If ... Journal seeks to maintain a professional standard of publication. Please do your own spell and grammar checking. We use the Associated Press Stylebook as our main guide. Please be sure to include all your sources. Book references should at least have the title, author's full name, copyright and publisher. Internet references should list the name of the site as well as the URL. Quotes should be noted and referenced. We will not automatically accept all submissions for publication. If you are not sure we will be interested, please submit an article proposal to us first; we will let you know if the subject is something we will print or not. Article proposals should include a target word count, an overview of the subject matter, expected conclusions for the article and a target audience identification. The editorial staff reserves the right to refuse to publish any article, submission or picture, without comment, that it determines, in its sole discretion, to be inappropriate or unacceptable.

We make every effort to edit only for spelling, punctuation and grammar. However, from time to time we will edit for content if the intent of the article is unclear or, on a rare occasion, if it is inappropriate. In these instances, we give every attention to keeping the author's original flavor. If the author requests or requires final approval of edited copy, we will accommodate this with an extra week allowed; submission deadlines are available in each issue, as well as on the website. Articles requiring more than a reasonable amount of editing to bring them up to publication standard will not be accepted.

Issues are themed, and we always welcome submissions written to a particular issue's theme. Other topics we seek in submissions include subjects relating to spiritual practice or beliefs, or items of interest to those who practice intelligent spirituality. We welcome beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of submissions in most pathways of spirituality. We do accept opinion pieces and letters to the editor; however, we ask that all writers respect the views of others, no matter what their point of view. We will not accept articles that attempt to proselytize or convert readers. We do accept submissions from inmates; however, please do not submit articles written on what life is like in prison. Our largest readership by far is the free world population. We want to run articles that are focused on the interests of our larger readership. We do not print articles that take specific stances in political party, candidate or legislation. Articles that skate too close to these positions may also be refused.

Word counts for departmental submissions should be between 1500-2500 words; feature articles should be between 2500-4500 words; if they are too long for one issue, we sometimes split them into two parts and print in separate issues. If you wish to submit a multiple-part article, please submit all parts at once; we will not print any part of a multi-issue submission until we have received and read all its parts. We will sometimes consider printing longer articles all in one issue; if you have a proposal for such an article, please contact us before submitting. We do occasionally accept articles shorter than 1500 words if the subject matter is of interest, and is well-written enough to allow sufficient substance.

We do accept artwork and photographs for consideration. However, we very rarely consider images which include nudity. Digitally submitted graphic images should be at least 200 dpi. We can accept almost any graphic format, though pdf, eps, pict, jpg or tif are best; do not embed graphics in MS Word documents. Color images can be submitted, though our publication is primarily grayscale with only limited color. Please do not fold hard copy graphic submissions!

If you submit a hard copy article or artwork and wish to have your submission returned, you must send a SASE with adequate postage. (Inmates, please ensure acceptability of our returning your originals; we will not accept responsibility for your facility's disposal of said documents.) We can also accept copy via e-mail at submissions@ifjournal.org in most any text format. However, we cannot read many MIME formats. The software we are using is MS Word, Adobe InDesign CS, Adobe Photoshop CS and Adobe Acrobat for Mac.

Printed submissions are the property of the author and/or artist; all submissions must be the original work of the submitter. We prefer first print privilege, and will not accept known simultaneous submissions. Although we will consider pre-published works, we require the permission of the original author/artist and acknowledgment of/from the previous publisher (so that we can give proper first print credits). Contributors assume full responsibility for compliance with copyright laws.

If you have questions regarding these guidelines, please contact us at submissions