Editorial guidelines

What we publish, who can pitch, and the standards every piece has to meet.

What we publish

Original accountability reporting on four subjects: investigations, human rights, governance and conflict. Our first focus is Africa and the Horn. First-hand stories from anywhere in the world are welcome.

Who can pitch

Reporters and writers anywhere in the world. Reporters in diaspora communities are welcome, including Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Kenyans, Sudanese and every other community living abroad.

The story must be accountability reporting. It can be about any country, as long as you have first-hand access.

What first-hand reporting means

We publish reporters who have direct access to the story. That means your own interviews, documents you hold, court records you have read, places you have been, or witnesses you have spoken to. A pitch built only on secondhand material, such as other outlets or social media, does not meet that standard.

Reporting from abroad qualifies when the access is real: interviews with deportees, detainees, families and witnesses, or documents obtained from where you live.

The forms we publish

Every piece is reported storytelling: it opens with what happened, tells it in plain language, and backs each claim with evidence. We publish three forms.

• Breaking report (500 to 900 words). What happened, who is responsible, what the evidence shows, and who has been asked to respond.
• Field report (800 to 1,500 words). A first-hand account from the place: what you saw, who you spoke to, what the documents say. You may write "I" where your own presence is part of the evidence. Keep it to what you saw and heard, not opinion.
• Investigation (1,500 to 2,500 words). A pattern or a wrong, proved with documents and witnesses, with the response of the people named.

History is welcome when it explains a wrong that is still unresolved, or why an institution behaves as it does today, and when you hold first-hand material such as archives, documents or survivors. We do not publish history essays or explainers without that.

What we do not publish

• Opinion, commentary and analysis without original reporting
• Lifestyle, culture and entertainment content
• Press releases and promotional material
• Anything written to settle a personal score
• Content that attacks people for their clan, religion, ethnicity or gender
• Pieces that are AI-written or AI-drafted

Standards

• Evidence. Every serious allegation needs documents, direct testimony, or at least two independent sources. We will ask to see your evidence before we publish.
• Right of reply. If you accuse a person or institution, you must give them a fair chance to respond before publication. We record whether they replied.
• Named sources. Name your sources whenever you safely can. If you grant anonymity, tell us who the source is and why they need it. Only editors see that information.
• Plain language. Write so that a general reader understands. Explain acronyms and use the names people actually use.

Honesty and originality

Everything in your piece must be true to the best of your knowledge, and the work must be yours. We do not publish invented quotes, invented sources or text copied from others. If we find any of these before publication, we decline the piece. If we find them after, we correct or remove the report and say why, and we stop working with that writer. Tell us at once if you learn that something you sent us is wrong.

Conflicts of interest

Tell us about any tie to the people, parties, companies, governments or funders in your story. That includes paid work, family links and past roles. A tie does not always stop a piece, but readers must be told about it, and we will add a short line to the report when it matters.

Interviews, consent and care

• Be clear with sources. Tell them you are a reporter, that the work is for The Field, and that their words may be published.
• Do not pay sources.
• Take extra care with children, survivors of violence and people in detention. Use a real name only with informed consent, and think about the risk to them and their families.
• Images of harm. Do not send graphic images unless they are needed to show the truth. We may choose not to publish an image that exposes a victim.

Sources and links

Link your sources inside the text, the way African Arguments does. Put each link on the words that name the source or the fact, so the sentence reads smoothly and a reader can check the claim in one click.

• Link on meaningful words. For example, in "the ministry's own budget shows the contract was awarded without a tender", the link goes on "budget". Do not link "click here" or paste bare web addresses.
• No footnote lists. The citation is the link, inside the sentence it supports.
• Go to the original. Link the document, court record or official statement itself, not an article about it, wherever you can.
• If it is not online, say so in the sentence. For example, "in a letter seen by The Field". Keep the material and send it to us when we ask.
• Links break. For a source that may be taken down, send us an archived copy, such as one from the Internet Archive, and we will link to that.
• Never link to anything that could identify a source at risk. We will check this with you before publication.

