Submission Guidelines

If you would like to submit a piece for consideration for publication on this website, please first familiarize yourself with the information below so as to determine whether your piece falls within our scope. Authors should then upon their own initiatives ensure that their submissions are brought into rigorous stylistic conformity with the formats and standards provided on this page. The author bears responsibility to edit and proofread their submission thoroughly, and any significant neglect in this matter may result in the submission being sent back without substantial comment.

Once a work is ready, it may be submitted using the form at the bottom of this page.

Scope

KOI will consider for publication any quality piece of scholarship or reporting regarding a matter relevant to unexploded ordnance, applied humanitarianism, post-conflict recovery, human security and risk remediation, relevant technologies, humanitarian support and rehabilitation for war victims and victimized communities, and similar. Submissions may be only tangentially related, as long as they discuss a theme that develops or aids in better understanding theories or concepts important to these primary fields and KOI’s mission as a whole. If unsure whether a topic falls within KOI’s purview, contributors are encouraged to contact us in order to discuss ideas and make individual arrangements.

Submission Types

Research Report — A paper of no less than 1,200 words (not inclusive of footnotes and citations) that engages in a targeted discussion of some area of central relative interest to KOI’s mission, international security and humanitarianism, and/or UXO. The report shall contain original insights, be structured around a central argument, and be of apparent prima facie value to parties concerned. Reports not argumentative in nature that rather aim to introduce or discuss an important and relevant area, share statistics or other scientific research findings, or other will also be considered. In all cases secondary sources must primarily consist of peer-reviewed research articles, academic books, and other sources of high value.

Article — Articles may be of any reasonable length, though most commonly fall under 1,200 words, and engage in a discussion, analysis, or commentary of a particular topic or topics. This includes news reports on or recapitulations of developments, events, or other matters of relevance. Articles are characterized by a slightly lower degree of scholarly formality as compared to the research report, though are nonetheless expected to maintain appropriately rigorous levels of scholarship through engagement with well-reputed primary and secondary sources as necessary to support and provide reference for the given discussion. Opinion pieces may also be considered, but must be grounded in the authority deriving from the author’s own specialized experience or familiarity with the subject matter at hand.

Interview — Interviews with important, experienced, or other relevant individuals (victims, members of at-risk communities, etc.) may be polished and condensed for submission as textual media. The interview’s central subject matter is flexible, but should generally highlight the interviewee’s particular knowledge base, that is of relevance to the scope outlined above and which constitutes the primary motivation behind selecting this individual for interview. All external interviews that may be conducted in preparation for submission are unaffiliated with KOI, and the interviewer bears sole responsibility for right and ethical practice and preparation. The interviewer, interview questions, as well as all other opinions and believes held by the interviewer and interviewee are not tacitly endorsed or supported by KOI.

Language

As English is currently the dominant international language, so it serves as the primary operating language of KOI and its published materials. Concurrent to this, we are happy to consider publishing materials submitted in non-English languages, that help to make our work more inclusively representative, reach new audiences, as well as be accessible to those communities with whom the work is especially concerned. These languages may include Arabic, Chinese, French, Lao, Khmer, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, or other as deemed relevant. Authors of works in non-English languages may most often be requested to coordinate with KOI to produce an English version to be published alongside the original.

Currently, KOI is able to internally review articles written in English, French, Mandarin Chinese, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. Works written in all other languages must be entirely written and revised from beginning to end by the author or in coordination with external review parties of the author’s arrangement. Upon submission, KOI Officers will check and verify these works to their best of their abilities — perhaps recruiting the assistance of external parties — but will ultimately not be able to provide feedback on language-level elements. If accepted, such works will be published with a disclaimer expressing necessary reservation regarding KOI’s inability to vouch for the full quality of the work.

Formatting and Typography

The majority of pieces will be published directly on our website, in which case formatting will be arranged by KOI. However, in the case that we decide to directly publish your submission as a file, as well as for purposes of standardization, we ask authors to kindly follow the following basic stylization guidelines.

All documents should be submitted as Microsoft Word files (.docx), not pdf or other. For submissions written in other languages, please conform with these specifications as best as possible and appropriate, and otherwise comply with general academic stylization standards and practices for that language (e.g. Chinese submissions should be written in 宋体).

