Frequently asked questions

Question 1: What are the steps to follow if I have a topic I want to write about?

• You should contact your editor, send her a blurb explaining the topic, how it links to women's rights/gender and internet rights, and be clear on the format you think would be most suitable for the piece (feminist talk, video, interview, etc.). The editor will come back to you as soon as possible with a response.

Question 2: How should I proceed if someone is leaving abusive comments on the content I posted?

• If someone is leaving abusive comments, let the editors know. They can delete comments and respond (if appropriate), and take screenshots if necessary. If you are getting abusive emails, again contact the editors for advice. Do not delete anything, and take a look at the Take Back the Tech! digital safety tool-kit.

Question 3: What do I do if I want to have other GenderIT.org or APCNews writers comment on my piece before it goes online?

• Ask! If you'd like the editors to act as intermediaries, ask them, otherwise feel free to get in touch with other writers. Alternatively, we can circulate on a limited mailing list for response. The worst that can happen is they say no!

Question 4: What are the steps to get my piece published?

• Refer to Question 1. If you want to get your piece published outside of GenderIT.org, refer to Question 11.

Question 5: How can I ensure the impact of my piece?

• Impact can mean different things. If you're interested in getting as many eyeballs to read your piece as possible, post it on social media, tweet about it, blog about it, reference it on other people's blogs, send people to it in as many ways as you can. The GenderIT.org and APCNews teams will also be putting it out through social media and mailing lists. If you're interested in reaching a particular audience, then it depends on who you want to reach. If you want to bring it to the attention of policy makers in your country, for example, you could email it to them, or re-publish (see Question 11) the work in a local newspaper. Email it to local NGOs, academics, embassies or anyone else who might be interested.

Question 6: How do I track the influence of my piece?

• GenderIT.org and APCNews editors use tools such as Google Alerts or Talkwalker Alerts to receive an email notification whenever any material containing the key words we set go online. You can also use these and add your own key words to receive alerts on these. GenderIT.org and APCNews also use a web statistics systems, Awstats, and we would be more than happy to do any search you need for you and share the results. Googling your name or the title of your articles from time to time is also a good idea, since it might catch republications of them that were not captured in the alerts for some reason. The Drupal platform (which is the one that GenderIT.org and APCNews are built on) also provides a reading score after every title, but this is not completely reliable, though it might work to have a very general reference.

Question 7: What shall I do if I notice APC.org or GenderIT.org material posted in other media?

• Please let us know! While all material published on GenderIT.org and APC.org is published under a Creative Commons licence, we like to know the impact that the stories are having and we also need to know for media tracking purposes. If material isn't credited to GenderIT.org or APCNews/APC.org, we'd also like to make sure that we're given credit and a link back to the site, so please let the editors know about this too, and they will contact the media to request a proper credit.

Question 8: What should I do if I have trouble meeting my deadline?

• First off, this should rarely be a problem. APCNews and GenderIT.org have generous deadlines, which is because we know that those we work with have multiple responsibilities. But if there really is nothing you can do, please do tell us. As soon as you know there's an issue, please let the GenderIT.org team and/or APCNews team know. Life does have a way of interfering, and we understand that, but telling us as quickly as possible helps us work around it, especially for pieces that need translating or are planned to go out in a thematic edition.

Question 9: How can I get other people involved in writing for APC?

• If you know about someone who wants to write for GenderIT.org or APCNews, please put that person in touch with the editors, introducing her/him. To save time, you might also want to let that person know that the editors will probably ask for a CV and some links to articles that she/he might have written before for the editors' reference.

Question 10: Can I re-publish my piece on my own website or another website?

• As long as the website is not-for-profit, we encourage the sharing of our material. Make sure that GenderIT.org and/or APCNews are credited, and that the material is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence. If you want to publish on a website that is run for-profit, please discuss it with the GenderIT.org and APCNews editors.

Question 11: What are the licence restrictions for content published by APC?

• Everything is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence, and we only use images that are published under a similar licence.

Question 12: What is the recommended length for articles?

• This depends on the type of article. Please see our orientation for new writers for details on each of the different types of article.

Question 13: What tone should I use?

• This depends on the type of article you're writing. See our orientation for new writers for details.

Question 14: What can I do if I have trouble finding resource people to interview?

• The first step is to discuss it with your editor. They can help or give you ideas. Also, check your contacts for them. Does anyone else know them, can you check that the information you have is accurate? Then, try and find someone else who might be able to help. Think about grassroots organisations or activists working on the issue, other people who were at the same event, academics... If nothing is working, go back to your editor, and see if the matter can be approached from a different angle, or if the story has to be abandoned.

Question 15: How should I proceed if the interviewee/source has concerns regarding privacy/security?

• Always take these concerns seriously. Talk through options, take a look at the guide to interviewing vulnerable interviewees. If the interviewee or source still has concerns, stop. Don't push. Get back to the editors: we can always discuss other options.

Question 16: When it comes to in-depth articles, what is a reasonable number of sources, and do they all have to be interviews?

• For an in-depth article, we would expect at least four sources, but they don't all have to be interviews. We can also consider as sources research material, quotations from previous articles (mentioning the sources of course), and similar resources.

Question 17: Can I share an article produced for GenderIT.org or APCNews with other media before it comes out on those websites?

• Sorry, but no. If you publish elsewhere first, we'll be happy to link to that article on your profile, and if it's relevant highlight it on the Twitter account and elsewhere, but we won't publish it as a GenderIT.org or APCNews article, nor pay for it, since we won't consider it exclusive anymore.

Question 18: How do I claim payment?

• You will need to send an invoice to flavia@apcwomen.org copying to katerina.fialova@apcwomen.org for GenderIT.org related payments, and to mallory@apc.org for APCNews related payments. Please fill in this [spreadsheet] with all your personal information and send it to the previous email addresses. The editors will complete the remaining information about programmes/projects and amount. Also, note that APC doesn't encourage payments under USD 300 since the bank rates charged are too high, both for APC and for the writer. So we usually wait until that amount is reached or even surpassed to process a payment.

Question 19: How do I know if my payment has been processed?

• You should receive an email notification. It takes a few days until the payment is finally processed, so please take into consideration that time gap.

Question 20: How is GenderIT.org funded?

• GenderIT.org has not had its own funding for several years now, but it receives funding from other projects that are being carried out by the APC Women's Rights Programme.

Question 21: Can I write anonymously?

• Yes, just let the editors know how you wish to be credited.