How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

Finding publication venues
How to write for the public
Doing other writing for publication

If you wish to write for the public, how might you find a home for your work? Good places to start can be publications, both online and in print, that you like to read. Do not limit yourself to those devoted solely to science. Other publications, including magazines focusing on specific interests or geared to specific population groups, often contain articles on science-related topics. If you have not published articles for the public before, suitable starting points can include local, regional, or specialized publications, including those at your own institution. Another good starting point can be a blog that you establish or an existing blog for which you arrange to write guest posts. Then, once you have proved your ability to write for the public, publications of greater scope are more likely to welcome your requests to write.

If a venue seems suitable, try to determine whether it accepts freelance work. One way is to see who writes for it. If all the authors are staff members listed in its masthead, a magazine is unlikely to accept your work. But if some articles have blurbs saying that they are by scientists not on the staff, the venue might be appropriate for you.

Many popular publications that accept freelance work have writer’s guidelines, which are analogous to journals’ instructions to authors. Look for these guidelines, which appear on the publications’ websites or can be obtained from their editorial offices. Items often addressed include subject areas in which articles are wanted (and not wanted), standard article lengths, requested writing style, rates of payment, and email addresses or websites to which article proposals should be submitted.

Typically, magazines want prospective authors to submit article proposals, known as query letters or pitches, rather than submitting completed articles at the outset. Doing so is more efficient for the author, who can thus avoid wasting time writing articles that the magazine would not want. It also is more efficient for the editor: By reading a query, the editor can quickly evaluate the story idea and the writer’s skill. And if the query is accepted, the editor can work with the writer from the outset to suit the story to the magazine’s needs.

A query letter or pitch generally should be limited to one page (or the equivalent amount of text in an email message or on a proposal portal). Begin by describing the article you propose. Among questions you might address are the following: What is the main topic of the article, and what major subtopics do you plan to address? Why is the topic likely to interest readers? What information sources do you expect to use? How might the article be organized? What types of photographs or other graphics might be appropriate? Near the end of the letter, include a paragraph summarizing your qualifications to write the article. If you have not written for the magazine before, provide or link to examples, if available, of articles you have written for the public, or direct the editor to your website if you have articles for general readers posted there. Further information on writing queries or pitches, and more generally on writing for magazines, can be found in books such as You Can Write for Magazines (Daugherty 1999) and The Complete Guide to Article Writing (Saleh 2013), in magazines such as Writer’s Digest, and on the science writers’ website The Open Notebook (www.theopennotebook.com), which includes guidance on pitching and a database of pitches.

In addition to magazines, a venue to consider querying is The Conversation (theconversation.com), whose content consists of articles that academic experts write for it in order to inform the general public. The Conversation posts the articles on its website and makes them available free of charge for use in newspapers and elsewhere. Articles well suited for The Conversation include those providing scientific context for items in the news. To publish in The Conversation, one must be “a researcher or academic with a university or research institution” or a PhD candidate supervised by an academic. Authors whose pitches are accepted work with editors at The Conversation to develop and refine their articles.

Before writing for a magazine, website, or other venue, analyze writing that it has published or posted so that yours can fit in. Notice, for example, how long the paragraphs tend to be, how formal or informal the wording is, whether headings divide the articles into sections, and whether articles tend to include bulleted lists. In writing for a popular venue, as in writing a scientific paper, suiting the writing to the site will increase the likelihood of publication.