EMPIRIA CONRIBUTOR GUIDELINES

Contributions are welcome from practitioners, utility professionals, policymakers, regulators, managers, analysts, consultants, community leaders, professional associations, researchers, graduate students, research-practice partnerships, and others with relevant experience, observations, or knowledge to share.

Interdisciplinary, cross-sector, and collaborative contributions are encouraged.

Contributors do not need to be members of the Utility Policy & Management Community.

Every contribution should be grounded in meaningful practice, experience, observation, organizational knowledge, data, or other credible practice-based information and make a clear connection to research.

Strong contributions should help answer three questions:

What are we seeing in practice?

What experience, observation, pattern, idea, challenge, development, tension, or emerging phenomenon is visible through practice?

Why does it matter?

Why might this observation or experience matter beyond its immediate organization, jurisdiction, sector, project, or setting?

What could it mean for research?

What might researchers learn from it? What assumptions, concepts, relationships, questions, data needs, methods, or areas of investigation might it help researchers reconsider, examine, or explore?

The goal is not simply to describe practice. Contributions should make its potential significance for research clear.

Contributions may communicate, synthesize, interpret, reflect upon, or build upon:

• Professional experience

• Operational or managerial observations

• Regulatory or policymaking experience

• Organizational experience

• Community engagement

• Implementation experience

• Emerging issues or developments

• Recurring patterns observed in practice

• Challenges, tensions, or unexpected outcomes

• Practitioner-generated data or analysis

• Program, project, or policy experience

• Case experiences

• Professional judgment or institutional knowledge

• Ideas or phenomena that may merit greater research attention

• Research-practice collaborations

• Other credible forms of practice-based knowledge or experience

A contribution does not need to present completed research, formal empirical analysis, or a fully developed research question.

An important Empiria contribution may begin with something a practitioner has noticed, encountered, experienced, questioned, tried, struggled with, or learned that appears consequential but is not yet adequately understood through research.

DOES IT NEED TO BE YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE?

No. Contributions do not necessarily need to be based exclusively on the contributor’s own direct experience.

Empiria welcomes thoughtful synthesis and interpretation of practice-based knowledge drawn from organizations, professional communities, collaborations, cases, publicly available materials, practitioner conversations, or other appropriate sources, provided that the basis for the contribution is represented accurately and transparently.

Contributors should have an appropriate basis for the observations or claims they present and should clearly distinguish direct experience from secondhand information, interpretation, or broader inference.

Where contributions draw substantially on the experiences, knowledge, data, or materials of other individuals or organizations, those sources should be acknowledged as appropriate, and necessary permissions, confidentiality protections, or organizational requirements must be respected.

Contributors remain responsible for accurately representing the practice-based knowledge on which their contribution is based.

Utility P&M Empiria welcomes work across utility and infrastructure sectors, including:

• Electricity

• Water and wastewater

• Natural gas

• Broadband and telecommunications

• Emerging energy systems

• Related utility and infrastructure services

Relevant topics may include:

• Utility governance

• Public management

• Regulation and regulatory innovation

• Affordability

• Equity and justice

• Organizational performance

• Customer engagement

• Community engagement

• Workforce development

• Infrastructure investment and finance

• Sustainability

• Resilience

• Innovation

• Artificial intelligence and data analytics

• Emerging technologies

• Public participation

• Rate design

• Institutional change

• Leadership

• Implementation

• Organizational decision-making

• Professional practice

• Operational challenges

• Emerging industry or regulatory developments

• Other issues relevant to utility policy and management

This list is illustrative rather than exhaustive. Contributions addressing other issues with a meaningful connection to utility policy, management, regulation, governance, or practice—and with potential relevance to research—are welcome.

USE THE FORMAT THAT BEST SERVES THE CONTRIBUTION

Utility P&M Empiria is open format.

Practice-based knowledge does not always communicate best through a traditional written article. Contributors are encouraged to choose the format that most effectively communicates the experience, observation, idea, challenge, or emerging phenomenon and its potential significance for research.

