About Behind the Spin

Behind the Spin is a magazine for public relations students and young PR  practitioners. We publish articles online throughout the year.

We welcome English language articles and news stories about public relations or of interest to PR students and young practitioners. Though based in UK universities and supported by the CIPR, we aim with your help to take a global perspective.

Behind the Spin content is freely available on the web under a Creative Commons licence. We do not charge for access or pay for contributions (in the open spirit of blogs and Web 2.0 collaboration). Members of the editorial team also volunteer their time. In blog style, each article has its unique web address (permalink) meaning articles will appear in Google searches for keywords like the author’s name and we welcome comments on articles.

Author index to past articles (external site)

Forward features

Contributions are welcome at any time on any topic relevant to our readership. Here’s an indication of topics we plan to cover in academic year 2009-2010 (subject to change):

October 2009	Placement experiences	Working with celebrities	PR courses
December 2009	PR campaigns and tactics	PR in the voluntary sector	Research and dissertations
March 2010	Political communications*	PR and social media	PR courses
May 2010	Graduate prospects	PR in the public sector	PR careers

* Guest editor for the political communications theme in March 2010 is Darren Lilleker of Bournemouth University.

Contacts

Editor:
Richard Bailey MCIPR
Email: editor@behindthespin.com
Blog: http://www.prstudies.com
Wiki: http://prbooks.pbworks.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/behindthespin

News editor:
Adam Burns
Email: news@behindthespin.com
Blog: http://www.leedsmetstudentsunion.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AdamBurnsPR

Photo editor:
Victoria Louise Crampton
Email: victoria@victoria-louise.com
Photo gallery: http://the-dark-room.deviantart.com/gallery/

PR coordinator:
Oana Jinga
Email: Oana.Jinga@students.bcu.ac.uk

Technical consultant:
Simon Wakeman AMCIPR and Chartered Marketer
Website and blog: http://www.simonwakeman.com/

Publisher:
Vicky King
Chartered Institute of Public Relations
52-53 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HP
Email: VictoriaK@cipr.co.uk

Editorial guidelines

Though run out of universities with CIPR-approved public relations degree courses, this is not an academic journal. It is a magazine for students and young practitioners that accepts occasional academic contributions as part of its mix.

Articles should be written in the English language (set your spell checker to UK English) and should be intelligible to international readers who may not speak English as their first language. (Many of our better contributors aren’t writing in their first language.)

Sources should be cited by hyperlinks, either embedded in the text or gathered at the end.

A typical article is around 1000 words in length, and based on a specific theme (see the forward features list above for some suggestions.) Your article does not have to be about your opinion on this topic (though we do welcome opinion pieces too) – it could reflect the thoughts of others, or be based on an interview with a specialist practitioner, or based on your research (or that of others if you cite the source).

Here’s an online magazine we like: Spiked is journalistic in style, intellectual in its approach, academic in its citing of sources, and written in plain English. Wow! If you’d rather write in the style of Hello magazine, you’re welcome to try that too.

Richard Bailey
editor@behindthespin.com