The companion piece of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy, The digest provides a roundup of the latest developments in the theory and practice of deliberative democracy.

The digest seeks to contribute to ongoing conversations about how deliberative democracy can reform our political system, and how deliberative democracy, as a field of study and a political project, can be reformed itself. It is a creative outlet for advocates, critics, scholars and sceptics of deliberation to convey their thoughts to a wider readership.

The digest features four types of article:

• The Digestable presents selected insights from a recent article in the Journal of Deliberative Democracy.
• Big Ideas offer concrete ways in which ambitious deliberative projects can be realised in practice.
• Reflections feature insights about experiences of dialogue and deliberation in professional and everyday contexts.
• Dispatches share lessons we can learn from and insights from deliberative projects around the world.

The Deliberative Democracy Digest welcomes contributions from researchers, practitioners, students, advocates and critics of deliberative democracy. If you have not written anything like this before – please don’t let this put you off!

The Digest publishes ongoing research and work-in-progress, insights from practice, personal and professional reflections, response pieces, and discussions. We also welcome non-textual contributions.

Style Guidelines

• 1,200 words or less in length.
• Consider building your article around 1-2 key arguments to allow you to unpack them in sufficient depth.
• Put your key finding or argument upfront at the start of the piece as a ‘hook’ for readers.
• Provide sources and references where relevant and include these as hyperlinks within the text. Do not use standard academic referencing.
• Avoid technical or overly academic language – think broad audience and accessible writing.
• No need to follow the standard structure of an academic article or use terms like ‘I will argue’ etc. We prefer direct and informal.
• We welcome any images or visual aids to accompany your piece, providing they enhance understanding of the article. Please avoid imagery like complex graphs and statistical data in tables.
• If you are keen to make a submission but unsure about the style guidelines or what is required, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by email with your idea.

Join the conversation on Twitter by tagging @delibdemjournal or send an email to the editors for pitches, reactions, and feedback.

Trialling new approaches

The Journal of Deliberative Democracy and the Deliberative Democracy Digest are committed to finding ways to enhance the inclusion, transparency and impact of our work. We are currently trialling two new ways of working:

• Academic/practitioner dialogues: our editors will set you up for a guided conversation on a topic of your choice. We will then transcribe and curate the conversation for the Digest. Conversations can be set up as short online calls, or as written correspondence like this piece on sortition. If you are interested in getting involved, drop us an email.
• More than English: if English is not your first or working language, you are welcome to provide a translation of your Digest piece that will be published alongside the English version. We are aware that this is asking authors for additional labour, and we are currently looking into alternative approaches as well.

Editorial Policies

All articles submitted to the Digest are reviewed and edited by our editorial team to enhance their readability and accessibility for a broad audience. If there are any substantial edits, we will share these with you so you can review them before publication.

All articles published in the Deliberative Democracy Digest reflect the views of the author/s and not the position of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy.

All articles published in the Deliberative Democracy Digest are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.