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Most of the materials written for Belarus Digest are contributed by our regular team of authors. However, Belarus Digest welcomes contributions from other authors and is constantly expanding its core team.

Whether a summary of a recent policy paper or a PhD dissertation, sharing Belarus-related experience or a personal opinion—the texts should conform to the general style of Belarus Digest.

Content Guidelines

• The texts should deal with current problems and events which affect Belarus or Belarus-related policy-making.
• The piece should be in English and should not be overly technical or theoretical, but practical and engaging.
• Belarus Digest presents research results in a concise manner and encourages submission of short texts. The length should be less than 1,000 words.
• The authors are requested to provide a sentence or two summarising the contribution’s key message in the first two paragraphs.
• Texts should be accompanied by 6-8 keywords (free tags) which summarise the key themes of the paper.
• Authors should include 3-4 subheadings.  
• The authors are asked to follow older posts as a precedent for style, e.g. no footnotes, similar use of subheadings, a short title, short sentences and paragraphs.
• All accepted texts are subject to editorial revision and English language proofreading.

Style Guidelines

• Capital Letters: In titles and subtitles, use capital letters for all words except conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns and articles e.g. Andrew Wilson on the Survival of Lukashenka. In normal text, only use capitals for people’s titles e.g. President Lukashenka is Belarusian, but: Lukashenka is the president of Belarus. Government, parliament, election, the opposition: all lower case.
• Currency:  Please quote all currencies in (US) dollars where possible. If using Belarusian roubles or any other currency, try and give the conversion into dollars in brackets. $1,000; BYR1,000; €1,000. For all other currencies, use words e.g. 1,000 British pounds, 1,000 Russian roubles.
• Dates: 19 December 2010 (day month year; no commas). 20th century (not XX century); 1980s; 1990s. In 2010-2012, between 2010 and 2012. 
• Figures: Spell out from one to nine (e.g. two days ago); numerals for 10 to 999,999 (e.g. 11 days ago); 1m, 2bn (e.g. $12.5m, except for people e.g. 2 million Belarusians). Use a period/full stop to indicate a decimal e.g. The population of Belarus is 9.5 million. Use a comma to make a large figure clearer e.g. There were 1,000 protesters present. 5 per cent,  45.7 per cent. 100 km, 100 kg. 
• Spelling: Use British English: e.g. favour, not favor, labour, not labor.  Oxforddictionaries.com is a good reference. Other words: Alexander Lukashenka, Belarusian, Eurasian Union, US. 
• Acronyms: Only use acronyms straight-away for well-known organisations (WTO, NATO, CIS, EU) and try to avoid using less well-known acronyms. For lesser-known organizations, spell out in the first instance with acronym in brackets; thereafter, use acronym.
• Titles: Do not italicise or put in quotes English titles of books, films, NGOs or political parties. e.g. The New York Times reported that the Tell the Truth campaign said this. However, for non-English titles, use italics. e.g.  Pravda reported that the Tell the Truth campaign said this.
• Quotations: Use double inverted commas for direct quotations and for emphasis or uncertainty. The newspaper stressed that a “tough reaction was inevitable”. The IMF loan is needed as a “security cushion”.