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Clinical Research News occasionally publishes bylined guest commentaries from industry experts on a wide variety of topics. These articles are designed to appeal to a broad readership, discussing timely, critical issues in technology, strategy, or regulations affecting the clinical research industry. Guest commentaries are not a place to promote a specific company’s products and solutions.

If you have an idea for a guest commentary, please send a summary via email. We find that it’s better to submit an abstract first, so we can agree to the scope and direction of the piece before you put in unnecessary work. During submission/revision, we work closely with the author(s) and his/her representatives to ensure the content of the article is appealing, interesting, and written in an engaging and enlightening style.

A few specific guidelines include: 

1. Quality: Commentaries must be well-written, with excellent English grammar, spelling, and punctuation. They must be original and exclusive. 
   
2. Length: A typical guest commentary is 800-1,000 words. We will occasionally consider longer articles if the content warrants more in-depth treatment.
   
3. Style: We strive to publish readable, accessible essays that don’t get bogged down in minutiae. We encourage a lively, informal, first person style similar to a newspaper op-ed column, with intelligible discussion of facts and data. Please do NOT list references. Link directly to resources in the body of your commentary, and include a DOI in parentheses if appropriate.
   
4. Depth: Without sacrificing readability, we encourage authors to discuss anecdotes, case studies, and mention names whenever possible. By offering specific examples of technologies that have worked (or not), for example, readers can learn more from the article than if advice is presented in vague terms with no concrete examples to learn from.
   
5. Impartiality: Guest commentaries are not showcases for product pitches or other self-promotional writings. While we often accept commentaries from industry representatives, we do so because of the author’s expertise and leadership, and for the sake of the article, insist that they remain neutral on the topic of discussing issues related to their organization’s research, products, etc.
   
6. Authorship: Guest commentaries are written by a specific author (or sometimes two authors). We publish a short bio (around 50 words) of the author and a contact email address. Personal contact information lends articles authority and accountability and is required.
   

If you’d like to discuss or submit a commentary, send them to Allison Proffitt, Executive Editor, aproffitt@cambridgeinnovationinstitute.com.