Contributing to LEX

LEX is a place to share landscape ideas, stories and perspectives with people beyond your own field.

Your contribution might grow from research, professional or community practice, fieldwork, creative work, lived experience or collaboration. It might take the form of writing, photography, artwork, film, audio, performance or a combination of media.

Whatever the format, aim to make something interesting accessible and engaging to audiences who may not already know your work.

Start with the idea

Focus on what you want to communicate.

A LEX contribution can grow from almost anywhere:
research · fieldwork · practice · creative work · a conversation · an event · lived experience · an image · a performance · a sound · an encounter · an unresolved question

You don’t need to cover everything. What is the idea, experience or perspective you most want to share?

Give your audience a reason to care

Think about what your audience encounters first. It might be:
a place or moment · something you noticed · a surprising finding · a question · a contradiction · a striking image or sound · someone’s experience or voice · a clear proposition

You don’t need to explain everything before you begin.

Start where it gets interesting.

Think about your audience

Imagine someone who is interested in landscape but doesn’t work in your field or already know your work.

Complex ideas are welcome. Unnecessary complexity isn’t.

Give people the context they need, explain specialist language where relevant and use captions, descriptions or introductions to help audiences engage with visual, audio or creative work.

References and links are welcome where they help people understand your contribution or explore further.

Make it work online

Consider how your audience will experience the contribution on screen.

For written work, use relatively short paragraphs and useful subheadings. For visual, audio or multimedia work, think about presentation, sequence and how different elements work together.

Put the important ideas where people will encounter them. Cut anything that doesn’t help communicate this particular story or idea.

Bring the work to life

Landscape is experienced in particular places, by particular people and at particular moments. Specific details can often communicate a bigger idea better than general statements.

Show what changed. Let us see, hear or experience what was distinctive. Use places, observations, voices, images and examples to make ideas tangible.

LEX is also interested in how landscape knowledge is made, encountered and contested. Uncertainty, disagreement, unexpected findings, changing perspectives and unresolved questions are welcome.

You don’t always need to present a polished answer.

Use voices well

If you include voices from interviews, conversations, workshops or communities, give enough context to understand who is speaking and why their perspective matters.

Allow different perspectives or uncertainties to remain visible where appropriate, and make sure you have the permissions and consent needed to publish identifiable contributions.

Use images and expression well

Painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, dance, film, sound and other creative forms can communicate experiences and ways of seeing that words cannot.

Give audiences enough context to engage with the work, but don’t feel you need to explain everything it expresses. Consider how individual works, images, movements, sounds or moments relate to one another and how their presentation shapes the experience.

Credit collaborators and creative participants appropriately and make sure relevant permissions and consent have been obtained.

Images, media & accessibility →
LEX Publication Terms →

Help people find and explore your contribution

Title

Aim for something clear · specific · intriguing · understandable on its own.

Titles appear in LEX browse and search results as well as with the contribution itself. Avoid unexplained acronyms or unnecessarily long titles.

Standfirst

Give us one or two sentences answering:

What is this — and why might I want to explore it?

LRG may help edit titles and standfirsts so they work effectively across the website.

References and links

Help audiences understand where important evidence, quotations or ideas come from. Link to useful research, projects, organisations or resources where appropriate.

Written contributions don’t normally need an extensive bibliography unless the subject genuinely requires one.

If your work or supporting research material is already held in an institutional or research repository, please include a link or persistent identifier (such as a DOI), where available.

For advice on preserving research outputs, including creative and practice-based work, see [Preserving and Sharing Your Research →].

Finish with purpose

Think about where you want to leave your audience: perhaps with a question, implication, connection, unresolved tension or possibility.

Leave them with something to think about, feel, question or explore.

If your work or supporting material is already held in a research repository, include its DOI or permanent link where available.

For written contributions: how long?

600–1,800 words is the sweet spot for most written contributions, although different formats have different suggested lengths.

If you’ve made the point in 700 words, stop. If a feature genuinely needs 2,500, that’s fine too.

See Contribute to LEX → for suggested formats and lengths.

Before you send it

Ask yourself:

Is the central idea clear?
What do I most want someone to take from this?

Does it invite attention?
Does the opening image, sound, moment or text give someone a reason to continue?

Could someone outside my field engage with it?
Have I provided enough context without over-explaining?

Does every element earn its place?
Could anything be removed, reordered or strengthened?

Where does it leave the audience?
What might they think, feel, question or explore afterwards?

Need a hand?

You don’t have to arrive with a finished contribution.

If you have an interesting idea but aren’t sure about the angle, structure or format, pitch it to LEX first. Tell us what you want to explore, what’s interesting about it and why LEX audiences might care.

Preparing your submission

The submission form will guide you through what to provide for your chosen format.

Written contributions can be entered or pasted directly or supplied as an editable document. Images and other media should be provided separately at the best available quality.

For photo essays, artwork, audio, video and multimedia work, we’ll ask for the files, links, captions, credits and supporting information needed to present your contribution effectively.

LEX contributions should be developed for online audiences rather than submitted as complete reports, papers or presentations. These can be provided separately as background material where useful.

Something doesn’t fit the form? Talk to us. We welcome creative and unconventional approaches.