (We generally don't use underlined text when publishing articles.)

Blocks of italics are bad practice for accessibility reasons. Italicisation of a few words (eg for emphasis or for foreign language words) is acceptable.

Step 6: Add the author (optional)

If you're the article author and a registered sportanddev user, skip this step and use the Accredited To field in Step 10 instead (sorry about any confusion). Otherwise, use this field to type the author's name.

Step 7: Add the article tags

All articles published on sportanddev.org require taxonomy tags. Classifying the article in this way helps users find what they're looking for. Complete all the required fields by clicking on the dropdown and choosing a value.

Classifying your news article correctly increases its ranking in site searches and SEO. If you're unsure about how to categorise your article, select the default value Not Applicable, which appears in every dropdown list (discouraged). Please take the time to classify your article!

Step 8: Select an organisation

All articles published on sportanddev.org require affiliation with one or more registered organisations. If the organisation you represent isn't listed, please use the default value sportanddev Community by typing sportanddev Community into the Organisations field and selecting it from the list that appears.

Step 9: Add Key Links (optional)

Include Key Links in your article to drive traffic to your chosen destination. Multiple links may be added:

Key links appear below article text in a separate box once it is published:

Step 10: Select who submitted the article with Accredited To

If you're the author of the article, use the Accredited To field to find your sportanddev username. Start typing and select your username from the dropdown:

Note: Unlike the Author field covered in a previous step, the Accredited To field is required. Sometimes, the operating team needs these two values to be separate, which is why we have two separate fields.

Step 11: Submit

Hit the Send For Review button to submit your article to the sportanddev editorial team. You will be unable to submit if any of the required fields are left blank. Once you've submitted your news article, you'll be notified via your registered email as soon as it has appeared on the site. You will be able to edit the content at any time.

Your articles may be edited for grammar, language, clarity and overall readability by the Operating Team.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you'll find it easy and quick to submit an article on sportanddev.org. If you encounter any trouble with the submissions process, please contact the operating team and we'll do our best to help get your article online.