Economics Observatory Submission Guidelines: Pitching Economic Policy Analysis

Key Takeaways

• The Economics Observatory publishes short, question-led answers to economic questions, written by commissioned researchers and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, with the University of Bristol as its institutional home.
• Most answers are commissioned, so a pitch works best as a question plus an evidence plan: the data, the charts, and the reason the answer matters this month.
• Answers usually run to roughly a thousand words, and editors check drafts for clarity and accuracy before publication.
• The outlet suits economists at any career stage who can explain one question plainly, with particular strength on UK policy topics.
• Comparable outlets include The Conversation, VoxEU, ProMarket, and Global Tech Observatory for technology policy; the right choice depends on audience, register, and how fast your topic moves.

1. Introduction

Most economics research reaches a small audience. A working paper may be read by a few dozen specialists, while the policy decision it bears on is debated by millions of voters, journalists, and officials. The Economics Observatory was created in 2020, in the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, to narrow that gap. Its stated purpose is to give the public and policymakers reliable answers to economic questions as events unfold, and it does this by commissioning economists to write plain-English answers, each built around a single question.

Researchers who want to contribute often guess wrong about what the site runs. They send opinion columns, finished drafts, or summaries dense with econometric terms, and the pitch goes nowhere. This article explains what the Observatory publishes, how its commissioning process works, what a pitch needs to contain, and how it compares with other outlets that take economic policy analysis. After reading it, you should be able to judge whether the Observatory fits your work and write a pitch an editor can act on.

2. What the Economics Observatory publishes and who it serves

Every article on the site starts with a question a reader could ask: why UK productivity growth has lagged, how childcare policy affects mothers' employment, what quantitative easing did to public finances. Editors with economics training select questions from public suggestions, the news agenda, and gaps in coverage, then commission a researcher with relevant work to answer. Answers are short; most run to roughly a thousand words. Charts carry much of the argument, and each chart cites its source, often the Office for National Statistics, the Bank of England, or HM Treasury. Editors check drafts for clarity and accuracy before publication.

The audience includes journalists researching stories, civil servants, parliamentary staff, students, and voters who want a balanced account of a contested question. Funding shapes the scope: the Economic and Social Research Council's grant and the University of Bristol's role give the site a UK-centred remit, although many answers cover global topics such as trade, climate policy, and monetary policy.

For contributors, the format brings two trade-offs. The editorial support is real: editors help convert research into prose a non-specialist can follow, and the question-and-answer structure makes pieces easy for journalists and researchers to quote. The limits are equally concrete: the commissioned model means fewer open slots than a conventional blog, articles leave little room for advocacy, and the UK focus narrows the fit for purely local questions elsewhere.

Before pitching, read five or six recent answers in your field. The structure repeats, and imitating it in your pitch tells the editor you know the product.

3. How the submission process works

The route in runs through commissioning, so a pitch competes on the quality of the question. The process looks like this:

1. Find the question. The site invites readers to submit questions, and editors also generate them from the news calendar. Check whether your topic has been answered already; if it has, a pitch needs a new angle, new data, or a changed situation.
2. Match yourself to the question. Editors commission authors whose research supports the answer. Your pitch should name the paper, dataset, or ongoing work that grounds it.
3. Send a short pitch. A few paragraphs by email is enough. The next section sets out what it should contain.
4. Commissioning. If an editor takes the pitch, they will set the word count, the deadline, and the charts they expect. Date-driven questions, such as a Budget or a labour market data release, run on compressed timelines.
5. Drafting and editing. You write with charts and cited sources; editors cut jargon, check claims against the underlying research, and may ask you to restate an argument in plainer terms.
6. Publication. The piece goes out on the site and through the newsletter and social channels, structured so that journalists and researchers can quote and link it.

Two boundary conditions follow from this model. A finished article sent without invitation gives the editor little to work with, since they will want to set the question and length themselves. And material that reads as advocacy, a project update, or a press release rarely fits an answer format. If your goal is to argue for a position, commentary outlets in the next section handle that better.

When a commission lands, confirm two things with the editor in the same exchange: the target word count and the publication date.

