Frequently Asked Questions

About the Service

What is IssueLab's editorial policy?

In keeping with IssueLab's mission there are several criteria that we apply to all research submitted for inclusion in our archive:

  1. Research must be produced by a nonprofit (501c3).
  2. As an open archive, all research must be free for the general public to access.
  3. Acceptable works include policy analysis reports, white papers, case studies, data sets, fact sheets and legislative testimony. All work must include references or citations.
  4. We do not accept editorials, news articles, or brochures about your organization or program.
IssueLab maintains editorial oversight and reserves the right to not list work that we find harmful or otherwise inappropriate.

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About the Service

I've registered to add publications to IssueLab but I haven't received any information about next steps. What do I do now?

The username and password that you submitted with your registration are active immediately after you register. You should have received an e-mail message containing your login information when you registered but if you have misplaced the email you can also use our password finder to have your login info e-mailed to you again. Please note that, although you can add publications at will, your publication must be approved before it is included in the archive and made available on the web site. Likewise you will not be able to edit, delete or "hide" a publication until it has been approved. We approve all listings so that partial listings, or SPAM listings don’t make their way into the archive.

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About the Service

What is IssueLab's policy on sharing personal/contact information?

We do not share or sell your contact information. The information that you provide to us is included in the IssueLab web site solely to inform people of your organization's existence and to help IssueLab's visitors access your work. Please note that your information is available to anyone who cares to access it via the public IssueLab site and we cannot be responsible for another organization, business or individual collecting your contact information for their purposes. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

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About the Service

How do I remove my organization from IssueLab?

We hope you'll reconsider leaving us! If you simply want to remove your publication(s), login to your IssueLab account and delete the listings you no longer want available on IssueLab. Note that you can also make your publications "unavailable" so that the listings remain in the archive but are not accessible on the web site. Also note that your organization will appear on IssueLab only if you have at least one publication that has been approved and is marked "available." So, if you would like to keep your organization's registration active but do not wish to show any listings at this time you might consider making any publications you have included in the archive "unavailable", effectively removing yourself from the archive. This way you won't have to re-input all of your organizational and individual publication listings at a later date. To entirely remove your organization from IssueLab please contact our support team and request that we remove you. Please be sure to include the name of your organization and your login (username/password) information in your message. Once we remove your organization all of your publications will also be removed from the archive.

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About the Service

Who can add publications to IssueLab?

We are a place for nonprofit and advocacy organizations to publish and distribute their research. Any nonprofit organization, activist group, advocacy group or policy group can add publications to IssueLab.

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About the Service

What is IssueLab's publication approval process?

In an effort to keep the archive relevant and free of spam, smut, off-topic, off-color or hate-filled content we put each publication submitted to IssueLab through an approval process. As much as we welcome work from across the political spectrum we do still retain editorial oversight and will not publish work that we consider harmful. We also check that supplied links lead to actual web sites and downloadable content and that this content is not corrupted or otherwise compromised. We do our very best to get new content on the site as soon as possible after receiving it. If you haven't seen your content within 48 hours of posting it, feel free to contact us. See "What types of publications can I list on IssueLab and what types are not allowed?" for more information.

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About the Service

How much does it cost to participate?

There is no cost to register, add publications, or subscribe to the IssueLab mailing list.

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Login Help

How can I get an IssueLab login?

In order to get an Issuelab login you have to register your organization and create an account. Once you create and account you will be given your IssueLab username and password. You can start working with your account immediately upon registration.

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Login Help

I can't remember my password and/or e-mail address on file and the "IssueLab Login Rescue" isn't helping. What do I do now?

We apologize for the problems you are experiencing with our automated password rescue tool. Please contact our support team and let us know the name of your organization, a title of one of your publication listings and any other info you think might be helpful -- eg., a possible e-mail address. We'll get back to you as soon as possible.

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Login Help

I've entered a few different e-mail addresses on our publication listings for ordering purposes. Which e-mail address is used to login?

The e-mail address that was used to register to add publications is the one that is used for logging into IssueLab. You can change this e-mail address as well as your password once you login to your account. If you're having trouble logging in, try our login rescue tool. If that doesn't help, contact our support team and let us know the name of your organization, a title of one of your publication listings and any other info you think might be helpful -- eg., a possible e-mail address. We'll get back to you as soon as possible.

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Login Help

When I try to login I get an error message that says my access as been "turned off" - what does this mean and how do I fix it?

Please contact our support team so that we can work with you to resolve this problem.

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Mailing List

How often will I receive e-mail from the IssueLab mailing list?

The purpose of our mailing list is to keep you apprised of the latest nonprofit publication releases. We typically send a message to our subscribers on a weekly basis. You may receive mail from us less frequently if you have subscribed to an issue area that doesn’t get a lot of new additions. Of course, if an earth-shattering "must have!" publication has graced the IssueLab web site, we will most likely send out a special note, outside of our usual weekly mailing.

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Mailing List

Can I get a digest version of the IssueLab mailing list?

Our mailing lists are not listservs where anyone can send a note to all subscribers, instead they are maintained by IssueLab staff. Because we are the only people who can send out messages to the list and we adhere to a once-a-week schedule, we do not currently offer a digest version of our mailing lists.

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Mailing List

Can I suspend my IssueLab mailing list for a specific time?

Mailing list suspension is in the works! For now, to stop receiving mail from us you will have to unsubscribe from the list(s) that you belong to.

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Mailing List

I have subscribed to the IssueLab mailing list but I am not getting any mail.