Contributions may be written, visual, data-driven, audiovisual, interactive, conversational, creative, arts-based, or take another form suited to the contribution and its purpose. Examples might include practitioner essays, field observations, case reflections, visual explainers, data stories, videos, recorded presentations, professional conversations, interviews, illustrations, exhibitions, creative media, or other approaches that effectively bring knowledge from practice into conversation with research.

These examples are illustrative, not limiting. Contributors are encouraged to consider the format that best serves the contribution rather than adapting the contribution to a predetermined format.

The format is flexible. The practice-to-research purpose is not.

Regardless of format, every contribution should be grounded in credible practice-based knowledge or experience and be accessible, focused, and capable of contributing something meaningful to research.

Contributors may propose a format when submitting. The editorial team may also work with contributors to identify an effective way to communicate the contribution.

Written contributions should generally be concise and written for an informed interdisciplinary audience rather than exclusively for specialists in either research or practice.

As a general guide, the main text of a written contribution will often fall within 1,500–2,500 words. This range applies to the contribution itself and excludes required submission information, references, contributor information, tables, figures, captions, and supplementary materials. This is not a strict limit; length should be appropriate to the contribution, audience, and purpose.

Authors should:

• • • Use clear and direct language

    • Minimize unnecessary professional or disciplinary jargon

    • Define specialized terms when necessary

    • Provide enough context for readers unfamiliar with the organization, sector, jurisdiction, or situation

    • Use descriptive headings

    • Distinguish observation from interpretation

    • Explain why the experience, pattern, challenge, or idea may matter beyond the immediate case

    • Make the potential relevance to research clear

    • Avoid unnecessary technical or organizational detail

    • Avoid presenting broader conclusions than the underlying experience or evidence can reasonably support

Non-text contributions should be designed for clarity, accessibility, and substantive value rather than production complexity.

There is no single required length or format. Contributors should use the amount of time or space necessary to communicate the contribution effectively and concisely.

Depending on the contribution, the editorial team may request supporting materials such as:

• A short written summary

• Contributor information

• References or source documentation

• Captions or transcripts

• Contextual or methodological notes

• Data documentation

• High-resolution or editable visual files

• Other materials necessary to understand, review, or publish the contribution

Accessibility should be considered from the beginning. Video and audio contributions may require captions or transcripts, and visual materials should be understandable and appropriately labeled.

START WITH SOMETHING FROM PRACTICE WORTH NOTICING

Before submitting, contributors should be able to identify an experience, observation, idea, pattern, challenge, development, or phenomenon from practice that may have significance beyond its immediate context.

A strong submission should make clear:

The context:

Where does the contribution come from? What professional, organizational, regulatory, policy, operational, community, or other setting is relevant to understanding it?

The observation:

What is being seen, experienced, noticed, encountered, or learned?

The significance:

Why is it noteworthy? Why might it matter beyond the immediate case or setting?

The interpretation:

What might the observation suggest, while recognizing alternative explanations and the limits of the available information?

The research relevance:

How could the idea, experience, pattern, or challenge inform research? What might it encourage researchers to investigate, reconsider, measure, explain, compare, conceptualize, or understand differently?

A contribution does not need to prescribe a specific research design or formulate a formal hypothesis. Its role may simply be to make something important from practice visible and researchable.

Contributors should identify three to five key takeaways from their contribution.

Takeaways should communicate substantive observations, insights, challenges, patterns, ideas, or potential research implications rather than simply describe what the contribution contains.

Standards for Practice-Based Contributions

Claims should have an appropriate basis in professional experience, observation, organizational knowledge, data, documentation, analysis, or other credible sources.

Contributors should clearly distinguish among:

• • • Direct observation or experience

    • Organizational or administrative data

    • Information reported by others

    • Established facts

    • Interpretation

    • Professional judgment

    • Broader inference

    • Hypotheses or possible explanations

    • Suggestions for research

Practice-based experience can provide important knowledge without necessarily establishing that a pattern is universal or causal.

Contributors should therefore avoid generalizing beyond what the basis of the contribution can reasonably support.

Important uncertainties, alternative interpretations, contextual factors, qualifications, and limitations should be acknowledged where relevant.

