If you share our ministry philosophy to provide free, trustworthy Bible study materials to the world, we invite you to submit materials for review.

INTRODUCTION

The vision of the Biblical Studies Foundation (bible.org), a non-profit (501c.3) organization, is to equip all people to attain the knowledge of the Son of God, to become mature in Christ, and to be competent to teach others. Our mission is to leverage the power of the Internet to provide people and ministries worldwide with universal access to the NET Bible and other trustworthy Bible study resources. “Ministry First” is our motto.

• “Ministry First” is our purpose, supporting the vision of bible.org to see all people become mature followers of Jesus Christ.
• “Ministry First” is our philosophy--our approach to the world and ministry—to which all bible.org leaders, team members, partners and participants are challenged to adhere. It is the lens through which we evaluate everything we do.
• “Ministry First” means that our goal is to say yes to any idea, opportunity or request to do ministry using The NET Bible and/or bible.org resources.
• “Ministry First” is our practice of introducing innovative methods, practices and approaches that put ministry ahead of profits.
• “Ministry First” is our passion, and it is infectious. We pray that you will desire to join us in seeking Ministry First.

BENEFITS TO AUTHOR

Because of the great number of visitors to bible.org, established and “undiscovered” authors alike are provided with broad visibility.

• The bible.org website has over 1,700,000 unique visitors per month (about 20,000,000 per year). Most are in church ministry, are Bible teachers, or are serious Bible students.
• About one third of the visitors are women.
• Our website users come from over 175 different countries.
• You will find bible.org on the first few Google listings for many biblical and theological topics such as “bible studies”, “bible study”, “bible”, etc. (Try it!)
• The NET Bible was translated exclusively for bible.org by twenty-five world class biblical scholars for free viewing and free downloads. It is available free to the world, complete with its 60,000+ translators’ notes.
• Free access to over 40,000 pages of sermons and other Bible study resources is provided to the world on bible.org.
• There are around 750 resources on the site which have been translated into one or more of 28 foreign languages. Most translation work is performed by volunteers for use in foreign ministry settings and then posted on bible.org.

In certain cases, a representative of our publishing company—The Biblical Studies Press—may discuss with an author the possible publication of material that is particularly popular on bible.org. A prospective contractual arrangement between the author and The Biblical Studies Press could be discussed if both parties are interested.

Bible.org may also seek your permission and choose to offer your published materials on our online store or link to amazon.. An equitable arrangement regarding sales proceeds will be negotiated with the author. Bible.org uses profits from online sales to support the ongoing work of the ministry and the publishing operation.

KEY THOUGHT…Bible.org’s Ministry First publishing model is based on building relationships with appropriate authors (pastors, teachers, professors, students of the Word, etc.) who desire to share their resources with the world for free online access and use. If you will share your gifts of teaching through bible.org’s global online ministry, then where applicable, we would like to reciprocate by promoting and selling your materials. The more free resources you post on bible.org, the more global visibility bible.org can potentially provide for both your ministry and your related products and services if applicable and appropriate.

Please keep in mind that only materials considered “trustworthy” by the bible.org staff will be offered on the online store.

You may elect to be available to your reader by e-mail through bible.org.

The reader would not have your personal e-mail address, but a message would be forwarded to you. You would have the reader’s e-mail address and could reply. Bible.org requests that blind copies (bcc) of the author's response to bible.org e-mail be directed to bible.org's Executive Director. This information helps us understand the people we serve, and provides an evaluation tool for knowing how we may improve our service.

The author will be provided with feedback received by bible.org staff members.

EXPECTATIONS OF BIBLE.ORG

Our reviewers have high standards regarding author’s abilities, writing style and theological orthodoxy in essential matters. Not all of the submissions we receive are accepted for posting. Some examples of reasons for not accepting an article include:

• Not orthodox (meaning the submission does not reflect mainstream evangelical theology)
• Not well written or appropriately developed
• Not theologically or biblically sound
• Not appropriately written for the intended audience (weak scholarship, etc.)
• Not needed in terms of content appropriateness for determined purposes
• Author has not demonstrated appropriate background experience or expertise in the topic
• Author has failed on a personal spiritual level to be a qualified biblical teacher (living in unreconciled sin, under church discipline, etc.)

We encourage the use of the NET Bible as the author's primary and preferred translation. Citations from the NET Bible can readily be integrated with our electronic Bible search and linking tools. Because of the NET Bible's liberal copyright policies, the author may liberally cite the NET Bible freely without risk of copyright infringement (always refer to bible.org’s stated copyright and permissions policies posted online at bible.org for specifics). If the submitted material proves worthy of publication, and if Biblical Studies Press becomes the publisher, the process of preparing for the press would be simplified. In addition, use of the NET Bible helps build credibility for the bible.org ministry and therefore potentially for you and your ministry.

Where applicable, biblical references should be cited by book, chapter, and verse.

Reference sources should be cited in footnotes or endnotes, and a bibliography should be provided.

For standard spelling, consult Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11^th Edition.

All materials supplied by the author and posted on bible.org cannot be posted on any other websites except the author’s own ministry website without permission from bible.org. (see footnote¹ for explanation)

Regarding previously published materials, the author must get appropriate permissions to post on bible.org. It is assumed the author has full legal rights to any material submitted to bible.org for use and posting. The author will retain any copyrights they own, but bible.org would own the non exclusive right to post online and use for their ministry purposes without restriction.

Materials posted on bible.org may not be withdrawn by the author. Search engines and personal downloads will have captured the materials and it is not our policy to reclaim them. See specific details here.

After review, materials will not be returned unless specifically requested and then only at the author’s expense.

PROCEDURES

First of all, please review the bible.org Doctrinal Statement. Please submit only if you agree with the Doctrinal Statement.

Materials should be submitted to submissions.

Materials should be formatted according to the instructions found on the Formatting Guidelines page

A copy of the Submission Agreement (found here) signed by the author must be on file at bible.org. Please print out and complete a copy of the agreement and mail it to: Submission's Ministry Director, bible.org, at our offices. ( you may fax or email a scanned copy instead of mail if you prefer) you may find our fax or address here.

The author should expect an opinion from the reviewers within 2-4 weeks after receipt. We will try to review sooner, but it could be even later. We are a ministry and therefore only have certain resources to draw upon at any given time. Bible.org is mostly a volunteer organization.

Bible.org does not guarantee the author will be notified when materials are posted on bible.org. However, it is easy to search “By Author” in the primary/homepage navbar section to see if your name is listed. We will, however, strive to be a good ministry partner and communicate with you when your materials are accepted and posted.

THANK YOU – We consider it a blessing that you believe the ministry of bible.org is worthy of your consideration. We take every submission seriously and before the Lord will seek to be faithful to His service as we consider your submission.

¹The request for a permission here may sound limiting and you may question why Bible.org--which promotes "ministry first"--would make this statement. Let me explain the rationale: the current algorithms used by search engines (e.g. Google) penalizes sites that duplicate content on multiple sites. Bible.org works hard to have our content high on search engines and having the material duplicated on multiple sites is a danger to our ranking. Therefore we want to know if an article will be on multiple sites.