Frequently Asked Questions

Guidelines for Contributing Authors of Public Utilities Fortnightly
 
Since 1929, Public Utilities Fortnightly has served the electric and natural gas utility industry as the magazine for commentary, opinion and debate on utility regulation and policy.
 
PUF does not report industry news. Instead it is the forum for utility management (investor-owned, public power and rural cooperative), non-utility asset owners and developers, regional transmission operators, utility regulators, policymakers, consumer advocates, associations, lawyers, bankers, economists, consultants, vendors, non-profits, etc. to express their perspectives on the industry’s past, present and future particularly.
 
Our objective is to publish every month a highly informative, readable and beautiful magazine. A must-read addressing the industry’s most pressing challenges.
So each article should engage readers from start to finish. Each should be thoughtprovoking. Each should be easily accessible to the broad range of PUF readership.
To help PUF meet this objective, it is preferred that contributing authors follow these guidelines:
 
1. Submit an article’s text and its figures in two separate files. The text ideally has a word count within the range of seven hundred to three thousand words. An effective style is short, clear, direct. Each figure ideally communicates a single idea with limited complexity. Figure titles should be succinct.
 
2. The article’s text will preferably be in single-space Times New Roman 12, with no header or footer. Two spaces between sentences. No bold or underlined text. Italics limited to publication names.
 
3. Minimize the number and length of footnotes or endnotes (the later preferred), particularly where they are no more than references or citations to sources. As necessary, refer succinctly to FERC documents or other sources. No digital links.
 
4. Avoid lengthy paragraphs and lengthy sentences. These can be broken into two or three shorter paragraphs and two or three shorter sentences. 
 
5. Minimize mathematical and grammatical symbols such as apostrophes, dashes, parentheses and ampersands. No abbreviations. Minimize uncommon acronyms. Spell out numbers to the greatest extent, even dollars, kilowatts, kilowatt-hours, etc. where acceptable.
 
6. No commercial statements. The appropriate place for one’s organization and accomplishments are in the three-sentence or so author bio. Also submit a large author photo as a separate file.
 
7. No bullets. The magazine is not conducive to a PowerPoint format. Lists should be minimized and where used, numbered 1, 2, 3, …
 
8. Successful opening paragraphs are critical to persuade the broad range of PUF readership to read on.
 
9. Include a succinct compelling title for the article and a succinct compelling subtitle that complements the title.
 
10. The most successful articles leave the broad range of PUF readership thinking, that piece really told me something I didn’t know, or that piece really made me rethink something I had assumed.
 
Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief, Steve Mitnick, to schedule a telephone call, to discuss any questions you have about these guidelines. The address is mitnick@fortnightly.com.