Peer-Reviewed Article Publication Guidelines

The HELLO Community website is not a formal online journal. Our goal is to share high-quality articles and essays written by members using a simple, constructive peer-review process with fast turnaround.

Peer review is intended to:

Provide helpful, developmental feedback
Ensure that each piece is clearly written and well organized

While references are welcome, we do not expect an extensive bibliography. Focus on telling our audience about projects you have undertaken to improve higher education—what you did, what worked, and what did not.

Our Audience

Members of the HELLO Community are generally in leadership roles in higher education, including:

Presidents
Vice Presidents and Provosts
Deans
Department Chairs
Office Directors
Other academic and administrative leaders

You can categorize your article or essay by interest group, so that people in specific operational areas can filter the list for items most relevant to them. All articles, however, remain accessible to all members.

What Kind of Articles and Essays We’re Looking For

We are primarily interested in pieces that are:

Practical rather than purely theoretical
Focused on applications of ideas, approaches, or theory (including potential applications that have not yet been fully operationalized)

Articles and essays must be written in English, although our site can be translated into many languages using the Google Translate tool in the footer.

Ideally, your piece will be accompanied by useful supporting documents that can help others implement your approach, such as:

Spreadsheets
Job descriptions
Policies
Workflows
Checklists, templates, or other operational tools

Articles and essays should inform the community about effective leadership and management practices and suggest directions for further exploration. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Building a world-class faculty
Student recruitment and retention
Institutional effectiveness
Facilities management
Budget models
Strategic planning
Data-based decision making
Organizational change and innovation

Submission and Screening Process

Any member, or group of members, may pitch an idea for an article or essay using our online submission form.

Pitches are screened by the Editor for:

Appropriateness (alignment with our mission and audience)
Author credibility (relevant professional experience)

If the Editor believes the proposed piece offers a unique and valuable perspective for our audience, and the author(s) appear qualified, the pitch will be approved.

To support this process, please ensure each author’s HELLO profile includes:

Sufficient professional background information
Ideally, a link to an online portfolio (e.g., Academic Analytics/Measures) or a shared CV

We aim to respond to pitches as quickly as possible. Please note that initial interest in a pitch does not guarantee publication.

Once your proposal is approved, you will be given authoring rights to a page on the HELLO Community website where you can draft your article or essay.

The Authoring Environment

Articles and essays that you have (co-)authored or been assigned to write will appear under the Journal menu as a list of assigned items. This menu item is visible only to authors who have at least one assigned or published piece.

When you select an article or essay from your list, it will open in an online editor. The editor page includes:

Main content area

Title
You may change the title, but it should not significantly deviate from the original approved intent.
WYSIWYG editor
The main text editor where you enter and format the article or essay content.
Field Group for Peer-Reviewed Articles
Allows you to change the status of your article or essay (e.g., draft, pending review).
Revisions
A list of previously saved versions of the draft. You can view and revert to earlier versions.
Excerpt
A brief abstract that will appear in summary views and lists.
Editorial comments
A space where members of the Editorial Board will post comments about your piece, and where you can respond.
- Please note how you incorporated editorial input into your article.
- Where you disagree, briefly explain why.
License
Choose the Creative Commons license conditions under which you are publishing, along with any additional terms and conditions.
Authors
Assign additional HELLO members as co-authors. They will receive both authoring rights and attribution.
Metadata
Information about expectations for the article, set by the Editor.

Right-hand column

Checklist
A list of tasks to be completed before submitting the article or essay for review. Click each item to mark it complete.
Publish box
Lets you save the document and manage its status.
- The Publish button is disabled (replaced by a red exclamation icon) until all checklist items are completed and the review process is finished.
Categories
HELLO Community affiliation groups you can assign to your article or essay.
- Select as many groups as you believe would be interested.
Tags
Topical keywords your piece addresses.
- Use “Choose from the most used tags” to see existing tags before creating new ones, to keep the taxonomy consistent.
Featured image
Upload an image representative of the article or essay. This image will appear beside it in lists and at the top of the full article page.

Getting Started as an Author

Please review the Metadata section before you begin writing.

If you accept the writing assignment, change the article’s status to In Progress or Draft (if you have already entered content) in the Publish box and save the page.
When writing, use:
- Appropriate headings (via the paragraph style box in the WYSIWYG editor)
- Lists and tables where helpful
- Relevant media (images, diagrams, etc.)

For longer articles, insert page breaks using Shift + Alt + P. This will paginate the article when published.

When your article or essay is ready for review, change its status to Pending Review in the Publish box and save. This will notify the Editorial Board that the piece is ready for feedback.

Linking to Resource Files

Authors are encouraged to link to supporting resource files that help readers put ideas into practice. To embed a file link:

Upload your file to the shared file repository.
- Give it a clear, descriptive title.
In the file’s description, consider adding a cross-reference back to the article it supports using the link tool.
- If your draft article is open in another window, you can copy its URL from the Permalink under the article title.
Once upload is complete, use the “View >>” link in the confirmation box and copy the URL from your browser’s address bar.
Return to your article editing page and highlight the text that will serve as the link anchor.
Click the link tool in the editor toolbar, paste the copied URL, and confirm.

Referencing and Footnotes

References are not required, but are appreciated.

To add a reference:

Enclose your reference text with double parentheses:
- Example: ⁽¹⁾your reference text here

Our software will automatically convert this into a superscripted number that links to the reference list at the bottom of the page.

If your reference material is available online, include the URL within the reference text.

Reference formatting should follow APA as outlined in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th edition).

Excerpt / Abstract

Each article or essay must include an excerpt/abstract of no more than 200 words.

This text will appear:

In article lists
In featured sections
In other summary displays in place of the full article

Peer-Review Process

Our current peer-review software is not a full-featured journal system and does not support blind review. Reviewers and authors will be aware of each other’s identities.

The HELLO Community peer-review process includes:

Suggestive, developmental feedback from at least three members of the Editorial Board
A flexible reviewer assignment model:
- Board members are asked to review at least three articles per year.
- They choose which articles to review based on their interests and expertise.
- As a result, you may receive feedback from more than three reviewers.

Once three reviews have been submitted, the third reviewer will change the article status to Reviews Received.

At that point:

The author should address all reviews and revise the article accordingly.
When revisions are complete, change the status to Ed Input Incorp (editorial input incorporated).

The Editor will then:

Review the article and comments
Confirm that feedback has been addressed adequately
Ensure all requirements are met

If everything is in order, the article will be published.

Authors receive an email notification whenever a comment or review is submitted.

Post-Publication

Once the Editor publishes your article or essay:

It becomes visible to all members
It is open to public comment and discussion within the community

Authors are encouraged to:

Respond to comments
Update and refine the article over time, acknowledging sources of input as appropriate

You can reference a community member anywhere in your text by using @username, for example @gglynn. The username appears in the title bar of each member’s profile.

Authors can choose to receive: