Editor's note: this is a sample article. The text is placeholder copy and the byline is fictional; it is here to show how articles appear on the site.

Every journal begins with an argument about its own name. Ours is that the lives of men and boys deserve the same patient, evidence-minded attention we would expect for any other group — and that giving it takes nothing away from anyone else.

Why a journal

Conversations about men tend to arrive in two registers: alarm and dismissal. Neither is much use to a father working out a custody schedule, a teacher wondering why a bright boy has stopped handing in work, or a man in his fifties who has not seen a doctor in a decade. A journal moves more slowly than a news cycle. It can afford to ask what is actually known, who has studied it, and what remains unsettled.

What we mean by men's issues

We use the phrase broadly. In these pages it covers:

• Health and longevity, including the reluctance to seek care
• Education, from early literacy to university enrolment
• Fatherhood, family life and the law that governs both
• Work, especially work that is dangerous or isolating
• Friendship, loneliness and mental health

None of these subjects belongs to men alone, and several are best understood alongside the experience of women and girls. We welcome writing that makes those connections.

How we will work

Contributors are free to disagree with one another and with the editors. What we ask is that claims be supported, that sources be named, and that opponents be described in terms they would recognise. If you would like to contribute, the Write for Us page explains how.