We’re currently looking for people to write articles for the blog across all manner of science-related topics, whether about specific research, or more general issues.
You don’t have to be a scientist to get involved, in fact we’d also like to hear from people from other disciplines (e.g. philosophers, anthropologists, and sociologists) who can bring their own perspectives on science.
We’re open to whatever tone people want to write in. That could be short reviews of recent papers in your area, opinion pieces, academic essays, or summaries of a field (e.g. “this week in astrophysics”).
Not everything written has to be critical (explanation/summaries are fine), but a general slant towards thoughtful/critical writing is what we’re looking for.
You could write something every day, every week, or every month – it’s up to you.
Why should I write for you?
Blogging is a great outlet for your writing and an easy way of reaching those interested in your area of interest. If you’re an academic this is particularly true – blogging allows you to disseminate information about your research to the wider world and address ‘public engagement of science’-related issues (if you’re interested in one scientist’s account of their experiences of blogging, watch this). Additionally, should you wish to, it allows you to participate in discussions with your readers in the ‘comments’ section of each blog post.
We also have a few tricks up our sleeves to maximise your audience:
First, our geek in charge has clever ways of maximising the coverage of any posts you write, meaning that they’ll appear higher up in Google and other search engine listings.
Second, we’re part of the Research Blogging network, a highly respected hub for people writing about recently published journal articles (mostly science). So if you’re writing about a particular journal article (whether you’re summarising or critiquing it) we can make sure your article gets included, further increasing your article’s reach across the blogosphere and beyond.
And third, all new blog posts will automatically be tweeted and put on our facebook page.
OK, I’m interested, how can I get started?
Contact us explaining who you are, your interests/relationship to science, and ideally send us a sample of your writing (either a link to something online or attach a document).
