Submission Guidelines
An overview of what you need to know before submitting your content to DataCamp
In this section, you’ll find everything you need to submit a great article to DataCamp. Make sure to follow these guidelines carefully.
Please note that not following the guidelines will decrease your chances of getting your article accepted and published.
“Third person” vs “First person”
Generally speaking, you can use any point of view you want as long as it's not a tutorial. Here’s an example below for tutorials. You can also read more about guidelines for tutorials in the formatting tips and checklists.
Don’ts: “In this tutorial, I want to teach you how to run a classification model in scikit-learn”
Dos: “In this tutorial, you will learn how to run a classification model in scikit-learn”
Write about data in all of its shapes and forms
The beauty about data is that it’s far-reaching, and there are so many types of themes and topics you can cover—from data science to business intelligence, machine learning, data engineering, and more. Below you can find a list of the topics our audience is generally the most excited about:
Tutorials—Coding tutorials in R, Python, SQL, or other relevant data tools and techniques. For faster editing, all coding tutorials in Python and R need to be submitted as DataCamp Workspace publications. Please read the content guidelines for R and Python coding tutorials. Tutorials on Power BI and Tableau can be submitted as an article.
News—Stories in the latest development in the data space both from a technical and commercial perspective
Careers—Stories that cover career advancement insights, both from an aspiring practitioner’s perspective to more senior data practitioners
Skills—Stories that cover the skills evolution of data practitioners today and the type of skills they need to learn
Tools—Stories covering new tools, packages, and other relevant technologies data practitioners need to learn about. This includes low to no-code tools such as business intelligence tools and automated machine learning.
Data transformation—Stories covering insights and best practices in creating data-driven organizations
Leading data teams—Stories covering best practices in leading and managing data teams and delivering data projects
Tell a good story
DataCamp’s audience is an educated crowd. They can range from aspiring data practitioners to data leaders managing data teams and everyone in between. To craft content that’s interesting, ask yourself these questions:
Who is your audience? What do they already know? What do they care about? And what value is your work adding to their life? For an aspiring practitioner, the article may be about how to break into the field and land their first job. Or if you're writing for data leaders, you may have tips on change management to create buy-in for data science adoption.
What is your unique point of view on the topic, and how can you craft a story around it?
Identify your hook. What will draw the audience into your story at the start and make them want to read until the end? What will drive the need to know?
Have a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Does the introductory paragraph set up the rest of the article in an enticing way?
Show don’t tell. Give the reader all the necessary details to follow your journey, argument, or advice.
Be concise. Consider the famous quote attributed to everyone from Mark Twain to Pascal: “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”—This doesn’t mean that you should write short articles only. We love long-form blogs and articles. But it means you need to be concise.
Avoid implicit or explicit promotion of any product or service.
Craft a great headline
Crafting a great headline is one of the most important aspects of a data story. To create a great headline, make sure to go through the following checklist:
Is my headline 80 characters or less?
Is my headline a reflection of the content?
Your headline should be direct about what audiences can expect from your submission
If I saw this headline on social media—would I click through?
Is my headline engaging without being clickbaity? Is my title written in sentence-case?
Be aware that our editors will revise your title as necessary if we believe it will better resonate with the community.
Use images and media to add value
We encourage the use of images and media in your article to better articulate your story. Here are some quick guidelines on how to use images:
Embed relevant videos if you see fit
Break up long text with media for easier reading
Add relevant alt tags for every image you provide
Gifs are awesome when showing tools (e.g., cross filtering in Power BI)
Use tables and charts to display data more clearly
Bonus points if you create an original image for your article
If you’re creating or using data visualizations (i.e., charts) in your content—be mindful of the following:
It’s not too cluttered
Don’t use too many colors
Make sure that titles, axis titles, are correctly formatted
No matter what media you use—whether videos, images, gifs, or datasets—always verify that it is correctly licensed to publish on DataCamp.
Show your authority with links and credentials
All great work relies on the wisdom of the community and the works of others. So make sure to always hyperlink to the external resources you’ve mentioned. Moreover, include a small biography of yours with any link you’d like to point people towards (e.g., your social handles or your personal blog).
Managing conflict of interest
Readers appreciate honesty and clarity, and we want to make sure we’re accommodating their needs first. Make sure to disclose any conflict of interest you or your organization may have from the message within the story you deliver. If there is a small amount of promotional material in your article, we may accept it, but we have the right to remove any text or image that is trying to market a service or a product.
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