The Made in China Journal (MIC) publishes original essays on all facets of China’s domestic politics and society with provocative arguments that are written in an accessible way and target a general audience.

We welcome contributions from writers from all walks of life, not only academics, and particularly encourage civil society practitioners and activists to submit.

How to Submit

If you are interested in publishing with us, please send a short pitch (150 words or so) explaining the key argument of your piece, what kind of sources you plan to use in it, and how you will be enriching current discussions.

Pitches for can be sent to: editors[at]madeinchinajournal.com

We will get back to you as soon as possible to confirm whether we are interested in the submission, at which point we will ask you to send the whole manuscript.

How to Prepare the Submission

Once we have agreed to consider your submission, please prepare the manuscript according to our basic style guidelines. Please bear in mind that none of the editors of our journals receives any compensation for their work, so we would appreciate if you could follow these basic instructions:

• Please keep the article under 3,000 words (end bibliography not included). Longer articles and contributions in other formats (opinion pieces, photo essays, interviews, forums, etcetera) are also possible but will need to be discussed in advance with the editors.
• Since the journal aims at a general audience, please avoid jargon and do not take for granted that readers will be familiar with terms and situations that require specific background knowledge.
• Please insert references between parentheses in the main text, for instance (Smith 2015: 75), and include an end bibliography in this format. Please avoid footnotes or endnotes unless they are necessary.
• Please include characters for Chinese expressions that are of particular significance.
• Please include any images that you might want to use to accompany the essay as an individual, separate files in good resolution (ideally, 300 dpi) clearly named. In the text of the article, please just include captions and photo credits in the position where the image should tentatively be placed. Do not copy and paste the images on a doc file as if you do so their resolution will get compressed. All necessary permissions to use the images should have been obtained beforehand.
• Include a short abstract of up to 100 words and a bio of 60–80 words, plus a recent headshot of yours.

What Happens after You Submit

• After you submit your article, the piece goes to two anonymous referees. They will read it and provide feedback on the content of the article and advise the chief editors on whether the article is publishable.
• Please bear in mind that even if you have been invited by one of the editors of our journal to submit an article for one of our issues, this does not automatically entail publication as all content needs to go through this peer-review process.
• If the article is deemed publishable, after you address the reviewers’ feedback, the article will be edited for style and clarity by one of our editors.
• Once the editors have deemed the article ready to publish, we also send the semi-final draft out to a professional proofreader.
• Please rest assured that you will be given a chance to review the suggested revisions to the submission every step of the way.

While the journal is published twice a year, in January and July, once the piece is finalised, we can publish it ahead of print on the website. 

AI Policy

The ubiquity of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and their growing use in publishing has led Global China Lab (GCL) to outline an AI policy for its various projects: the Made in China Journal, Global China Pulse, and the People’s Map of Global China. Our goal is to preserve the integrity and quality of our content, while supporting our pillars of producing ethical, accessible research for the public.

Standards

To meet this goal, GCL expects all contributors and editors to adhere to the following standards in their use of AI tools:

• Human Judgment: AI may support but must never replace human judgment.
• Accountability: Contributors and editors take full responsibility for their work.
• Authenticity: Work must reflect the genuine contribution of its author(s).
• Accuracy: Contributors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of all outputs before editors begin editing.
• Transparency: AI use must be clearly and honestly disclosed to the editors at the time of submission.

Uses

Certain types of AI use are acceptable. This includes using AI to support expression, organisation, or efficiency without influencing evaluative judgment. For example: polishing grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure, notably for ESL writers. 

Other types of AI use are prohibited. This includes delegating authorship to AI; using AI to generate arguments, analyses, or conclusions; using AI to write pitches; and using AI to fabricate or alter data, citations, or images. These examples are not exhaustive.

GCL editors read scores of submissions each year; in most cases, we can tell when writing has overrelied on AI even without resorting to detection software. Using AI in these ways not only defeats the integrity of the work but also undermines its quality with predictable, lifeless prose that readers will easily spot. Moreover, this overreliance on AI use calls into question the contributor’s competence. It is therefore in everyone’s interest to adhere to these rules.

Protocol

During the editing process, editors will ask to confirm that each contributor has read and adhered to GCL’s AI policy. 

If at any point in the publication process a contributor is found to have violated GCL’s AI policy, their submission will be rejected or, in cases the editors deem extreme, their publication will be retracted. 

If you have any questions about this policy or believe that any of our pieces may have violated this policy, please contact our editors at contact[at]globalchinalab[dot]org.

Last updated: 6 September 2026.