ABA Risk and Compliance Magazine Author Guidelines

Appropriate Topics

ABA Risk and Compliance Magazine is the source for timely, authoritative analysis of the ever-changing regulatory environment.

• The magazine covers current regulatory issues such as Privacy and E-Commerce, and perennial compliance focus areas like fair lending, the Community Reinvestment Act, risk management, training, technology, OFAC, the USA PATRIOT Act and many more.
• In part, articles are selected based on their importance to Certified Regulatory Compliance Managers (CRCMs), Certified Enterprise Risk Professionals (CERPs) and Certified AML and Fraud Professionals (CAFPs). The regulatory topics chosen are typically those covered by the CRCM, CERP, and CAFP exams. (Which means we do not cover investment compliance, for example.)
• We focus on bank regulations and regulatory guidance after the comment period concludes and final guidance has been issued. We do not publish speculatory or op-ed articles. “How to” articles and checklists for bank compliance professionals are strongly encouraged.

Story ideas for bank compliance-related topics not already on the editorial calendar, as well as those on the calendar, are always welcome. See below for the query process.

Parameters

• Articles may not mention the author’s company or its products or services.
• Articles will be edited, and in some cases, rewritten for clarity, style and brevity. 
• Articles must not have been published previously other banking industry publications. 
• The Editor will determine the final headline, but suggestions are encouraged.
• And, please do not write your article with a Wizard of Oz theme! 

Audience

Our readers are compliance professionals at banks of all asset sizes. View the complete reader profile. All CRCMs, CERPs, and CAFPs receive the magazine and can earn Continuing Education Credits by passing a quiz based on our content.

Length of Submissions

• Feature articles run between 2,000 and 3,000 words (approximately 10 to 15 double-spaced typewritten pages). Features are not typically written in first person and do not contain personal stories.
• Column length is generally about 1,800 to 2,000 words. Columns may be written in first person. 

What Contributors Receive

Byline and Bio: ABA Risk and Compliance Magazine does not offer payment for articles. However, authors receive a byline and a biography (up to 150 words) at the end of the article. Bios include information about the author’s company. Columns include a headshot of the author(s).

Complimentary copies / Reprints: Authors will receive five complimentary copies of the magazine in which their article appears. The author’s publicist or marketing representative will receive one additional copy. Bulk copies of the entire magazine are available when purchased in advance. Reprints are available in quantities of 100 or more to authors at a discount. For more information, contact The YGS Group at (717) 430-2205.

Continuing Education Credit for Certified Regulatory Compliance Managers (CRCMs), Certified Enterprise Risk Professionals (CERPs), and Certified AML and Fraud Professionals (CAFPs): ABA Professional Certifications offers continuing education (CE) credits to each CRCM, CERP, and CAFP who writes for ABA Risk and Compliance Magazine. You will receive five credits for each published article. The maximum credits allowed is 20 per CE cycle. Credits are added automatically to the author’s certification record. CE credit questions should be directed to the ABA Professionals Certifications Team at certifications@aba.com.

Author Agreements

Each author is required to sign a standard author agreement that acknowledges the material submitted is his or her own, and grants ABA the permission to publish their material. Full ownership of the text is retained by the author or authors. View a sample Author Agreement.

Authors must provide the editor with their full name (plus acronyms), title, company/bank, physical address, telephone number and email for creation of the agreement. If the author, or their publicist or marketing representative, would like copies of the issue sent to their home, that address must be provided too. 

The Author Agreement will come from ABA’s Legal Department in the form of a DocuSign document. Only the individual author can be sent the DocuSign agreement. Advance notification email will immediately precede the document for signature. Others, such as a publicist, can be copied on the notification email, but not the DocuSign agreement itself.

Since the author retains full ownership of their text, the text may be published on a company’s website, in white papers, in other company materials and on public sites such as LinkedIn, with attribution to ABA Risk and Compliance Magazine.

ABA owns the magazine’s layout and design and pays for one-time use only of all stock artwork. Authors may not distribute, post or use the original article using the magazine’s artwork or layout and design, without first obtaining copyright permission.

Editorial Advisory Board Oversight

Our Editorial Advisory Board members are bankers and practitioners who review story ideas for appropriateness, approve topics, provide direction to potential authors, and review final manuscripts. They reserve the right to reject any story and serve as the eyes and ears in the industry for the Editor.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the board, please email the Editor to see if there is an opening in your field of specialization. All board members must have held positions of leadership on other ABA boards and have written articles published in the magazine prior to application. Advisors should be excellent writers, editors, and exceptional compliance managers. 

Queries/Story Ideas and Process

We have a long lead time and if you see a topic on the editorial calendar that interests you, please pitch four to six months in advance. For example, January topics are usually assigned in August and completed by late October. The exception is when guidance is finalized during our production cycle and deadlines must be compressed.

We are always looking for new ideas that are not on the editorial calendar. If you’d like to submit a story idea, please email the editor, with the topic idea described in a few paragraphs. 

If selected, you’ll be asked for a more detailed outline to be reviewed by the magazine’s Advisory Board to ensure your material has not already covered and to allow for feedback. Once the outline is approved, the Editor will assign a deadline. Placement in a specific issue is not guaranteed. Timing is partially dependent on the space and positioning of topics within each issue, the time and number of reviewers, and the quality of the final submission.

Please allow two months for the review process to be completed.

Editorial Deadlines

Once an article query has been accepted and assigned, all final manuscripts must be submitted at 8 to 10 weeks prior to the publication date, unless otherwise agreed to by the Editor. 

Issue Due Dates

How to Submit Final Articles

• Please email articles as PAGES or WORD documents.
• Please be sure to put your name in the byline, with any acronyms you use for professional certifications. (For example, “CRCM,” “CRMP,” “JD,” Esq,” or “Ph.D,”—but not “MBA” or other masters degrees.)
• Be sure to include your up to 150 word biography at the end.
• Attach a separate headshot if the article was assigned as a column.
• Charts, graphs, and checklists may be used. If these are jpegs, they should be attached in separate files from the article. 
• A signed Author Agreement is required prior to publication.
• Please do not embed links. ABA Risk and Compliance Magazine includes a print component and since readers can’t click a link on a printed page, please type out the exact link or use Endnotes if there are several links.
• If you need your organization’s approval on the article, please complete your internal process before final submission. Build that timing into your schedule so you can meet ABA’s assigned deadline.

Editing

• ABA reserves the right to reject any manuscript submitted for publication, whether solicited or not. 
• All first-person references and references to the author's organization, products, or clients within the article text will be removed. Names of banks may be removed as well, unless part of the author’s bio.
• The Editor will edit for brevity and clarity and to fit the publication's editorial style and length requirements. 
• Please use the active voice and be concise. You may also want to have others proof your work, before submitting your final manuscript.
• ABA’s style guide is based on Associated Press (AP) Stylebook, and it also utilizes the The Chicago Manual of Style and Libel Manual. However, authors do not need to know our style, we will edit the article appropriately.

If you need more detail, please email the editor.