Submission Guidelines

Guidelines & Suggestions for Submitting Articles to the Journal 

When the editorial staff receives submissions from Journal contributors, we convert all files to the same format. The closer the files arrive to their final format, the less chance of error during publication. These guidelines and suggestions will make it easier for your article to be included in the Journal. 

General Guidelines

The Journal publishes a variety of types and lengths of articles. Articles may be anywhere from 600-2500 words in length; we are also open to longer articles, which we will usually publish as a series. Complex technical articles are at the long end of the spectrum, while things like reviews and Tuner’s Life columns are at the shorter end. The following are some of the types of articles the Journal publishes:

  • Technical articles. These can cover the whole spectrum of piano tech issues and can range from beginner to advanced level content. We love a good series that really delves into a technical issue or technique. 

  • Cultural or historical articles. We are interested in piano history as well as current cultural topics relevant to piano technology. 

  • Practical Technician pieces. These are photo-based articles that detail specific repair procedures — a great choice for those who don’t like to write but do enjoy photography.

  • Health-related articles. Like technical articles, a health-related article can cover any of the many health issues that come up in our profession. 

  • Reviews. We publish reviews of books, videos, and other media related to pianos, either technical or cultural/historical. 

  • Tuner’s Life. These are stories from the lives we live as piano technicians. Aim for 900 words to fill the back page of the Journal.

  • Tips, Tools, & Techniques: These are brief tips about tools or techniques that you have found helpful in your piano tech work. Please include photos.

  • Cover photos. An essential component of the Journal, cover photos should be in portrait orientation and high resolution.

Format

Please send articles in Word document format: .doc or .docx format. Journal staff will make sure all text is formatted correctly, but you can help us by avoiding alternate styles, such as using different fonts or larger font sizes for titles and headings. Any attempts to create a layout makes inclusion of your article more difficult. 

Grammar

When submitting an article, don’t worry about whether the grammar is perfect — we’ll take care of that. While we edit every article, we do make every effort to maintain an author’s voice while making the text conform to well-established rules of English grammar and Journal style. Please don’t take offense at whatever editing may occur once you submit your text. We will work hard to share your ideas with the world in a consistent, grammatically correct way while giving you all the credit. 

Photos and Other Visual Elements

Photos and other visual elements are an important part of the Journal. Please include supporting photos, drawings, graphs, and/or charts when you submit your article. It’s helpful if you can consider where these visual elements might be placed within the body of the article and mark them as such. We will need each image as a separate file, and we can guide you through the process of submitting them. All illustrations (charts, graphs, drawings, photos, etc.) must be made with the highest quality settings available to you, ideally 600 KB or more.