How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022
Career preparation
How to seek a scientific-communication career
Other topics in scientific communication
Some people enter scientific-communication positions directly from science. Serving as a peer reviewer and on the editorial board of a journal can lead to such a position. Some formal training, though, seems increasingly common, especially for those wishing to work in the popular communication of science. Such training can be in science journalism, scholarly publishing, technical communication, or a related field. It can consist of a degree program, a certificate program, or simply one or more courses. Resources for identifying educational opportunities include the list of environmental journalism programs and courses from the Society of Environmental Journalists (www.sej.org/library/education-environmental-journalism-programs-and-courses), which also contains some listings more generally in science communication; an analogously broad list from the American Medical Writers Association guide to becoming a medical writer (info.amwa.org/ultimate-guide-to-becoming-a-medical-writer#medical_writer_resources); a list from the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT (ksj.mit.edu/resource/being-a-science -journalist/schools); and Maps of TPC Programs (tek-ritr.com/techcomm -programmatic-central/maps-of-tpc-programs), a set of maps showing locations of U.S. educational programs in technical and professional communication.
Some organizations offer workshops or other brief instruction that can help one develop professional skills in scientific communication. For example, the Council of Science Editors precedes its annual meeting with several concurrent short courses on aspects of science editing. Likewise, the annual conference of the American Medical Writers Association includes a wide array of three-hour workshops, some of which also are available as self-study modules (www.amwa.org/page/Essential_Skills). Increasingly, professional organizations in the communication of science have been providing educational offerings online.
Reading on one’s own also can aid in preparing for a career in scientific communication. If you wish to enter scholarly or technical scientific communication, works that may be useful include, in addition to the current book, guides to writing papers in specific fields of science (such as Ebel, Bliefert, and Russey 2004; Lang 2010; Sternberg and Sternberg 2016; and Zeiger 2000), style manuals commonly used in the sciences, Regulatory Writing: An Overview (DeTora 2020), The Copyeditor’s Handbook (Einsohn and Schwartz 2019), and The Copyeditor’s Workbook (Bűky, Schwartz, and Einsohn 2019). New editions of the style manuals, as well as some of these other books, appear periodically—so be sure to obtain the most recent edition. Works that can assist those hoping to enter the popular science communication field include Ideas into Words: Mastering the Craft of Science Writing (Hancock 2003), Health Writer’s Handbook (Gastel 2005), A Field Guide for Science Writers (Blum, Knudson, and Henig 2006), The Science Writers’ Handbook (Writers of SciLance 2013), Handbook for Science Public Information Officers (Shipman 2015), The Craft of Science Writing (Carpenter 2020), and articles posted on The Open Notebook website (www.theopennotebook.com).
Internships or fellowships in the communication of science can strengthen your skills, increase your visibility to potential employers, and aid in exploring career options. Sites of internship or fellowship programs in the communication of science have included international research centers (such as CERN and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics), U.S. government entities (such as Fermilab and the National Cancer Institute), journals (such as Science and JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association), magazines (such as Science News and The Scientist), and other settings such as the public information offices of universities and of organizations. Also, since the 1970s, the American Association for the Advancement of Science has placed science graduate students at media sites each summer through its Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellows Program. In addition, sometimes communication offices without formal internship programs are willing to host interns on request; thus, if there is a setting where you might like to do an internship, take the initiative to ask about doing so.