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Science writing primer
This is a primer on how to cover scientific research. Later guides will cover other aspects of science reporting, such as environmental and medical journalism, profiles of scientists or projects and sidebar coverage of breaking news. I. Sources of research information. 1) The first place to start when covering scientific research is the research paper. These are usually published in peer-reviewed journals -- papers that do not undergo some form of peer review by respected scientists are often considered unreliable. The most prestigious peer-reviewed science journals are
Science and Nature. Others often covered by the press include the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Physical Review Letters (PRL), the Cell journals, the Public Library of Science (PLoS) journals,
Geophysical Review Letters (GRL) and Applied Physics Letters (APL). The most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals are
the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the New England
Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the Lancet, and the British Medical Journal
(BMJ). Others often covered by the press include the Journal of
the National Cancer Institute and the Canadian Medical Association Journal
(CMAJ). Below is a short list of publications. Please feel free
to email me your own or develop your own stable of publications. Science:
http://www.sciencemag.org 2) Of growing interest are online preprint servers such
as Arxiv.org (devoted to physics) and the Chemistry Preprint Server. Articles
on these servers are in varying points in the publication curve -- some
have not been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, some have been submitted,
and some have been accepted. Arxiv:
http://www.arxiv.org
Beware -- some submitted papers are of such shoddy quality
that they will doubtless never see print in a reputable peer-reviewed
publication. Exercise some semblance of caution when considering whether
to write about pre-print papers, or forward the paper to respected authorities
for evaluation. 3) Sometimes research from public and private organizations
(schools, government agencies, corporations) is disseminated via press
releases. Popular press release servers include EurekAlert, Newswise and
AlphaGalileo. EurekAlert:
http://www.eurekalert.org 4) Lastly, cultivating scientists and press officers as
sources can yield research information well before publication. Combing
university, agency and company Web pages for research information is a
great way of scooping everyone else. Attending scientific conferences
is also an excellent way of cultivating sources. II. Reporting research. The key distinguishing feature of the professional science
reporter is embargo access. Scientists have learned to distrust journalists
because, frankly, most reporters are scientifically illiterate. In response,
key sources of scientific research (notably Science, Nature and EurekAlert)
have instituted embargo policies. Reporters with embargo access are given
availability to research papers or press releases before publication (often
a week). This ostensibly gives reporters enough lead time to digest papers,
properly interview sources and obtain expert comment. A reporter obtains embargo access through a credentialing
process -- they must either be an employee of a science-related news outlet
or (if freelance) published about three science stories in major news
outlets. Violating embargo (i.e. publishing before the embargo date lifts)
results in that reporter losing embargo access for periods of six months
to a year, usually (thus crippling them professionally). At times, if
a story is deemed important enough, all major news organizations decide
to spontaneously violate embargo -- this is heavily frowned upon. When
one person violates embargo, the embargo on that story is usually considered
lifted and other news outlets can publish their stories also -- although
not always, so if you find your embargo access suspended for following
the herd, consider yourself warned. Embargoed articles are the most popular sources of stories.
This, paradoxically, can become good reason to avoid them -- who wants
to write about something everyone else is going to write about as well?
Major news outlets rarely commission freelancers to write about research
appearing from such outlets. Relatively obscure research outlets are probably the best
way to go for a genuine scoop. These include less well-known peer-reviewed
journals and pre-print servers, many of which do not have embargo policies
at all. EurekAlert
embargo registration: http://www.eurekalert.org/register.php Nature
embargo registration: http://press.nature.com/register2.html III. Scientific organizations. Scientific organizations popular among science reporters
for information include: 1) The American Association for the Advancement of Science
(often known simply as AAAS, or Triple-A-S). They release both Science
and EurekAlert. Their annual conventions are the largest such gatherings
of scientists in the world. 2) The American Physical Society (APS). They publish Physical
Review Letters, and are proud of their absence of an embargo policy. 3) The American Institute of Physics. They publish Applied
Physics Letters and other journals, and are also proud of their absence
of an embargo policy. AIP is an umbrella organization that includes APS
and others. 4) The American Chemical Society. It is the largest organization
of scientists in the world. They are usually very press-friendly. 5) The American Astronomical Society. They release a flood
of press releases to credentialed reporters daily. A key source of fascinating
information. 6) The American Geophysical Union. They publish Geophysical
Review Letters. 7) The American Medical Association. They publish JAMA. The American
Association for the Advancement of Science: http://www.aaas.org |