Interested in Writing a JAFSCD Brief?

JAFSCD Food Systems Research, Policy, and Practice Briefs encapsulate the critical points of JAFSCD papers for quick reference. Papers selected to be summarized are ones that practitioners and policy-makers can benefit from on the local or regional level. They are prepared by graduate students, JAFSCD work-study students, and others with a knack for digesting scholarly works. 

We are not able to pay for brief write-ups, but we hope that having a byline can benefit you academically and personally. 

The process is simple. Fill out our quick online form and we'll get back to you promptly. You can suggest a JAFSCD paper on which to prepare a brief, or we can assign you a paper. We provide you with guidance and a template for drafting the brief. We ask you to submit your draft within two weeks of assignment. We send it to the corresponding author of the original paper for editing and comments. The final draft is copy-edited and formatted, and then sent to both you and the author of the original paper for review and approval. Then it's published on the JAFSCD Briefs page.

Details on structuring and writing the brief: The brief should be up to 1,200 words. One approach is to summarize the first paragraph or two of each subsection. These are likely to include the most important points for each element. The literature review generally can be left out. Read the results and discussions sections, paying particular attention to lessons learned, recommendations based on the research, and policy implications. We're happy to provide as much guidance as you need to complete a brief.