We typically send mail to lists on a weekly basis. You may receive less than weekly mail from us if you have subscribed to an issue area that has less activity. If you feel that you are not receiving mail in error, try our unsubscribe tool to check which lists you are subscribed to. In this way you can determine if indeed you are subscribed to the list(s) in question. Please note that our subscription process is a two-part one. You first subscribe via the subscription form on our web site. Submitting your subscription request generates an "opt-in" e-mail that is automatically sent to the e-mail address you've provided us. Responding to this e-mail message is the final step needed to secure your subscription.

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Mailing List

I have unsubscribed from the IssueLab mailing list but I still get mail.

Many apologies! Please check to make sure that you have truly unsubscribed by accessing our unsubscribe form. Unsubscribing from an IssueLab mailing list is a two-part process. You first use our unsubscribe form to let us know you'd like to be removed. Submitting your unsubscribe request generates an "opt-out" e-mail that is automatically sent to the e-mail address we have on file for you. Responding to this opt-out message is the final step needed to remove your e-mail address from our list.

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Mailing List

How do I unsubscribe from the IssueLab mailing list?

We hate to see you go! But if you must, please use our unsubscribe form to remove yourself from our mailing list. You will receive a confirmation message in your e-mail inbox. You must respond to this email to successfully unsubscribe.

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Working with Your Publications

What types of publications can I list on IssueLab and what types are not allowed?

Acceptable works include policy analysis reports, white papers, case studies, fact sheets, data sets, and the like. Unacceptable works are those that do not directly deal with a public policy issue. For instance, brochures about your organization or your programs will not be included in the IssueLab archive. A general rule of thumb: If your publication doesn't respond to a policy question or issue, if it doesn't add to a current policy debate, it most likely will not be approved for inclusion in IssueLab. We do maintain editorial oversight of Issuelab. This means that we reserve the right to not publish something that is intentionally hateful.

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Working with Your Publications

What digital formats can we include in the archive?

We urge you to make your publications available in portable document format (PDF). This will ensure that the majority of people who want to access your work can do so regardless of their computer type (PC, Macintosh), operating system or installed software. There are a number of PDF conversion programs available to download, some at no cost (eg., PrimoPDF). A GoogleTM search on keywords "free PDF converter" will get you started. Of course, you can list publications that are in formats other than PDF but note that everyone who wants your document may not be able to access it if you provide it in Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect or other propriety formats.

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Working with Your Publications

I have publications I'd like to list but they are only available in hardcopy. Can I include these in IssueLab?

Yes you can. After registering to add publications, login and add information about your publication as you normally would. Simply indicate that the publication is available to order via snail-mail rather than download from the internet. If you have an order form available to download, be sure to provide a link to that as well.

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Working with Your Publications

I am trying to upload a downloadable document in PDF format so that it is available to download from IssueLab and it seems that the process times out on me -- nothing gets uploaded. What should I do?

Using your account tools, you are able to upload PDF documents that are up to 20 megabytes in file size. If your PDF file is larger than 20 megabytes, please contact our support team and give us details about your publication -- publication title, file size -- and the error message (if any) that you are receiving. Please be sure to include the name of your organization in your message. We will work with you to make your PDF file available on IssueLab. Also note that you can list your publication and indicate that it is available via e-mail, on compact disc, in printed form, etc., on the publications listing page.

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Working with Your Publications

I have a terrific publication that is older than IssueLab's cutoff date for publications. Can I list this publication?

If the publication meets the criteria that we've established for IssueLab content, contact our support team and tell us about it.

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Working with Your Publications

How do I add my organization's publications to IssueLab?

To get started with adding your organization's works, simply register. Once your registration has been submitted you can add as many publications as you like.

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Working with Your Publications

How do I remove a publication from IssueLab?

Login to your account and delete the listings you no longer want made available on IssueLab. Note that you can also make your publications "unavailable" so that the listings remain in the archive but are not accessible on the web site. The advantage of making a publication unavailable is that you won't have to re-input a publication at a later date; you can simply make it available when needed.

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Working with Your Publications

How do I change the contact information that appears on my IssueLab publication page(s)?

Publication pages include two types of information: 1) information specific to the publication in question, and 2) general contact information about the listing organization. The information that you input when you registered your organization is used as general contact information on each publication listing as well as on your organization's page. This general information includes your organization's name, mailing address, phone and fax numbers, web site address, and mission statement. To change your general contact information, login to your IssueLab account and click on the "Modify account" link. Note that revised information will appear on each publication listing. If you need to change the contact information specific to a publication, simply edit that publication's profile.

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Working with Your Publications

What's the difference between deleting a publication and making it "unavailable"?

After logging into your IssueLab account, you have the option to delete a publication or to simply make it unavailable. Deleting a publication completely removes it from IssueLab. It cannot be recovered. Rather than deleting a publication wholesale, you have the option to mark it "unavailable." In this way the listing remains in the archive and can be made available at a future date but it will not be accessible to then general public in any way. Making a publication unavailable rather than deleting it has the advantage of allowing you to return to your listing later to make it available again. This way you do not have to recreate the publication listing. When you make a listing available again it is immediately accessible to the general public on the IssueLab site.

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Working with Your Publications

I added a publication but it's not appearing when I search IssueLab - why?

Although you can add publications immediately upon registering and as often as you like, your publication must be approved before it is included in the IssueLab archive. Only after approval will your publication be made available on the IssueLab web site. Likewise you will not be able to edit or delete a publication or make a publication available/unavailable until each has made it through the approval process.

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