Editorial policy

APCNews editorial policy establishes the focus of interest, values, language, and other standards that information produced by the APC must follow. We are featuring here the English version, but it is also available in Spanish, French and Portuguese.

Information produced by APC:

• Has information and communications technology (ICT) for social justice and/or sustainable development as its primary focus of interest.

• Is consistent with our values and/or APC’s Internet Rights Charter.

• Is gender-sensitive.

• Is written in plain language and demystifies technology. No jargon allowed unless terms are explained clearly. We expect our readers to be non-specialists.

• Uses:

• • British English of the “-ise” and “-mme” variant.

• • Latin-American Spanish.

• • Standard French (French language without regionalisms). ICT neologisms are mostly taken up from the Grand Dictionnaire, which is put out (and made available online) by the Office québécois de la langue française.

• • Brazilian Portuguese, except when texts are aimed at a specifically African audience, in which case European Portuguese is used.

• • In all languages, APC uses “neutral” terms whenever possible and avoids colloquial and regional terms. APC has produced a set of guidelines for native English speakers who want to make their writing accessible to non-native readers.

• Adheres to the highest possible standards of production (is proofread, adequately referenced, etc.).

• Includes all necessary acknowledgements.

• Is shareable unless otherwise stated. Permission is granted to republish APC publications provided there is a clear acknowledgement of APC included. With online republishers, we prefer that they include an abstract and link to the complete material on the APC site. We always request that a link to our original publication is included.

• Includes a mechanism to provide feedback whenever appropriate.

Some of these areas go beyond content, but in an organisation where we encourage contributions from writers who have no professional training, we have decided to be explicit regarding our expectations for publications.