Concord Review Prospectus & 12-Month Planner
A Concord Review paper fails or succeeds at the choosing stage — months before a word is drafted. This one-page prospectus is the go/no-go test we run with our own students before anyone commits a year to a topic, plus the milestone planner that maps that year onto TCR's quarterly deadlines.
Prints on two pages · A4 or Letter
Research Prospectus
The Concord Review · complete this before committing to a topic
1 — The topic
narrow enough to own, rich enough to sustain 8,000 words
Your topic, in one sentence
The historical question your paper answers (a question, not a theme)
Your working answer — the argument you currently expect to make
2 — The three-primary-sources test
if you cannot name three now, the topic fails — change it
Primary source 1
What it is
Where you will access it (archive, database, library)
Primary source 2
What it is
Where you will access it (archive, database, library)
Primary source 3
What it is
Where you will access it (archive, database, library)
3 — The historiography
you must know what scholars already argue
Scholarly work 1
Author and title
What it argues — and where your paper stands relative to it
Scholarly work 2
Author and title
What it argues — and where your paper stands relative to it
4 — Feasibility
- Every essential source is in a language I read.
- The primary sources are accessible from where I live (digitised, purchasable, or in a local archive).
- The scope fits 5,000–10,000 words including endnotes — not a book squeezed into a paper.
- I can name the sub-field my paper contributes to in one phrase.
- I am genuinely curious enough about this question to spend a year on it.
5 — The one-paragraph pitch
if the pitch is dull, the paper will be too
Summarise the paper you intend to write — question, argument, and why it matters — in one paragraph
6 — The 12-month planner
pick a target deadline first, then work backwards
How to use this prospectus
- 01
Run the three-primary-sources test first
Do it before you fall in love with a topic. A subject you find fascinating but cannot source is not a paper — it is a disappointment scheduled for month eight. If you cannot name three accessible primary sources today, change the topic today.
- 02
Treat the pitch paragraph as your abstract
The one-paragraph pitch in Section 5 is not a formality — it is the abstract you will keep revising all year. Every time your argument sharpens, rewrite it. If you cannot make it interesting, the paper is not ready.
- 03
Pick a deadline with a term-time buffer
Choose the quarterly deadline that leaves slack around exams and applications. Each submission is considered for the next three issues, so submitting early costs nothing — a paper finished in June should go in for August 1, not wait for November.
- 04
Footnote as you draft
Log every citation in full Turabian form the moment you use the source. Retro-fitting 100+ endnotes in the final week is how papers miss deadlines — and how sloppy notes slip past a tired author.
The Concord Review, in numbers
The Concord Review publishes secondary-school history research papers and accepts roughly one submission in twenty. Papers must be the student's sole work, formatted in Turabian, and submitted with a $70 fee; each submission is considered for the next three issues. Full requirements and the submission portal are on the Concord Review website.
- Acceptance rate
- ~5%
- Paper length
- 5,000–10,000+ words
- Deadlines
- February 1, May 1, August 1, November 1
Pairs with
The prospectus decides whether the paper is worth writing; these keep it on track once it is. Use the Turabian citation cheat sheet to cite every note correctly from day one, the primary source archives directory to find digitised sources for the three-sources test, and our full guide to getting published in The Concord Review for the strategy behind every section of this sheet.
A year is long enough — with supervision
The prospectus tells you whether a topic can carry a Concord Review paper; carrying it for twelve months is the harder part. Our year-long Concord Review Program pairs a weekly seminar with unlimited supervision — topic selection, source work, drafting, and the Turabian audit — from prospectus to submission.