How to Submit an Article to Arkansas News

Academic departments, student RSOs and members of the campus community are welcome to submit news articles and announcements about honors, research, creative works, promotions and major campuswide events through the online news submission form.

Submit articles by noon the weekday before publication.

The submission form includes spaces for:

• Contact information, which does run with the article.
• Publication date, which is the date you want the article to appear in the Arkansas News email and publish to the news.uark.edu website.
• Removal date, which is optional. Most articles don't need a removal date, but if one is added, the article will be deleted from the web on that date.
• An optional image. A caption and/or photographer can also be added. (See the notes above about image size and shape).
• Article headline. Shorter is better because the headline shows up in social media and other web locations when the story is shared. Try to keep it to 10 to 12 words maximum.
• The article itself, which ideally tells the story clearly and concisely. If it's an event, don't forget time, date and place.
• Additional optional elements such as a YouTube video or audio file if you have one that is related to the article, and related websites or pages.

Submitted articles are read for clarity, and staff may make light edits for the university's editorial style. 

If your department or student organization has questions or suggestions about news articles, please email editor@uark.edu.

IMAGES

The submission form allows you to include a single image. Photographs related to the story or a piece of art that draws a reader’s attention to the story are highly recommended. Submitters to the Arkansas News email should be aware of two primary changes from previous years in what images will be accepted for the new design:

• horizontal shape and
• an effort to reduce use of images with lots of wording.

SHAPE AND SIZE OF IMAGE
The new design relies primarily on horizontal images that are square in shape. Images that are vertical will likely be cropped or will not be run in the news email, although they may appear with the article page. Here are ideal dimensions for images:

• 72-pixel resolution
• 1,200 pixels wide
• 900 pixels tall

If the only available image doesn’t match that size, you can still submit an image with the story, but it might not be used as a part of the news email.

CONTENT OF IMAGE

Text-heavy images such as posters and flyers will not be accepted for the news email. Those designs may work well for a print document, such as a bulletin-board poster, but they are difficult to read online and don't always meet accessibility standards. All important text information and any necessary links should be included in the article's story rather than in an image.

Images that have limited text and catch the eye but are much easier to read and give a reader quick understanding of what the story is about. Here are a couple of examples of images — both with the proper proportions — that have limited text and bold designs:

EVENTS

The primary source for announcements about events is the U of A Calendar of Events. A sampling of events will be pulled into the Arkansas News email each day, but students can create notifications in the calendar to notify them of specific types of events using topical keywords — such as all "entertainment" or "lectures" — or unit keywords — such as an academic department. Learn more about how to submit events to the university calendar.