Community of Respect and Author’s Guidelines

Privacy & Data Policy

We don’t collect any data or information from users of this website. Period.

Becoming a Contributor

There are two options for contributing: we can syndicate blogs you have written on other sites, or can set you up with a contributor account so you can post original pieces. This site is moderated, but not edited. Moderators recruit authors and maintain standards of civility in the comments, but we do not edit the content of blogs posted by authors.

Please note that there is a selection/approval process for applicants to become accepted authors. In order to become an author, please send an email directly to the moderator of the channel you are interested in contributing to (see names on the about page). Each channel has different criteria (the scholarly channel, for example, requires a Ph.D. in a relevant field), and you may be asked to provide evidence of education, experience, and/or prior writing. Once you are accepted as an author, you are free to post so long as your contributions meet with the following criteria.

How to Post

Approved authors can post by logging into the site at www.asianmedicinezone.com/admin and using the +New button at the top of the page. When you submit a new post for review, email the channel moderator (listed here), who will approve it for appearance on the site. Moderators won’t edit for copy or content, but will simply ensure that the post follows the site guidelines, which are posted below. Make sure to closely proofread your post before submission.

Before you submit your first post, be sure to complete your user profile. You can find this under the “Users” link. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom and fill in the biographical information and social media links.

If you submit a post that has previously appeared online in another venue, please include at the very top of the page the following line:  “This is a syndicated post that originally appeared at http://url.com.” Please be sure that your moderator knows this is a syndicated post, as there’s a different procedure we follow to ensure that the “canonical URL” is set so that the original website gets credit for any social media likes or shares.

Fostering a Community of Respect

The productiveness of this forum is based on our ability to interact in a constructive and supportive way. For this reason, it is important that we establish, at the outset, a shared set of rules that we all agree to follow in our interactions here. As participants in this forum, we all agree to:

  • Respect and care for all participants at all times
  • Value the forum itself, our community, and the topic of discussion
  • Honor the traditions of Asian medicine and all of its representatives
  • Maintain a healthy detachment from our own opinions (once posted, ideas belong to the community as a whole, disagreements are not personal attacks)
  • Conduct disagreements in a constructive and respectful manner
  • Direct all disagreements toward the argument and evidence, not the person (i.e., no ad hominem arguments)
  • Remember that we do not need to agree in order to be members of the same community and support one another
  • Absolutely refrain from sexist or ethnically disparaging language, and foul or inappropriate language of any sort.

The moderators have the right to remove any posts or comments that violate these rules, may request revisions before posts can be reposted, and may remove any member from the community for repeated or severe violations of the community of respect.

Appropriate Types of Posts

Anything that adds to the knowledge and understanding of the practitioner community. Examples include, but are not limited to: case reports, discussions of particular points of theory/practice, book reviews, historical discussions, opinion pieces on current issues, syllabi of Asian medicine courses taught by the blogger, summaries of the content of modern and premodern works in Asian languages, and translations.

In appropriate types of posts are those with any form of self-promotion—i.e., announcements for upcoming classes, claims that the blogger (or their teacher, etc.) possesses superior knowledge to others, etc.—and posts whose sole or primary function is to criticize or attack another person or group.

Support for Arguments

Generally, all posts must support the arguments they make. The nature of this support depends on the type of post. A shared syllabus, for example, needs no citations or other direct support, but should include proper references to the texts assigned to students—in order to facilitate its use by others. A historical argument, on the other hand, requires extensive citation of reliable sources. The following is a rough hierarchy of types of posts from those that require the most support to those that need the least.

  • Historical discussions
  • Translations
  • Summaries of previous works
  • Focused discussions of particular illnesses, treatment methods, etc.
  • General rumination on theory/practice
  • Clinical reports
  • Opinion pieces
  • Syllabi

The moderators have the right to remove or request revisions of works that fail to meet adequate standards of support.

Asian Language Skills

Some types of posts can only be properly supported if the author possesses adequate skills in the relevant Asian language(s). Other types of posts require little to no language skills. The following is a rough hierarchy of types of posts from those that require to greatest language skills to those that require the least.

  • Translations
  • Historical discussions
  • Summaries of previous works
  • Focused discussions of particular illnesses, treatment methods, etc.
  • General rumination on theory/practice
  • Clinical reports
  • Opinion pieces
  • Syllabi

The moderators have the right to remove or request revisions of posts that do not display adequate language skills.

Formatting Guidelines

Generally, authors are free to format their text as they wish. Clarity should be the goal. To make our readers lives easier, however, please observe the following guidelines:

  • Transliteration: Please use italics for all transliterations. For Chinese, use pinyin, dividing syllables and including tones or not as you wish. For languages other than Chinese, use an accepted transliteration method (e.g., rōmaji for Japanese, Wylie for Tibetan, etc.). Exceptions to this rule are any foreign words that are now found in English dictionaries (e.g., qi, karma, bodhisattva, yin, yang, etc.), which should be treated as ordinary English words.
  • East Asian characters: In general, when discussing East Asian topics, Chinese characters should be included for any term for which you include an italicized transliteration.
  • Citations: Although AMZ does not require any particular style of citation, if you include citations, it is important to be consistent in your formatting. We recommend that you follow one of the established styles (e.g., Chicago, APA, Harvard, etc.).

The moderator may request revisions to any post whose formatting does not meet these standards or is otherwise difficult to understand.

Copyright and Editing

Copyright for all posts is retained by the author(s). Asian Medicine Zone makes no claim to it. Authors are free to edit or remove their posts at any time. The moderator will not make editorial changes nor copyedit any post, but may request revisions, temporarily remove posts until revisions are made, or permanently remove posts that violate the guidelines discussed here.

Comments

The rules outlined above also apply to comments made on posts. The moderator may remove any comments that are inappropriate.