The bureau desk — a guide.

Some membership levels include the bureau desk. If yours does, you see a Bureau desk link in your member desk. It lists the stories that members of your state have sent for review and that are still waiting for the central desk.

What you do there

• Read the story as it was sent — the headline, the standfirst and the full text.
• Give your view: recommended for publishing, needs work or facts need checking — and add a short note. Local knowledge helps most: names, places, who said what, and whether something has already been reported.
• Your note goes into the story’s record and to the editors. The central desk still decides whether and when a story is published.

Good practice

• Be specific: “the village is in Jind district, not Hisar” helps; “not good” does not.
• Do not edit, copy or share a colleague’s story before it is published, and do not contact the people in it about the story.
• If you have a conflict of interest — a relative, a business connection, a dispute — say so and do not comment.

The bureau desk shows stories for the state on your membership. If your state is missing or wrong, ask the desk to correct it.