4. What a strong pitch contains

A pitch an editor can act on reads like a commissioning brief. It contains the question, the timing, the evidence, the charts, and the author. The skeleton below can be copied into an email and filled in:

Subject: Pitch: [question in plain English]

The question: one sentence, phrased as a reader would ask it.
Why now: the Budget, data release, court ruling, or election that
  makes this the right month.
The evidence: your relevant paper or dataset, plus the official
  sources the answer would cite.
The charts: two or three proposed charts, each with a data source.
The author: role, affiliation, and links to previous public writing.
Length and timing: the word count and delivery date to agree with
  the editor.

Each element earns its place:

• Write the question as a reader would ask it, in one sentence, without jargon. "How do employer-provided childcare schemes affect women's employment?" works; "New evidence on gendered labour market frictions in early years provision" does not.
• Tie the question to a date. Budgets, Bank of England decisions, census releases, and court rulings give editors a reason to run the answer this month.
• Name the evidence. Cite your own work and the official data the charts would draw on, so the editor can judge feasibility in one read.
• Propose the charts. Two or three, each with a source, show the piece has its illustrations ready.
• Keep the email short. Around two hundred words covers everything above.
• Link previous public writing so the editor can judge your plain-English style.

A concrete example: a researcher with a paper on the fiscal effects of pension auto-enrolment would pitch around the next Office for Budget Responsibility forecast round, propose a chart of participation rates over time and a second chart on saving behaviour, and note that their working paper supplies the underlying estimates. The draft itself can wait; the pitch email is what gets read.

5. Where the Economics Observatory fits among comparable outlets

Choose an outlet by audience, register, and speed, and use more than one for the same underlying research. The table compares the main options for economists and policy researchers:

Sequencing matters as much as the choice itself. A budget-day analysis can run as an Observatory answer and, in parallel, as a news-led explainer for The Conversation. A technical result with global relevance belongs on VoxEU first, with a shorter plain-English version pitched elsewhere. A piece on platform market power can reach ProMarket's antitrust readers or Global Tech Observatory's technology-policy audience, depending on whether the argument centres on regulation or on the economics of the sector. Career stage changes the calculus too: PhD students and postdocs often get the most from heavily edited outlets such as the Observatory and The Conversation, while senior researchers with established voices can carry the denser VoxEU format. Economists outside the UK should lead their Observatory pitch with the link between their evidence and a question UK readers are asking.

6. FAQ

Q1. Do I need to be a UK-based economist to contribute?

The funders and the remit are UK-based, and most contributors come from UK universities and research institutes. International researchers can pitch when their evidence bears on questions UK readers are asking, and the pitch should state that link in its first lines.

Q2. Should I send a finished article instead of a pitch?

The commissioning model means an editor decides the question, the length, and the timing. Send the question, the evidence plan, and a note that a draft exists; then adapt the draft into the commissioned answer. If the pitch is declined, the same draft can usually be reshaped for The Conversation or a university blog with a different structure.

Q3. What questions are in scope?

Anything in economic policy that evidence can answer in about a thousand words: fiscal policy, labour markets, productivity, trade, housing, health, climate, and monetary policy among them. The test has two parts: the question must matter to a UK audience now, and your research must support a clear answer rather than a survey of the field.

Q4. How long does the process take?

It depends on the news calendar. Editors hold evergreen questions until space opens, while date-driven questions, such as a Budget response, are commissioned and published on compressed timelines. Ask for the target publication date when the commission is confirmed, and agree the chart sources in the same exchange.

7. Conclusion

The Economics Observatory rewards pitches built as questions with evidence plans. It fits economists who want UK policy audiences, will accept editorial direction on framing and length, and can explain their work without jargon. If your research is technical and global, start with VoxEU; if it has a hard news hook, add The Conversation; if it sits on the technology-policy boundary, ProMarket or Global Tech Observatory can carry it. For an Observatory pitch, the next step is concrete: write the question first, check whether the site has already answered it or a neighbouring one, and if it has not, send a short email that names your paper, your data sources, and two or three charts.