The Open Notebook -tools and resources to help science journalists sharpen their skills
The Open Notebook is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides tools and resources to help science, environmental, and health journalists at all experience levels sharpen their skills. We are guided by two principles: that high-quality science journalism is essential to society, and that everyone, including science journalists, learns best by practicing the craft as part of a supportive, diverse community of people who are all striving to master their skills.
We’ve published more than 500 reported articles, story-behind-the-story interviews, annotations of award-winning stories, profiles, and more—all with the goal of helping science journalists improve their skills. We also publish a large database of successful news and feature pitches. Finally, we offer a growing series of Science Journalism Master Classes. It’s all free to anyone, anywhere in the world, thanks to the generosity of our funders and donors.
Read more about the mission of The Open Notebook here: https://www.theopennotebook.com/mission/
Sign up for the weekly newsletter
Most weeks, we send out our newsletter on Tuesday mornings. Signing up means you’ll be first to know about new articles published at The Open Notebook. Each newsletter also offers up something from our archives that you may have missed, and often we have other bits of news to relate in our newsletter. We’ll also keep you posted about events and news about The Open Notebook. And we might occasionally have a question or two for readers like you. We promise not to overload you with emails—we appreciate that you entrusted us with your email address, and we won’t abuse it! We hope our newsletter helps you discover something new about the craft of science writing every week!
Sign up for the TON weekly newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/1b27e142c25a/theopennotebook
Register for free science journalism master classes
Wherever you are in your career—novice, developing, or established—The Open Notebook‘s Science Journalism Master Classes will help you sharpen your ability to find and vet story ideas, craft effective pitches, report and write impactful stories, collaborate with editors, and more. Each Science Journalism Master Class drills into one skill or habit, presented in a series of five to eight lessons, delivered by email once a day until you’ve completed the course. You’ll have daily (brief) homework assignments, and at the end of each course, you’ll come away with greater mastery of your craft. And our Science Journalism Master Classes are free, thanks to a generous grant from The Kavli Foundation. You can sign up for our courses at any time and get started immediately—there’s no set start date.
Early-Career Fellowship Program
The Open Notebook offers a paid, part-time fellowship program for early-career science journalists. During the course of this fellowship, fellows work with a mentor to plan, report, and write articles for publication at The Open Notebook and become part of the TON editorial team. This ten-month program offers fellows the opportunity to explore their career interests and passions and to sharpen their skills as part of a talented, supportive, diverse community of past and present fellows and mentors. This fellowship is made possible through the generous support of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
Learn more about the early-career fellowship program here.
Other mentoring programs are described here: https://www.theopennotebook.com/mentoring-programs/
Where to get started? https://www.theopennotebook.com/getting-started-in-science-journalism/