Context & Basis

Empiria does not require contributors to employ formal academic research methods.

However, readers should receive enough information to understand where the contribution comes from, what the contributor observed or experienced, and how the claims presented were developed.

Depending on the contribution, useful contextual information might include:

• The type of organization or institution involved

• The contributor’s role or relationship to the issue

• Relevant jurisdictional or regulatory context

• The period during which an observation occurred

• Whether the experience represents a single case or recurring pattern

• Whether observations are based on direct experience, conversations, records, data, or other sources

• Relevant limitations on what can reasonably be inferred

Where necessary, additional contextual information may be provided through notes, appendices, links, supporting files, or other supplementary materials.

Sources & Documentation

Contributors should acknowledge the principal sources that substantively inform their contribution where applicable.

Depending on the nature of the contribution, sources may include:

• • • Laws and regulations

    • Regulatory filings

    • Organizational reports

    • Administrative or operational data

    • Industry publications

    • Professional guidance

    • Government documents

    • Public records

    • Research publications

    • Technical materials

    • Publicly available datasets

    • Other appropriate documentation

References should be selective and appropriate to the format. The purpose is to make important information traceable, not to turn a practice-based contribution into an academic literature review.

For written contributions, APA style is preferred where formal references are used, although reference and citation formatting may be standardized during production.

When referring to research, data, experiences, or materials produced by others, contributors should identify and appropriately acknowledge the original sources.

Contributors are responsible for the accuracy of references, citations, links, data, quotations, and factual claims.

Practice-based contributions may involve information that is confidential, sensitive, proprietary, personally identifiable, or subject to professional or organizational restrictions.

Contributors are responsible for ensuring that material submitted for publication can appropriately be made public.

Contributors should not disclose confidential, proprietary, personally identifiable, legally protected, or otherwise restricted information without appropriate authorization.

Where appropriate, contributors should anonymize or generalize individuals, organizations, locations, cases, or other identifying details while preserving the substantive value of the contribution.

If anonymization or alteration of contextual details is necessary, contributors should disclose this to the editorial team.

Contributors should also consider whether organizational approval or other permission is necessary before submitting material derived from their professional role.

The editorial team may request clarification regarding confidentiality, permissions, attribution, or the public availability of information before publication.

Utility P&M Empiria welcomes contributions that build upon ideas, observations, presentations, reports, professional discussions, or other materials that have previously appeared elsewhere.

The Empiria contribution itself should be prepared specifically for this publication and should provide a distinct practice-to-research treatment rather than simply reproduce the original material.

Contributors should not reproduce substantial copyrighted text, figures, tables, images, video, audio, or other protected material without the necessary rights or permission.

Contributors are responsible for complying with copyright, confidentiality, contractual, organizational, and licensing requirements governing previously shared or published material.

All individuals identified as authors or contributors should have made an appropriate contribution to the work and should approve the version submitted for publication.

Contributors may be asked to provide:

• Full name

• Professional title or position

• Institutional or organizational affiliation

• Email address

• ORCID, if available

• Short professional biography

Institutional or organizational affiliations are provided for identification purposes and do not necessarily imply endorsement of the views expressed.

Where contributors write in a personal or professional capacity rather than on behalf of their employer or organization, this may be indicated in the published contribution where appropriate.

Contributors must disclose relevant funding sources and any financial, professional, organizational, personal, or other interests that could reasonably be perceived as relevant to the contribution.

Funding of the activity, initiative, program, analysis, project, or other work underlying the contribution should also be acknowledged where applicable.

The editorial team may request additional information when necessary to ensure appropriate transparency.

Utility P&M Empiria welcomes the responsible use of artificial intelligence when it supports the development of meaningful, practice-grounded contributions.

AI tools may be used to assist with analysis, writing, visualization, communication, organization, or other aspects of preparing a contribution. Their use should strengthen the contributor’s ability to communicate experiences, observations, ideas, and knowledge rather than substitute for substantive human judgment, professional expertise, or responsibility.

Contributors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and authorship of all submitted material. Each contribution should represent a genuine contribution by its identified authors or contributors, including meaningful human experience, judgment, interpretation, synthesis, analysis, or creative input.