Protecting sources and writers

Journalists and sources can face danger, and so can their relatives, including relatives of writers who live abroad. You may publish under a pseudonym, and we will consider withholding names, places and details that could identify someone. If safety is a concern, tell us in your first email and we will agree a secure way to continue.

Pseudonyms

If you write under a pseudonym, we confirm your real identity privately before publication. We will not share it without your agreement. If we ever received a legal order, we would tell you first wherever the law allows.

Fixers and translators

Credit the fixers, translators and local helpers who made the reporting possible, with their agreement. Think about their safety before you name them, and tell us if they want to stay anonymous.

Language

Send your pitch in English, Somali or Arabic. We publish in English. If you write in another language, we will talk with you about translation, and you approve the final text.

Length

• Minimum: 500 words. A short report is fine when the evidence is strong, such as a breaking development with documents or witnesses.
• Usual length: 800 to 1,800 words. That is enough room for the evidence, the response from the people named, and what happens next.
• Maximum: 2,500 words. A longer investigation is possible if we agree it with you first, because we cannot promise a 72-hour turnaround on very long pieces.

The count covers the body text only. Headlines, captions and links do not count. Your pitch summary stays at 150 words or fewer.

Artificial intelligence

Pieces must be written by you. Light help with grammar, translation or structure is acceptable if you tell us. We read every submission closely, we may check it with detection tools, and an editor decides.

The Field itself uses an AI editing assistant for checking structure, sourcing and clarity. It never decides what we publish.

Photos and media

Please send a photograph with your piece if you have one. It is encouraged, not required. A real photograph from the place makes a report stronger, and readers trust it more.

• Never risk your safety, or a source's, for a photo. If taking or sending one is dangerous, send the piece without it. We will use a plain graphic cover.
• Your own photographs, or ones you have the right to use. Send the original file, in landscape if you can, at least 1,600 pixels wide.
• Credit and licence. Tell us who took it, when and where, and the licence. Do not send photos pulled from social media or other websites unless the owner has agreed in writing.
• A caption. Say who or what is in the photo, and where it was taken.
• Consent and care. If people can be identified, tell us whether they agreed. We may choose not to publish a photo that exposes a victim, a child or a source.
• No AI-generated images. We do not use them.

Rights and payment

You keep the copyright to your work. We ask that the piece has not run elsewhere before us. After we publish, you may republish it with a link back to The Field.

You may pitch the same story to other outlets at the same time. Please tell us when you do. Once we accept a piece, we ask that you hold it for us until it is published, and that you tell any other outlet right away.

Anyone who wants to republish a report in full should ask us first. Short quotes with a link back to us are fine.

We cannot pay contributors yet. We are free to read, carry no ads and are just starting. We will tell you plainly if that changes, and we will credit every writer by name or pseudonym.

Legal responsibility

You are responsible for what you send us, and we may ask for proof or documents before we publish. We may delay or decline a piece for legal reasons. The Field is a small, new outlet. We cannot give you legal protection or pay legal costs, and you should know that before you send a story that accuses someone of a crime. We will tell you if we think a piece carries legal risk.

Timelines

We reply to every pitch within 48 hours. When we accept a piece, we aim to publish within 72 hours. Stories that need legal care or more checking may take longer, and we will tell you why.

How editing works

An editor reads every accepted piece, checks the sourcing and clarity, and sends you the edited version. We do not change your meaning. You see the final text and the headline before we publish, and you can withdraw the piece until it goes live.

After publication

If new facts emerge, we update the report and note the date. If you or a source believes a name or detail now puts someone at risk, tell us. We will review it quickly, and we will remove it where safety requires.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we correct it at the top of the piece and say what changed. Report errors to pitches@thefieldreporters.com.

Privacy of your pitch

Your pitch is private. It is read by The Field's editor and our AI editing assistant, and we do not share it with other outlets, governments or anyone else without your agreement. If we decline a pitch and you ask us to delete it, we will.