Contributions to SSQ will explore strategic issues of current and continuing interest to the US Air Force, the larger U.S. defense community, and our international partners. Authors submit unclassified, scholarly articles to: aether-journal@au.af.edu. Make sure your submission is original work—not previously published.
General Instructions
Submit the article as a Word document.
Do not use citation insertion programs.
Observe word limits (including endnotes): 6,500 words.
Make sure your name and abstract are inserted under the title.
Include a well-crafted title, 12 words or fewer, with precise keywords.
Include a short abstract, 200 words or fewer, including keywords and phrases. (Abstract must include a thesis statement, research approach, why it differs from existing scholarship on the issue, and policy recommendations.)
Provide an author bio limited to current position, professional title, and the most recent published full-length work (book) if applicable.
References
Use thorough endnotes formatted according to Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (include URLs, page numbers, day, month, year if applicable) and do NOT use ibid., op. cit., or loc. cit.
Place only one note number at the end of a sentence. The endnote itself may include multiple references separated by a semicolon, but no more than four.
Do not include bibliographies or lists of works referenced.
Pattern your endnotes after the following sample citations; more examples can be found in the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition:
Books
Paul Bracken, Fire in the East: The Rise of Asian Military Power and the Second Nuclear Age (New York: HarperCollins, 1999), 3; and Jennifer Egan, ed., The Best American Short Stories, 2014 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), 100.
Journal Articles
Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., “Strategy in a Time of Austerity: Why the Pentagon Should Focus on Assuring Access,” Foreign Affairs 91, no. 6 (November/December 2012): 58–69, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/commons/2012-11-01/strategy-time-austerity.
Newspaper, News Magazines, and News Service Articles
Yaroslav Trofimov and Jeremy Page, “In Leaving Afghanistan, U.S. Reshuffles Global Power Relations,” Wall Street Journal, September 1, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghanistan-u-s-withdrawal-china-russia-power-relations-11630421715; Maurice Carlos Ruffin, “Why We New Orleanians Keep Coming Back after Every Storm,” Time, September 2, 2021, https://time.com/6094274/new-orleans-hurricane-ida/; and “Taliban Wrestle with Afghan Economy in Chaos, Humanitarian Crisis,” Reuters, September 1, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/now-in-control-taliban-confront-economy-idUSKBN2FX2TS.
Online, Multiple Sources, and Agency Publications
“After Withdrawal: How China, Turkey, and Russia Will Respond to the Taliban,” War on the Rocks, August 31, 2021, https://warontherocks.com/2021/08/after-withdrawal-how-china-turkey-and-russia-will-respond-to-the-taliban/; James N. Mattis, Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America: Sharpening the American Military’s Competitive Edge (Washington, DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense, January 2018), 6; and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), Joint Planning, Joint Publication 5-0 (Washington, DC: CJCS, December 1, 2020).
Interviews
General Horatio Baltimore, commander, US Cyber Command, interview by the author, Washington, DC, November 29, 2016.
Graphics
Graphics (e.g., US government figures, tables, photos) must add to the text rather than replicate what is in the text.
Authors must obtain written permission from the owner to use any graphic not in the public domain (e.g., US government) or of their own creation. It is insufficient to cite the source of the graphic (copyright on graphics is different in fair use than copyright on written material). Authors may include their original graphics.
PowerPoint slides are discouraged.
Authors must provide a high-resolution file for any graphic submitted.
Authors must provide an alternative (alt) text of no more than 150 characters (not words) describing any graphics. (This is for 508 compliance purposes.) The alt text should explain the graphic, not repeat the caption or title; the purpose is to tell someone unable to see the figure why it is important to the text. Do not start with “Image/Picture/Graphic of. . . .” The screen reader will say “Image,” and then it will read your alt text.
SSQ Review Process
When we receive your article, we will send an acknowledgement of receipt.
Articles submitted to SSQ are first reviewed to determine whether to decline the article or send it to peer review. If accepted for peer review, the article is made anonymous and sent to two reviewers. The reviews are evaluated and a decision made to decline the article, send it back to the author for revisions and resubmission, or accept the article pending revisions. At any point in the review process an article can be accepted for publication, returned for revision, or rejected. The editor determines final disposition of any submission. Articles accepted for publication are scheduled for a specific SSQ edition or placed in reserve for use in a subsequent edition.
Acceptance Requirements. Once your article is accepted for publication, you will be required to sign an author permission form granting SSQ nonexclusive rights to publish your submission in the public domain. All submissions will be edited for style, grammar, and usage according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, with minor differences to accommodate in-house style.
SSQ operates a three-level peer review process for all articles as follows: (1) editor's initial review, (2) referee/subject matter expert review, and (3) contributing editors' review. The editor reviews all submissions for relevance, appropriateness, and content. If the article is of sufficient quality to warrant further consideration, it is sent to a referee/subject matter expert for evaluation. The referee evaluation results in one of three recommendations to the editor: publish, revise and resubmit, or reject. Revised articles and those evaluated as "Publish" are presented to the contributing editor’s board for peer review. The article may be accepted for publication, further revised, or rejected. All referee and contributing editor evaluations are conducted blind and all feedback is provided to authors via the editor. At any point in the review process an article can be accepted for publication, returned for revision, or rejected. The editor determines final disposition of any submission. Articles accepted for publication are scheduled for a specific SSQ edition or placed in reserve for use in a subsequent edition.
Acceptance Requirements. Once your article is accepted for publication, you will be required to sign an author permission form granting SSQ non-exclusive rights to publish your submission in the public domain. All submissions will be edited for style, grammar, and usage according to the AU Style Guide. Provide a 2-3 line author bio to be published on the first page of the article. Additionally, authors are asked to provide a preferred mailing address for complimentary author copies.
To check the status of your article or if you have questions concerning our article review and publication process, please contact us at aether-journal@au.af.edu.