May 7, 2012

Call For Pitches To Nature, Guardian and Research Fortnight

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

“Three aspiring science journalists pitch their ideas to the Dragons. Could it be you?”

This is the call for pitches issued by the 2 nd UK Conference of Science Journalists, to be held later this year. The “Dragons” are three editors from the prestigious Nature, Guardian and Research Fortnight. The “aspiring science journalists” could well be you—three of you actually—if you are an early-career writer (student, a recent graduate, a freelancer, or even a scientist with a great story).

The conference, organised by the Association of British Science Writers, will be held in London on 25 June of this year and will host a session called “Pitch to the Editors.” The writers of the three best submitted pitches, as determined by the editors, will be invited to attend the conference free of charge and will have to pitch their story to a live audience at the conference. Once that’s done and over with, any of those three publications may commission your pitched story, giving you free reign to include “published at [insert appropriate prestigious publication here]” in your byline.

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Interested? Here are the details:

Write a short pitch, no more than 300 words, for a news story that is suitable for one of the three publications (no need to specify which one). The story can be about any aspect of science.
Send links or clips of your previous work: articles, blog posts, etc. By the way this isn’t essential but, truthfully, I think it is.
To apply, fill the form by Friday 25 May.

More info:

UK Conference of Science Journalists website.
Dragons’ Den Application webpage.
“So you want to be a science writer ?” guide by the Association of British Science Writers.

This looks like a good, if not great, opportunity for early-career science writers. If your pitch is selected as one of the top three, you will not only stand a chance to be published by Nature, Guardian or Research Fortnight but you’ll also get to attend the conference and interact with leading figures in science journalism. And of course, winning a writing competition bows well in a CV.

Good luck and have fun!

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