Submission Guidelines

If you plan on submitting, please read the following guidelines carefully and submit your work to admin@kolomremaja.com

Forms of Submission Accepted

Kolom Remaja accepts a wide variety of writings, including:

  • Opinions: Pieces that reflect your opinion on a certain subject. This can take the form of narrative, explanatory, argumentative, or other forms. The length should be between 400-1500 words.
  • Articles: Pieces that explain a certain subject (mainly events) objectively. The length should be around 150-800 words.
  • Letters: Letters are opinion pieces that are directed at and/or serve as a response to statements from a certain person, organization, Kolom Remaja’s Editorial Board, or previous publications by Kolom Remaja. The length should be around 150-800 words.
  • Poems: “What is a poem?” is a question that has no definitive answer yet. Though typically it is rhythmical and metaphorical, we welcome other forms of avant-garde poetry.
  • Podcasts: Podcasts are very similar to opinion pieces, with the main difference of it being presented in an audio format. Dialogues between several people can also be featured in podcasts. Podcasts length should be around 2-15 minutes.
  • Videos: In terms of their content, videos are similar to podcasts (and hence with opinion pieces) but with the addition of visual elements. Videos length should not exceed a few minutes.
  • ArtWorks: any digitally edited pictures related to the topics that you wish to express and talk about
  • SayaBersuara: 100 words opinions about anything in your mind and a self-portrait.

Submission of other forms and length can also be considered on a case-by-case basis.


Content and Writing

We welcome pieces on any subject that matters to you. Nevertheless, you might want to note that our publication aims at youth among various backgrounds.

Furthermore, if your submission piece is fact-based (this includes every form except narrative essays, poems, or other literary expressions), we prefer it to be presented in a popular-scientific form. This means that apart from being simple and easy to comprehend, your arguments should be specific, concise, and supported by credible facts. Jargons and technical terms should be used with extra caution.

Finally, please make sure that your work: does not plagiarize other authors’ works, does not infringe other people’s copyrights, and does not contain obscene/discriminatory materials.


Citation and Formatting

In line with our commitment to provide credible fact-based pieces, every fact that you mention in your piece should be accompanied with proper citation. To help us in the editing process, you should cite your sources using footnotes as we will use hyperlinks for citations.tions in the published online form. Fact-based podcasts and videos should be submitted together with their references. We strongly recommend Harvard citation style.


Submission and Review Process

Any submission should be emailed to admin@kolomremaja.com along with your identity (name, age, occupation and institution, phone number, and 2-3 sentences that describe yourself).

Kolom Remaja reviews all submissions carefully, and the editing process is intensive. All submissions will be read by multiple members of the Editorial Board. If your submission is deemed suitable for publication, editing can take anywhere between a few days to a few weeks, depending on the type and length of the piece. We will try to get back to you as quickly as we can, but note that we might need to work back and forth several times to ensure that the quality of your piece meets our standard.


Caveats to Open Submission 

Kolom Remaja is a platform for the youth to share their thoughts and opinions. To achieve this mission, Kolom Remaja implements a no-rejection policy on received submissions. This means that we will publish submitted articles as long as it undergoes our editorial guidelines. However, under extenuating circumstances Kolom Remaja has the discretion to reconsider its no-rejection policy: 

  1. Submission of Coursework and Works with Academic motives

Kolom Remaja strongly adheres to academic integrity and intellectual property, hence Kolom Remaja can reconsider its no-rejection policy on submissions that have the following but not limited to the features below:

  1. Writings that were submitted for a class that have not been graded. 
  2. Writings that have been submitted to a competition or other open submission. 
  3. Submissions that have an academic motive. For example: 
    1. Utilising Kolom Remaja’s collaborative peer-review editing feature to improve the quality of your article for course submission. 
    2. Utilising publication on Kolom Remaja to improve the grades for relevant courses. 

When the submitted work is found to contain the previously listed features, the contributor must provide the following: 

  1. If a contributor submits a writing that has been used for a competition or other open submission events, please provide a signed document from the competition/open submission committee that allows the writing to be published in Kolom Remaja. 
  2. If a contributor submits a writing that is also used for course material, please provide a signed document from the contributor stating that the contributor has no academic motives and the writing has been graded. 
  1. Submission of Writings Containing Provocative Materials

One of Kolom Remaja’s main objectives is to promote freedom of speech among the Indonesian youth by becoming a platform for them to share their thoughts and opinions. Nevertheless, Kolom Remaja adopts a zero tolerance policy towards contents containing SARA and provocative materials hence can reconsider its no-rejection policy on submissions that have the following but not limited to the features below: 

  1. Statements of violence, threats of violence, violent language directed against another person, Sexist, racist, homphobic, transphobic, or otherwise discriminatory languages against a particular group or individual
  2. Contains misleading information. 
  3. Contains materials that can incite hate and unrest.

When submitted work is found to contain the previously listed features, the following procedure must be followed: 

  1. Kolom Remaja’s editor responsible for the article will communicate with the contributor regarding the elements of the article’s content that violate Kolom Remaja’s content guidelines. 
  2. Kolom Remaja’s editor responsible for the article will ask the contributor to revise and change the content of the article to adjust it with Kolom Remaja’s content guidelines.
  3. If the contributor refuses to adjust their submission in accordance to Kolom Remaja’s content guidelines, Kolom Remaja can revoke its no-rejection policy.  

If anyone engages in any extenuating circumstances for “No Rejection Policy” set out by Kolom Remaja above, Kolom Remaja may take action it deems appropriate, including reporting to the Exam Board in the particular school and/or university and has the discretion to choose whether the individual will be banned from submitting future works nor participate in Kolom Remaja’s events/projects. 

The list of extenuating circumstances is not exhaustive and will be updated upon review.