Publications, Journals & Blogs

Producing A Publication

We know that alot of our societies like to offer an opportunity to write to their members, and these written pieces form blogs, journals, magazines, publications and more. This is great, however there are many situations and styles of writing that can leave publications in hotwater for legal reasons. Things such as copyright, libel and defamation are a few of the common laws which lead to law suits. Therefore we have steps in place to support our student groups who want to publish. The easy thing to remember is you cannot publish without the Students' Union Libel Checking your peices first. 

If your society is planning on delivering a publication this year, please email the societies team at su.societies@lse.ac.uk so that we can support you through the necessary steps.

WRiting

You can plan what the content of your publications will be but we do recommend you provide some kind of information to your writers and journalists which enable them to understand how to write well, and with in the law. We have produced an online training module on Media Law which you can pass to all members to ready. 

CQ'ing your work

A “CQ” is Latin for “Cadit Quaestio”, meaning the facts have been checked.  A CQ is your guarantee that you have double-checked the fact and know it is correct. You must submit your written piece with a CQ so we can see where your facts source. You see our CQing Guide on how to do this.

Checking before submission

Before being sent in to us you should check your writing for:

• Correct grammar and spelling
• Let us know what citation and style guidelines you’re following when you submit.
• Inform us about copyright and fair use for images and sources used
• Sources for not easily verifiable claims must be noted via CQ;ing
• Supply articles and publications in plain text format - We recommend Google Documents for this (Include images in document with named sources)

Submitting Your Publication For Checking

Once you have written your piece and ensured it is CQ'd you can submit using the button below. 

Submit Your Piece For Checking Here

This will be sent to our Libel Checker Team. We aim to get all your pieces libel checked within 5 working days. However we understand with news, you may need articles checked faster, so please make a note on the submission and we will aim to get these checked in 24 hours. 

After being sent in, this is what will be checked:

1. Pieces on the Union will be fact checked by a member of union staff.
2. Grammar/spelling/sentence construction
3. Monitor consistency of style/citations
4. Monitor for issues of libel/defamation and tone/objectivity
   1. Flag stories that adopt a critical tone in regards to people/groups/organizations
5. Ensuring copyright is adhered to, and authors/artists are credited. 

If there is an issue: 

One of our libel checkers will get back to you with an action plan of what you need to edit within your piece and resubmit for approval. You cannot publish until it has been rechecked. 

If there is not An issue: 

One of our libel checkers will get back to you and approve the publication of your piece.