Submissions

Guidelines

The Oxford Political Review is a print and online publication. A print edition is published termly, whilst digital articles are released throughout the year. Calls for submission to the print edition are announced on our website and social media platforms, whilst submissions for online publication are accepted on a rolling basis. All accepted submissions will undergo an editorial process led by our team to ensure that they meet our publication standards.

Prior to Michaelmas Term 2026 (Issue 20), print editions centred on a particular theme or topic, whilst digital submissions covered all themes within the publication’s scope (see below). From Michaelmas Term 2026, print editions will consist both of articles on the designated theme, and of the highest quality pieces submitted to an Open (non-themed) call. Articles selected for print publication will also be posted online.

Please read the below submission guidelines carefully. Submissions which do not adherence with our guidelines will be rejected for publication.

We receive a high number of emails and, therefore, may not be able to respond to every submission. If you do not hear from us after three weeks, you can assume that your submission has been rejected.

Format and Style

In general, we are looking for submissions that take the following format:

  1. Short op-ed style articles of around 500-800 words
  2. Book reviews and review essays of no more than 1,500 words
  3. Long-form articles consisting of no more than 2,000 words
  4. Interviews of no more than 2,000 words

We do not usually accept submissions written in an academic essay format. For example, dissertations or academic essays that have not been modified to fit the style of a long-form article are likely to be rejected. Instead, we aim to publish articles that present complex and sophisticated ideas in an inviting, easy-to-understand manner accessible to the non-expert reader. We invite you to peruse some of our recently published articles to get a sense of the type of piece we tend to accept.

Please make sure that your article abides by our style guide.

We ask that all articles include citations to sources where appropriate. Acceptable sources include articles from reputable newspapers, academic journal articles, reports from established think tanks or non-profits, and books. To cite sources, please highlight a couple words within the sentence needing the citation; then, hyperlink these words to your desired source. We do not use footnotes, endnotes, or in-text citations; hyperlinked citations should be used throughout your piece. For academic journal articles, we recommend you hyperlink to its DOI. For books, we recommend you hyperlink to the publisher’s webpage featuring the book or its Google Books webpage.

How to Submit

There are four sections to which you are welcome to submit pieces. Please indicate upon submission under which of the following sections you believe your piece should be categorised:

  1. Global Politics – covering affairs related to politics and government
  2. Economy – covering resource allocation and markets, examined through diverse lenses (e.g. economic theory, history, philosophy)
  3. Culture and Ideas – covering sociology, political philosophy, intellectual history, and similar
  4. Interviews – for all interviews conducted under the brand of Oxford Political Review

To submit, please email us at submissions@oxfordpoliticalreview.com. If submitting a complete article, include your name and university (if applicable) in the email. If you are pitching a prospective piece, include two to three sentences on what you’d envision your piece to be about, alongside a brief introduction of yourself and why you are well-positioned to write the piece.