Updated as of June 2020
Welcome prospective Startup Universal contributors, and thanks so much for your interest in shaping the narrative of your country’s startup ecosystem! These contributor guidelines are designed to clarify our expectations and suggest helpful tips to make your posts as impactful as possible.
Guidelines
- Country Expert: Startup Universal content is selected to be published on the site because of an author’s demonstrated knowledge and experience in their country’s startup ecosystem. We request that you only write about that country (or in some cases region). If you have any questions about potential posts, reach out to [email protected] for guidance.
- Sourcing: Posts based on unreliable sources or posts that repeat others’ reporting without adding to the conversation will not be published. Please attribute any information taken from other sources. The best practice is to include a link/hyperlink to the original source within the article. Links should only be used for credit, as opposed to being used for any monetary benefit to the author. The editors watch carefully for this, and may remove posts that don’t include external sources based on our experience and judgment.
- Copyright: You are responsible for obtaining the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions for Startup Universal to use all content contained in your posts including any photographs, images, and/or audio or visual material contained in them. Plagiarism and failure to provide adequate attribution will not be tolerated. Also note that all content posted on startupuniversal.com must be original and not previously published elsewhere unless noted in the submission – even if it is your own content (unless otherwise permitted by your editor).
- Conflicts of Interest: You must not create content for the sole purpose of self-promotion. Moreover, you must disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest concerning topics covered in your content (our readers will expect this and you may also be legally required to make these disclosures). This includes any financial interest in any product, firm, or commercial venture relating to your post’s subject. If you are writing about your own company, please be sure to make this clear. If you submit content mentioning any business, individual, organization, entity, company, or financial instruments (a) in which you, your spouse, partner, or dependent child have any financial interest, (b) for which you serve or have served on the board of directors or in a similar capacity, (c) with which you, your spouse, partner, or dependent child have engaged in any commercial transactions related to the content, (d) with which you, your spouse, partner, or dependent child (or the employers thereof) compete, or (e) you are a member of or in any way affiliated with, you must fully disclose clearly and specifically your connection to the individual, organization, entity, company, or financial instrument in a disclaimer contained at the end of the content.
- Content Rights: You retain any and all of your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the site and you are responsible for protecting those rights. We take no responsibility and assume no liability for Content you or any third party posts on or through the site. However, by posting Content using the site you grant us the right and license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content on and through the site. You agree that this license includes the right for us to make your Content available to other users of the site, who may also use your Content subject to these Terms. Startup Universal has the right but not the obligation to monitor and edit all Content provided by users.
- Problematic Content: Here is a list of posts/topics to avoid:
- Images or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity
- “Hate speech,” i.e., content that promotes hate towards groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity
- Threats of violence; encouraging readers to engage in violent activity
- Content that is unnecessarily shocking or graphic (ex: close-up images of gunshot wounds or accident scenes)
- Confidential or private information (ex: someone else’s credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, unlisted phone numbers, and driver’s license numbers)
- Impersonations of other people or organizations (well-executed satires can work, but only when readers aren’t misled about your true identity)
- Posts that encourage readers to engage in dangerous or illegal activities
- Posts designed just to drive traffic to your site or to move your site up in search listings
- Links to sites where your readers can obtain unauthorized downloads of other people’s copyrighted works
- Posts that expose readers to viruses, pop-ups, unwanted software installations or malicious code
- Parody
- Fairness: Contributors should always strive to be fair. This means giving the subjects of negative stories a reasonable chance to comment; Staying away from reporting/passing along rumors; Requiring sources to go “on the record” whenever possible, especially when they are leveling damaging accusations against someone else; Using more than one source to verify a fact whenever possible; Understanding and revealing the motives of sources, especially those saying negative things about the subject of a story; Giving those charged with a crime or a civil accusation the benefit of saying the charge is “alleged” until they are convicted or had the charge proven against them in court. However, in the quest for fairness, never read verbatim or email paragraphs, sentences, captions or headlines from a story to a source or subject.
- Social Media: As a contributor to Startup Universal, you carry the banner of our brand. We reserve the right to terminate our relationship with any contributor who we feel is harming our brand or reputation though their social media presence.
- Legal Inquiries: As a contributor to Startup Universal, you are solely responsible in all ways for the content of your posts, including any and all legal costs that may result from legal claims related to your work which is distributed on Startup Universal. That said, you should promptly inform us of any threats of litigation related to your work which is distributed on Startup Universal.
- Corrections: All requests for corrections received by Startup Universal will be passed along to the contributor so the contributor may assess whether a correction should be made. Startup Universal staff may also independently work to verify the claim for a correction, and may, at our discretion, update a post if we feel it is necessary. In addition, we ask that all contributors pass along requests for corrections to their work to their editor. All requests for corrections must be addressed within 24 hours of receipt (within the same day in the case of an urgent error).
Recommendations & Tips
- Post Length: Recommended length is 800-1200 words, although length can be variable. Each article should cover insights or news surrounding your country’s startup ecosystem (or heavily reference that country among others if you’re writing about a region). The more localized the article–including first hand sources and data–the better).
- Summary: Please include a 1-2 sentence summary at the top of the article describing the topic and offering the reader a glimpse of what to expect.
- Images: Every post should have at least 1 high resolution image—a cover image. Additional images are encouraged, but must be attributed if taken from another source. Before you insert an image into your post, you must include a Caption and Photo Credit. The Caption field should be used to describe what is being depicted in the photo. The Photo Credit field should be used to display the image’s photo credit, or the brief citation that attributes an image to its source.
- Headlines: Headlines should be written in Title Case. In other words, Capitalize The First Letter Of Each Word, Including Prepositions And Articles.
- Spacing: One space after punctuation, rather than two.
- Identifying Yourself in Posts: Please use I, avoid the Royal “we” and please do not identify yourself as “Startup Universal”, i.e. “Startup Universal reached out to the suspect for comment” or “We reached out to the suspect for comment.” You are an independent contributor, and you do not represent Startup Universal.
- Correcting a Post: Once a post is submitted, if you notice it has an error, please reach out to [email protected] with the details of the error so we can correct. If there are more substantial changes needed to the article, a note will be added to the bottom of the post acknowledging the update.
- Precision: Be specific and precise with word choices. Note the difference between a criminal conviction and an allegation of wrongdoing, etc. And provide attribution when an allegation is coming from a source.
Note: these guidelines, and their associated language, draw on the Forbes Contributor Guidelines.