Arena is a quarterly publication of critical and radical ideas for Australia and the planet. It accepts unsolicited submissions of engaged essays of 2500-4500 words, and review essays of 3000-3500 words. Arena is published in March, June, September and December. The deadline for copy is one month before publication day, although submission before that date increases the chance of timely consideration.
Arena Online provides fortnightly online commentary on emerging social and political issues. It accepts unsolicited submissions of approximately 800-2,000 words. The deadline for publication each Thursday is the Monday evening prior.
Style: We follow the AGPS Style Manual.
Payment: Authors receive no payment for their articles or artwork. Arena is a not-for-profit cooperative project dedicated to the production and circulation of ideas and does not receive government funding. Published contributors are offered a one-year subscription to Arena in thanks for their contribution to this common effort.
Style and referencing: Arena is a publication of commentary, theory and opinion, which ranges from straightforward reportage, to challenging theoretical debate. It is not an academic journal, though it features current debates occurring inside and outside academia. We prefer articles which are not footnoted, and which include major references in the run of the article. However, footnoting may be necessary for complex pieces. Typically, we will run a non-footnoted version of the piece in the print quarterly, and a fully referenced version online. Use Oxford citation (ie footnoted, or endnoted). DO NOT use Harvard citation (ie references in body of text)!
NB. Based on a concern about the displacement of human agency, Arena endeavours not to publish any image or text that has been generated by AI. We encourage our writers not to use AI in any stage of the written process.
Comment Policy: Arena welcomes comments on articles in the publication. In responding, please keep the following in mind:
- We only accept comments that have something substantive and truthful to say.
- We will not publish comments with abusive references or ad hominin critique.
- We reserve the right to edit for length and style without consultation.
- If we adjudicate that a comment is not accepted, no correspondence will necessarily be entered into.