Deadline: October 31st 2023 | Early Career Fellowship Program ($6000 Stipend)
| Title: | Early Career Fellowship Program ($6000 Stipend) |
| Organisation: | The Open Notebook |
| Fund/Benefit; | $6000 Stipend |
| Deadline; | October 31st 2023 |
| Eligible countries: | All |
The Open Notebook provides early-career science journalists with a compensated, part-time fellowship programme each year. As part of this fellowship, fellows collaborate with a mentor to plan, report, and write pieces that will be published on The Open Notebook. They also join the TONNE editorial staff. Within the context of a brilliant, encouraging, and multicultural community of former and current fellows and mentors, this ten-month programme gives fellows the chance to explore their career interests and passions and to hone their talents. The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, which has generously sponsored this programme since 2012, made this fellowship possible.
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the Fellowship
- Each fellow will submit four stories for publication at The Open Notebook during their fellowship, which will be a mixture of reported features and “story behind the story” interviews. They will have weekly phone or video conferences with a mentor who is a seasoned science journalist who will assist them in developing story ideas, offer direction on reporting and writing, edit fellows’ article draughts, and provide general advise and guidance on the craft and career development. Usually, serious editing occurs numerous times for fellows’ articles.
- Fellows are also in charge of collecting demographic information about their sources as part of our continuous source-diversity tracking project and annotation of their articles for fact-checking as each article approaches completion. Additionally, fellows and mentors participate in a Slack discussion channel with other current and past fellows, as well as TONNE editors.
- Fellows will be expected to take part in cohort-based activities in the fellowship Slack community throughout the fellowship. After the fellowship has ended, membership in this community will remain active. Please take note that although being part-time, this fellowship involves a sizable weekly time commitment, making balancing it with a full-time work difficult. Full-time employees who are prospective fellows are welcome to apply, but they should carefully consider whether they will have the time to commit to finishing papers as stipulated in the fellowship description.
- This entails scheduling time for 1) speaking with sources over the phone or on camera, 2) attending mentor meetings once a week, 3) going through many rounds of editing and rewriting for the majority of articles, and 4) taking part in discussions in the fellowship Slack group. The fellowship is open from March 11 to January 11. After fellowships start, we are flexible about changing the calendar to accommodate significant professional and personal events.
Eligibility
Early-career science journalists with less than three years of consistent, professional science writing experience are eligible for the grant. Take note of the following information:
- Student projects and internships don’t count towards this requirement.
- There may be exceptions to this rule if the candidate has more than three years of professional science writing experience, but some or all of that experience was conducted in a language other than English.
- This fellowship requires training and/or expertise in writing for the general audience.
- We accept applications from abroad. Application materials, however, such as writing samples and letters of recommendation, must be submitted in English. Materials that have been translated from another language into English are permitted.
Selection Standards
- A solid intention to work primarily as a professional science writer will be given preference to applicants. (Note: As opposed to other kinds of science communication, this fellowship is designed for individuals whose primary purpose is to practise journalism.)
- It is not necessary to have substantial training or experience to write about science for the general audience.
- Understanding of the science journalism field, the difficulties that science journalists encounter on a regular basis, and your goals for professional development as a science journalist
- Knowledge of The Open Notebook, including the issues we frequently cover, and the capacity to come up with compelling story ideas for The Open Notebook
- Excellent writing skills
- We do take into account the fact that English may not be your first language and do not anticipate faultless writing. However, a reasonably high level of English proficiency is required for a fruitful experience in this fellowship.
Application
- The following items are listed on the application form for this fellowship:
- Answers answer the following questions: Why are you interested in this fellowship? What do you want to learn?
- Your prior instruction and/or expertise in penning popular science articles
- Any unique abilities, passions, or viewpoints you could contribute to this fellowship
- Your overall goals for the fellowship period (for instance, would you also be finishing a dissertation at the same time? Freelancing? looking for a job somewhere full-time? Performing another task?)
- Two brief feature or multimedia story proposals that you believe would be appropriate for publication at The Open Notebook. These can be roundtable talks, reported pieces on specific aspects of the craft of science writing, behind-the-scenes writer interviews, or some other imaginative, feature-length project with a focus on the craft of science writing. (These aren’t actual pitches at full size.)
- A CV or resume
- One reference letter. This can be a recommendation from a teacher, editor, mentor, boss, or another coworker—whoever you believe can speak most favourably to your abilities and traits in relation to science journalism and this fellowship opportunity.
- Two examples of writing or multimedia content that is intended for the general audience (not academic or scholarly writing). You can just include the URLs for the content in a PDF to upload in this section if you are sharing audio or video clips. (English-only samples only. Materials in other languages are acceptable.)
- Optional: more specifics about you. Any and all writers are encouraged to apply, in our opinion. We welcome you to contact us if you belong to a group or community that has historically been marginalised or underrepresented in American media. This is entirely voluntary, and we’ll keep any information you share private.
For more information, visit The Open Notebook.
