At BUILDINGS, we are always looking for accurate, well-written articles on topics of interest to our readers. If you’re interested in submitting an article, here’s what you should do.
First, reach out to Editor-in-Chief Janelle Penny explaining your topic. What do you plan to explore? How is it a good fit for our readers? Which technical expert will write the piece? The author should preferably be a professional in the industry, not someone in a marketing, PR, product manager or sales role. Once the editor has reviewed your offer, you will be contacted with feedback and notification as to whether your article is a fit for BUILDINGS. If the editor agrees to proceed, you will be notified of deadlines and next steps via email. Content accepted for publication may appear in BUILDINGS print, online at buildings.com, in various e-newsletters, and/or in custom e-books.
Note: Per corporate policy, we do require all authors (or a company representative) to sign our author agreement form before content is published in print or online for the protection of both parties.
Target Audience
BUILDINGS is a 117-year-old brand serving as the premier source of industry knowledge and intelligence for building owners and facilities managers. Contributed articles should cover areas that impact these professionals and should have a how-to or educational angle.
Topics/Areas of Interest
- Energy efficiency and consumption
- Sustainability and resilience
- Smart building technologies
- Operations and maintenance
- HVAC
- Roofing
- Lighting and controls
- Fire and life safety
- Security
- Acoustics
- Janitorial and sanitation issues
- Codes, standards and regulations, such as ADA
- Renovations, retrofits and reconstruction
- And more!
Content Types
Educational article: This type of article should discuss a topic in detail—for example, how to address water damage after fire suppression—and whenever possible, it should give practical tips that building owners and managers can act on. We do accept contributions from manufacturers, but the piece must be completely vendor-neutral and non-promotional. We suggest a word count of 750 to 1,000 words for this type of article. Authors are also encouraged to submit photos to accompany the text; at least one must be in a horizontal orientation. If vendor-neutral photos are not available, please include links to photos on pexels.com or dreamstime.com that could work with your submission.
New product: BUILDINGS is always looking for relevant products to spotlight in the Buildings Buzz eNewsletter and in the print magazine. To submit a product for consideration, please submit high-resolution photos of the product, a link to the company website, and information about the product (such as a press release describing the product, a brochure or other relevant information). Photos should be at least 150 dpi and in a .png, .jpg or .tiff format.
Podcast guest: Are you a subject matter expert who has an idea for a podcast topic? Please contact Editor-in-Chief Janelle Penny directly.
Content Considerations
- All content must be exclusive to BUILDINGS and not published elsewhere. Contributors will be asked to sign an agreement giving BUILDINGS the exclusive right to publish the article for 90 days.
- Articles must be educational and how-to in nature—not an advertisement. It should be vendor-neutral and non-promotional. Product releases are an exception, but should avoid claims that can’t be substantiated, such as “best in class” or “unprecedented.”
- Content should target an audience of building owners and facilities managers.
- Please include at least one high resolution photo (preferably more) with each article submission—or, alternatively, a link to a stock photo on dreamstime.com or pexels.com. When you submit photos, include information about what’s happening in the photo and how it relates to the article.
- Please submit your article in Microsoft Word format. It’s fine to embed photos, drawings, tables, or graphics into that Word file for reference. However, we will also need the original high-res graphics files emailed as separate images.
- If you provide a photo, diagram, or illustration that’s the property of someone else (e.g., from a textbook or a manufacturer’s literature), you must include a letter of permission from the owner.
- We accept contributed articles on a rolling basis.
- Articles/columns are accepted or rejected at the sole discretion of our editor in charge of contributors. If your article is accepted, you will be required to sign an author agreement form.
- Contributed copy is subject to editing by the editor. The editor will work with the author to reach a mutually agreeable final version.
- If the author is new to BUILDINGS, please include an author bio. If the byline is shared, send bios for both authors. At least one specific author is required for each submission—a company cannot author an article.
- Please clearly cite the source of any outside facts in the article (such as statistics, surveys, industry trends, etc.), either within the article or through a hyperlink in the text. Attribution should be the original source, not a secondary source that mentions the statistic. We also do not include footnotes or citations in our feature articles as an academic paper would. So, if desired, please incorporate that type of information into the main body text of the article.
- BUILDINGS editors must balance many factors in determining how much material will appear for any given article as well as when and where the content will be slotted (print, online, newsletters, etc.). An accepted article may take some time to appear for a variety of reasons, so please be patient.