Submission Guidelines

To submit your pitch, click here!

Thank you for considering the Harvard Kennedy School Student Policy Review for publication. We welcome submissions from Harvard students, alumni, staff, faculty, and fellows. We accept submissions on a rolling basis throughout the academic year.

Our mission is to encourage a diverse range of perspectives, including from individuals who have not written for publication before. Our editors will strive to provide all the support and resources necessary for writers to successfully, draft, edit, and publish their pieces.

While we typically publish either op-eds or policy analyses, we welcome authors who wish to publish across any format of digital media, including videos, podcasts, and interactive visuals.

Successful pitches do not need to be fully written pieces; they can simply be an idea of what you plan to write. However, if you already have a first draft, please attach it in the submission form.

If you are interested in pitching to us, please refer to these general guidelines:

  1. Submissions should be evidence-based, policy-focused, and analytically oriented. They should analyze an issue in public policy, including identifying its causes and possible solutions, rather than merely describing an issue.
  2. Submissions should ideally be about 800 words for op-eds or between 1,000 and 1,500 words for analyses. Longer pieces can be approved on a case-by-case basis at editors’ discretion.
  3. Submissions may be reworked versions of assignments, such as policy memos and papers, submitted for coursework. However, we ask that you reformat the piece prior to submission.
  4. Submissions should use Chicago-style citations as endnotes.
  5. Submissions should be written by the author, not generated by AI.

What to Expect

Due to the volume of submissions, an individual response might not be received for all pitches. In the event your piece is selected, you can expect the following timeline:

  • Acceptance Notice: After we accept your piece, you will have one week to respond and then you will be assigned two SPR editors. You will also be asked to submit a short biography.
  • Editing: The SPR editors will work on editing your submission for one week after we receive your response.
  • Revision: You will have one week after you receive our edits and comments to revise your draft.
  • Final Assessment: After you revise and send us your draft, we will notify you within one week if the piece will be published or needs a second round of edits.
  • Publication: After the draft is approved for publication, it will be live on our website within three days.

If you have any questions, please contact us at hksspr@hks.harvard.edu.