Contract Management Magazine

Contract Management Magazine is the flagship publication of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA). This award-winning magazine features articles about best practices, professional insights, lessons learned, and much more.

With more than 500 issues and 3,900 articles (and counting!), Contract Management Magazine is a monthly publication for contract management professionals at all career levels.


Highlighted Articles

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A Passion for Innovation

Posted on 3/1/2023
From Red Square on the Fourth of July to getting American boots back on the Moon, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Senior Procurement Executive Karla Smith Jackson, CPCM, has spent more than 30 years in contracting.

The Software Storm Cloud

Posted on 3/1/2023
What does “good” cloud software contract management look like and why is it important for contracting professionals?

Strength In Numbers

Posted on 3/1/2023
Government technology buyers are crowdsourcing performance intelligence to win solutions to their common problems with big governmentwide vendors.

AI Is Coming For Contracting

Posted on 2/1/2023
Companies and federal agencies increasingly have adopted robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP).

Write for Us!

If you want to add “published author” to your resume, consider writing for Contract Management Magazine. We welcome -and encourage- the submission of original articles about contract management best practices, case studies, challenges, and insights. As a contract management professional, your experiences are valuable to our readers. We accept articles on a rolling basis. 
  View 2023 Editorial Calendar

How to Write for Contract Management Magazine

Editor in Chief Anne Laurent explains how Contract Management is created, how to propose an article, and why stories are the most favored form of articles. Special Guest Dan Manning, Founder and Chief Story Architect at Build The Story, discusses how to construct a story, using his own October 2022 article in Contract Management as an example.

Watch Video

What Should I Write About?

Typical article topics address practice of the competencies found in NCMA’s Contract Management Standard (CMS)™ and Contract Management Body of Knowledge (CMBOK)®. Other topics of interest include commercial contracting, barriers to entry, sustainability contracting, innovation, agile contracting, IT/digital services, legal and regulatory compliance, international acquisitions, operational contracting, small business contracting, subcontracting, state and local government contracting, ethics, and professional development. 

Articles may not promote a specific company or its services and products.

How Long Should the Article Be?

Our feature-length articles range from 1,500 to 2,500 words.

How Do I Submit an Article?

  1. Send us your concept in outline form. Include a proposed title, a sentence encapsulating your topic and your planned approach to it, the major points, and the CMS competencies you’ll cover. Include a brief, bulleted biography. Send to Contract Management editor Anne Laurent at [email protected]
  2. We’ll respond within 30 days letting you know whether you should go ahead with your article for our consideration and, if so, suggesting any changes we propose to your outline. 
  3. As you plan and write your outline and, if applicable, an accepted article please:
    • Avoid jargon and unfamiliar technical terms.
    • Write for a well-educated person who is not necessarily long- or deeply experienced in contracting, its rules, and methods. 
    • Make sure you are proposing an article that will be accessible and enlightening for readers across commercial and government contracting and the buyer and seller side.
    • Don’t assume deep familiarity with the Uniform Commercial Code, the Federal Acquisition Regulation, federal or defense contracting.
    • Make your proposal and outline as engaging, easy to read, interesting, and informative as your article will be.
  4. When we receive your article in Microsoft Word, we’ll evaluate it for readability, accuracy and soundness of content, currency, and interest to our readers. We’ll let you know whether we intend to publish it and, if so, we’ll give you a deadline for the final draft and an estimated date of publication.
  5. Accepted articles are professionally edited. You will have an opportunity to approve major edits.
  6. If you have any questions about this process, please reach out to Contract Management Editor Anne Laurent, [email protected].  

 

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