Generative AI tools may not be listed as authors or contributors.

Substantive use of generative AI—for example, in analysis, development of substantive content, data transformation, visualization, synthesis, or creation of other publication materials—should be disclosed to the editorial team in a clear and proportionate manner. Routine assistance with spelling, grammar, formatting, or copyediting does not ordinarily require disclosure.

Contributors should critically review and independently verify AI-assisted outputs, including citations, factual claims, data, analysis, interpretations, and other substantive content.

Contributors should not enter confidential, proprietary, personally identifiable, or otherwise restricted information into AI systems in ways inconsistent with applicable professional, organizational, legal, contractual, or ethical obligations.

The goal of disclosure is transparency and responsible use, not discouragement of appropriate AI-assisted work.

Contributors must have the right to submit all material included in their contribution.

Permission must be obtained when required for third-party photographs, illustrations, figures, tables, recordings, copyrighted text, datasets, organizational materials, or other protected content.

Contributors should identify any material subject to third-party copyright, licensing, confidentiality, or other restrictions when submitting.

Copyright and licensing information applicable to the final publication will be communicated during the publication process and displayed with the published contribution as appropriate.

All submissions undergo editorial review before publication.

Review considers:

• • • Relevance to utility policy and management

    • Credibility and appropriateness of the practice-based foundation

    • Accuracy

    • Adequacy of context

    • Clarity and accessibility

    • Strength of the practice-to-research connection

    • Appropriate distinction between observation, interpretation, and inference

    • Potential value for research

    • Appropriateness of conclusions or broader claims

    • Suitability of the proposed format

    • Overall fit with the purpose of Utility P&M Empiria

Contributors may be invited to revise their submission before a publication decision is made.

Submission does not guarantee publication.

Unless explicitly stated for a particular contribution, publication in Utility P&M Empiria should not be interpreted as formal academic peer review.

Publication also does not imply that an observation, interpretation, hypothesis, or proposed research direction has been independently validated or established as a generalizable finding.

Following acceptance, the Utility P&M Empiria editorial team may work with contributors to strengthen clarity, organization, accessibility, context, presentation, and the connection between practice-based knowledge and potential research relevance.

Depending on the format, this may include:

• • • Copyediting

    • Formatting

    • Visual design

    • Captioning or transcription

    • Preparation of supporting text

    • Clarification of context

    • Adaptation for web presentation

    • Other production assistance appropriate to the contribution

The editorial process may also help contributors articulate why an experience, observation, challenge, or idea could matter to researchers without requiring contributors to turn their work into an academic research proposal.

Contributors will have an opportunity to review substantive editorial changes and approve the final version before publication.

Each accepted contribution will be published as an individual item within Utility P&M Empiria.

Published contributions may include:

• • • A sequential publication number

    • Publication date

    • Contributor information

    • A permanent publication webpage

    • Citation information

    • ISSN information, once assigned

    • A DOI, when DOI registration is available

    • Downloadable or supporting materials, when appropriate

The exact publication presentation may vary depending on the format of the contribution.

Potential contributors are welcome to contact the editorial team before preparing a full submission to discuss whether an idea is a good fit for Utility P&M Empiria.

This is especially encouraged when a practitioner has noticed something that seems important but is unsure how—or whether—it might connect to research.

A contribution does not need to begin with a fully formed research question. An observation, challenge, recurring pattern, unexpected outcome, professional insight, or emerging issue may be enough to begin a conversation.

Please email contact@utilitypm.org with the subject line:

Empiria Proposal — [Corresponding Contributor Last Name] — [Proposed Title or Topic]

Please briefly include:

• • • The topic, issue, observation, or challenge

    • The practice-based context

    • What you have observed, experienced, or learned

    • Why you think it may matter

    • How it might be relevant to research, if known

    • The proposed format

The editorial team can provide preliminary feedback on fit and, when appropriate, discuss possible approaches to developing the contribution.

Questions about scope, suitability, format, or the submission process are welcome.

Email: contact@utilitypm.org