About the opinion section
The Ubyssey’s opinion section exists to platform original, intelligent perspectives about topics concerning our community.
Who can contribute
If you’re connected to our UBC community — which includes UBC students, staff, faculty, UNA residents, visitors, politicians and beyond — we warmly welcome you to write for us. Please reach out to us if you’re unsure you qualify.
Please see our section’s Contributor’s Manual to learn about how to write for us.
Making submissions
We encourage submissions that make arguments that matter to UBC communities and invite you to review some of the recent articles the opinion section has published to get a feel for the content and form of opinion journalism. You can make submissions either by contacting the opinion editor at opinion[@]ubyssey.ca or by filling out the Opinion Section Intake Form.
Please know:
- We strongly discourage sending completed drafts. Please send us your pitch instead. Completed drafts often require more revision than if contributors had worked with an editor from the beginning.
- We do not accept submissions where a prospective contributor has conducted interviews for reported opinions without being authorized by a Ubyssey editor to do so. This is because we have not been able to assess the ethical requirements for informed consent, and we are accountable for every fact that we publish and every person’s experience in a story.
- We do not accept pitches because we need “content.” We are a newspaper and curate articles for an audience of thousands of readers. The ideas behind an article come first before the interests of the person interested in being platformed.
- If your pitch is accepted to become a candidate for publication, you must adhere to the standards of practice and ethics established by The Ubyssey and the Canadian Association of Journalists. The opinion editor will advise you on these matters and determine the appropriate action where necessary. This includes participating in fact-checking, which The Ubyssey takes very seriously.
All contributors should expect to receive edits from the opinion editor. We use Google Documents to provide edits in the form of comments and suggestions, and the contributors may decide to accept or reject them — with the understanding our role is to improve the quality of your piece. Final drafts are published only with the consent of the contributor according to the section’s Consent to Publish Policy.
Editorial standards and values
How you write opinion journalism differs by publication. Some publications emphasize timely, reactive pieces that respond to the headlines of the day, while others may give people the space to write to a specific audience, circulating and sharing ideas among a group of people who already share the same frame of thought.
We define our editorial approach with these statements:
- As a general publication for a general audience, we recognize that there are few issues where our community is represented by one view.
- We uphold and defend contributors’ right to express any position within the boundaries of the law and ethical journalism.
- Situated within a university, we embrace complexity and welcome articles that introduce readers to ideas from contributors’ studies at UBC and beyond.
- Authority — the quality necessary to trust contributors and the evidence they present — is constructed and contextual.
- We appreciate our potential to slow polarization and take our role in that regard very seriously.
- We value writing that gives reasons for why beliefs are held over writing that talks down to readers or is tailored to those who already agree.
- We generally value authenticity and originality over brevity and clarity.
These values influence how articles are written more than they influence what is written.
The Opinion Section Editorial Policies and Procedures Manual contains all the policies the opinion editor uses to make editorial decisions. We are committed to practicing open journalism and are always willing to discuss editorial decisions with readers and contributors
Confidentiality
While the final draft of your article is published, we keep everything that happens before that confidential under the section’s Contributor and Editorial Confidences Policy. This includes not disclosing:
- correspondence with your editor,
- the edits and advice you are given, as well as previous drafts,
- any private and/or unpublished materials you have provided us for the purpose of independent verification, and
- any information that could identify you before an article is published.
This doesn’t mean you can’t tell people you submitted something to The Ubyssey or share the edits you received with a friend or colleague. This simply means The Ubyssey will never share any information about a contributor aside from the information that is published in an article.
Anyone who writes to the opinion section enjoys this protection regardless of whether or not their submission is selected for publication.
Anonymity
Anonymous opinion publications are a challenging ethical issue and is only acceptable in extreme circumstances.
When someone approaches us and applies to write anonymously, we make a decision on whether it is ethical to grant anonymity according to both The Ubyssey’s Anonymity Policy and the opinion section’s specific Anonymity Policy. If you find yourself in a situation where you feel anonymity may be warranted for your submission, please contact the opinion editor by email.