Citations

It is vital that all sources be appropriately cited and formatted, with all necessary information provided. Failure in this regard may result in submissions being sent back for further revision. In formatting citations, please use continuous footnotes and conform to the styles outlined above and below.

Books: Uk Heo and Terence Roehrig, South Korea’s Rise: Economic Development, Power, and Foreign Relations (Cambridge University Press: 2014), p. 11.

Journal Articles: Hugh G. Watts, “The Consequences for Children of Explosive Remnants of War: Land Mines, Unexploded Ordnance, Improvised Explosive Devices, and Cluster Bombs,” (2009) 2(3) Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine, p. 224.

In this example, 2 refers to the volume number and (3) refers to the number, the latter included only if applicable.

Articles in Edited Works: Earl S. Martin and Murray Hiebert, “Explosive Remnants of the Second Indochina War in Viet Nam and Laos,” in Arthur H. Westing (ed.), Explosive Remnants of War: Mitigating the Environmental Effects, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Taylor and Francis: 1985), p. 45.

Inclusion of the organization associated with the publication of the book is optional, if not applicable or central (here, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute).

Reports: Beyond the Horizon: Reducing the Impact of UXO for Poverty Reduction in Lao PDR, United Nations Development Programme (December 2012), https://www.undp.org/laopdr/publications/beyond-horizon-reducing-impact-uxo-poverty-reduction-lao-pdr, accessed 13 November 2025, p. 2.

Online Articles: Simon Speakman Cordall, “Landmines Still Exacting a Heavy Toll on Vietnamese Civilians,” The Guardian, 18 September 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/18/vietnam-unexploded-landmines-bombs.

The individual author shall be listed first when available, with their organization (if applicable) coming after the title. If, as in the case of reports, the only credited author is the organization as a whole, the title should come first and the organization should remain afterward.

Online sources and reports (when possible) should be provided with links, followed by the accessed date in the event that no complete day, month, and year publication date is provided. This accessed date should go after the link. In the case of reports, the accessed date should always be included when a link is provided.

In the event that the author consults with other genres of sources other than those listed, the above formats should be used as general templates.

If multiple works are cited in the same footnote, they should be separated with a semicolon and continue in the same paragraph. If citing a work that was already cited in the preceding footnote, use “Ibid.“; if the page in the second citation is different, write “Ibid., p. X”. When citing a work previously cited yet farther back than Ibid., use “supra“, for example: Martin and Murray, supra note 4 p. 46.

Images and Copyright

All images and the licenses under which they are used must be cited. If necessary under the license, the author has the responsibility to contact the image copyright holder and obtain permission for use. If images are used purely for nonprofit educational purposes then there may be grounds for fair use, but the author bears sole responsibility in accurately determining this fact.

Additional Notes and Terms

Submitted materials are forbidden from containing content written or generated by AI, or by anyone other than the cited author(s) unless due credit is given where necessary. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden and may result in a permanent ban from publication.

KOI bears no responsibility for, expresses no endorsement nor support of, nor holds any other tacit connection with any activity undertaken in regard to the preparation of any material submitted for publication. The author(s) of submitted works bear sole liability for all actions taken, expenses incurred, and other in connection with the preparation or publication of any material submitted to or featured on this website both prior to and after submission. The author(s) bears sole responsibility for ensuring that all actions taken in regard to the preparation and submission of material adhere to applicable legal and ethical codes of conduct and research, including that all sources are appropriately cited, credit given, facts checked, and that all images and other media and materials used or consulted with respect copyright and intellectual property laws and are used with permission whenever applicable. Acceptance and publication is not guaranteed under any circumstance, and KOI holds the full right to edit or remove any materials at any time after their publication without notification or justification to any party, as well as maintains the full right to use all submitted materials in other ways as necessary to further the nonprofit mission and initiatives of the corporation.

By submitting material to KOI or by engaging with KOI regarding any other related subject matter, individuals agree to comply and be bound by these terms. In the case of any dispute arising in relation to these terms or another related subject matter, it is agreed that KOI retains all rights to the fullest extent permitted by law in settling and deciding the matter as it sees fit.

Submission