Medium guidelines.

Why you might like to write for our Medium publication

The Ethical Move (TEM) wants many different voices to contribute to the conversation around ethical marketing.

Our Medium publication offers a platform for people to contribute their take on how we can disrupt mainstream marketing, dismantle oppressive systems and stop psychological manipulation.

Who can and can’t write for our Medium publication

We welcome contributions from writers who feel deeply passionate about ethical marketing and have a strong stance on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, or what we at TEM call Collective Liberation.

We do not publish posts by anonymous writers or companies. Please use your real name, a photo, and a bio in your Medium profile.

Our topics

We are a disruptive movement that offers clear facts and makes bold moves. As such, we publish high-quality articles that provoke thought, inspire action, and grow the movement for ethical marketing.

To do this, we welcome articles that:

bring fresh perspectives,
convey ideas in a way that is easy to understand, and
inspire action.

We’re interested in original ideas about topics such as how manipulation shows up in marketing, how to communicate in an ethical way and how the way in which we sell impacts on the wider world.

We do not accept articles that are overly self-promotional, or contain calls to action or requests for claps or donations.

Pitching an idea

If you have an article idea, you can email us at hello@theethicalmove.org.

In your story pitch, please tell us:

1. Your proposed title and how that relates to the key message you want to convey.

2. The different elements of your story (e.g. I will share my experience of X and show examples of X in practice. In conclusion, I will ….)

3. What the takeaway is for readers of The Ethical Move.

4. The action you hope readers will take after reading it.

Before submitting an article

If you have already written an article, you can email it to us at hello@theethicalmove.org.

By submitting your article to The Ethical Move Medium publication, you agree to each of the following points.

1. Read Medium’s Rules before you submit your article, as these apply to The Ethical Move Medium publication. Pay particular attention to the section on mindful language.

2. Read Medium’s Terms of Service. Note that you own the rights to and are responsible for the content you create and post on Medium. This means you assume all risks related to it, including accuracy and legality, and claims relating to intellectual property.

3. It is your responsibility to ensure you are legally allowed to use the content, images and video in your articles. We may remove images where you have not stated the source.

4. After publication, you can make only minor edits to the article. Changes need to adhere to our rules and guidelines.

5. You can remove your article from The Ethical Move publication at any time. We can remove any articles you post on The Ethical Move for any reason. If we do so, your content will still be hosted on Medium.com.

6. We may edit your article directly to correct spelling mistakes and improve formatting.

7. If any of these rules are violated, we may remove you and all your articles from our publication and report them to Medium.

Style guidelines

Tone of voice

Intelligent but not snobbish.
Disruptive but not disrespectful.
Humble but not meek.
Humorous but not ridiculous.
Kind but not bland.
Light-hearted but not superficial.
Passionate but not controlling.
Straight-talking but not constantly swearing.
Courageous but not out of touch with reality.
Clear but not having to be right.

Specifically, we have the following guidelines:

Language needs to be inclusive and avoid defamatory or ableist language. (Additional reading: GLAAD Media Reference Guide.
Do not use profanity in headers or sub-headers.
Do not use all caps in headers or sub-headers.
Double check your spelling, punctuation and grammar by having someone check it for you or by using a tool such as Grammarly.

Formatting

Organise your content with correct headers. This means following the correct order (H1, H2, H3), no duplicate H1 tags and not using headers for visual effects.
Avoid spatial references such as “the quote below”, and instead use language such as “the following quote”. This will ensure meaning is preserved across devices that alter layout (such as mobile phones) and for people who don’t consume our content visually.
Use descriptive links that say where they will take you to. For example, rather than “here” or “click here”, as in “Find our pledge here.” you can say “Find the latest version of our pledge.”

Images

There are 4 considerations with images for your articles. They need to be:

legal for you to use,
properly attributed,
of high quality, and
published with alt text.

Legal for you to use

The image needs to be taken or created yourself, or you need explicit consent to use it.

You can use Unsplash images or images allowed under Creative Commons Licenses (see more about proper attribution in the next section).

We do not allow the use of images for which a licence needs to be purchased.

Properly attributed

All image sources need to be cited in the caption.

If you are the source: Image by [your name as the author]
If it is from Unsplash: Image by [creator] via Unsplash [add a link]
If it is under Creative Commons: Depends on the license as per the guidelines.
If you have created an image that was lightly inspired by an existing image: Image by [your name as the author], inspired by [source link].

Of high quality

Clear images of high enough resolution.

Alt text

Where prompted by Medium, please add alt text to describe the image to screen readers, following alt text best practice.

What happens after submission

We use Medium’s Curation Guidelines to decide whether or not to publish an article on The Ethical Move.

We will be in touch with you within 4 weeks of your submission to let you know whether we accept your article as is or with minor amends and when it will be published, or we may ask you to rewrite parts, or reject it.

If your article is approved, you will be added as a Writer on the Medium publication and you will be able to submit a draft for publication by following these steps. After publication of your first article, you can submit articles directly on Medium as a contributor.

We may promote your article on our social media channels and in our newsletter.

FAQs

How frequently can I submit an article to The Ethical Move?

Once every 3 months

Can I get paid to write for The Ethical Move on Medium?

If you are part of the Medium Partner Program, you may get paid by Medium for articles you write. The Ethical Move does not pay writers who contribute voluntarily.

Can I pay to have my article published on The Ethical Move?

Can I write my article in a language other than English?

Yes. You can currently also submit articles in Afrikaans, German, French, and Spanish.

Can I republish existing content?

You can republish content that has already been published outside of Medium, but don’t duplicate a post that has already been published on Medium.

With thanks to Towards Data Science whose Medium guidelines have inspired our own.