Economic Research Forum (ERF)

Editorial guidelines for submitting your article to the Forum

The Forum welcomes contributions that are evidence-based and relevant to public policy issues in the MENA region. Some key guidelines to note are that columns should be:

  • Up to 1,000 words in length in English (not counting references, footnotes, or tables)
  • Start by mentioning a current policy debate or concern
  • Cite someone else’s work before your cite your own work
  • Written at an analytical level that is more evidence-based than a newspaper op-ed piece, but far more accessible than an academic journal article
  • No regression tables or equations in the text; they are too much detail for most readers and not enough for the specialists; just give the results in words or charts and direct readers to the underlying research for details
  • Graphics and, especially, references are welcome to illustrate the research basis of the analysis, commentary and opinions expressed
  • Put the references in as in academic papers, not as in blogs
  • Please provide a short title (for the front page of the site) and a long title (for the top of the column), which may be the same if desired.
  • It’s helpful if authors suggest a two or three sentence ‘teaser’ summarising the column (written from the editors’ perspective); but the piece itself should be written in the first person

Finally, please supply a photo and two or three paragraph biography for your author page on The Forum. Also, please submit it as a Word file (to ease HTML generation); and send xls, ppt or high quality pdf files of figures.

Please use this form to submit your article:

 


Most read

Beyond job creation: how can Egypt’s gender gap in work be closed?

More than 2 million jobs are needed each year to absorb new entrants into Egypt’s labour market and raise the country’s employment rate. The job challenge is even more acute for women, whose labour force participation remains low despite recent gains in education. This column reports on the second Development Dialogue, an ERF–World Bank Group joint initiative, which brought together students, scholars, policy-makers and private sector leaders at the American University in Cairo to consider how the country’s gender gap in work can be closed.

Digitalisation, global value chains and regional integration in MENA & SSA

Participation in global value chains is vital for countries pursuing structural transformation and inclusive economic development. This column summarises new evidence on how much production processes have been globalised in Africa and the Middle East relative to other regions; whether this process has taken place with partners within or outside the region; and whether it has taken place more in manufacturing or services.

The political economy of algorithms in the Middle East

The Middle East is entering a new political-economic era – one in which algorithms, data and artificial intelligence may become as strategically important as oil once was. Across the region, governments are investing heavily in digital infrastructure, smart governance and AI-driven economic transformation. This column outlines how AI and algorithmic governance are reshaping power, inequality and state capacity in the region.

How trade policy can reduce MENA’s cereal import vulnerability

Heavy dependence on imported cereals, combined with climate change, water scarcity and geopolitical uncertainty, continues to threaten food resilience across MENA. This column explains how an inclusive trade policy can play a key role in making the region’s food security less vulnerable to shocks.