Contact sciencereview@gmail.com with any additional questions, comments, or concerns about the magazine and/or the application process. Deadlines can vary from semester to semester. To stay up to date, scan the QR code to join our newsletter. Prior experience with writing, editing, illustration, and/or design is a plus but not necessary! If you have additional skills and think they could benefit BSR, let us know! Thank you, and we look forward to working with you!

Staff Positions

We are always looking for talented individuals to join our teams. The BSR is a graduate student publication, and is led by a small Executive Team. As such, all editors, writers, and designers must be current UC Berkeley graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, staff scientists, or technicians. Those affiliated with Lawrence Berkeley Lab (LBL) are also welcome to contribute. Positions are open on a rolling basis.

Author Team

Don’t know what you want to write about but want to write for the magazine? Join the author team to get assigned an article or brainstorm one with the Editorial Team. Have a specific idea you want to write? We accept pitches year round, with a big push in June and January for the print magazine!

Authors work with the print and online editors to write up interesting sci-comm stories. For our print magazine we put out an additional call for pitches but priority will be given to individuals on the current author team. Print and online magazine authors will have their piece illustrated or designed with photographic art. Pitch your idea to form here or join the author team and get your work published (continue reading for information on pitching). You can also check our idea list to find a topic or get your creative juices flowing. The Berkeley Science Review has two main outlets: a semesterly print magazine and an online magazine. We encourage writers to pick topics outside of their own research scope! Sign up for our mailing list (see Newsletter signup at the bottom of this page) to make sure you don't miss calls or deadlines for pitches.

Editor Team

Editors form the core group of the BSR and are responsible for bringing the online and print magazine together, which includes everything from thinking up story ideas and working with writers to distributing the magazine and soliciting funding. Time commitment for the magazine is three meetings per semester, plus about two hours a week for editing work.

Design Team

Our design team takes the text of the articles and turns it into the finished magazine. This work entails making artwork (through photography, digital illustration, painting, and more), creating page layouts, and working overall to ensure the magazine is beautiful and flawless. There are two positions: designer (typically manages one article per semester) and photographer (contributes to multiple pieces per issue). Some layout and design experience is preferred, but not required. Designers meet weekly during the publication cycle.

Time Commitment

We prefer at least a yearlong commitment to the Berkeley Science Review for these positions.

Writing for Our Magazine or Blog

Pitch your idea via our pitch form or join the author team and work with our team to get published (continue reading for information on pitching). You can also check our idea list to find a topic or get your creative juices flowing. The Berkeley Science Review has two main outlets: a semesterly print magazine and an online blog.

We run a focused pitch for our print magazine in early summer and December of each year. Pitched submissions will be evaluated for the upcoming printed magazine issue, as well as for our year-round online magazine!

You can also suggest a story for somebody else to write. We're happy to hear your ideas!

At this time the BSR does not accept undergraduate students, but instead refer interested undergraduates to the Berkeley Scientific Journal.

For more general information about science writing, take a look at these writing suggestions or this crash course in science reporting.

Pitches

If you would like to write for the Berkeley Science Review, the first step is to send us a short query letter (a pitch) by email to sciencereview@gmail.com. The pitch should be about one page long and should sell your article. Tell us why your story is interesting and timely, what's the Berkeley angle, and whom you plan on interviewing. Be specific about what you plan to do and let your personality come through in your writing style. We like to see queries that are well thought-out and compelling, but if you have a more vague idea you can send that in as well.

We will let you know within a couple weeks of submission whether your story has been selected. If your story is selected, you'll be assigned an editor who will discuss possible directions for the piece, recommend resources, and generally act as a helpful guide and vigilant proofreader. You, along with your editor, will work on re-writes and drafts of the article.

Audience

Submissions should be accessible to the intelligent and motivated non-expert. When writing your article, consider whether your readers will find it comprehensible, informative, and fun to read.

Article Length and Content

We publish various kinds of articles in both the magazine and the blog, taking the content and length into consideration. Take a look at our infographic above to see which type of article might work best for you. Be sure to check out our latest magazine issue and blog posts to get an idea of our different articles too. But don't worry: if you're not sure what type of article you want to write, we're happy to work together to figure that out. We’re always looking for new, innovative writers and content.

Our magazine focuses on science research done at UC Berkeley and LBL, so all proposed topics must have a Berkeley connection. Please also check our archive of previous issues to make sure we haven't published a similar story already in the past several years.

The online magazine is open to research highlights from UC Berkeley and beyond, including general trends in STEM fields. We are also looking for perspectives on the graduate student experience, science policy, outreach/education, and current events as they affect STEM fields. The online magazine is flexible in timing and content, both for single stand-alone pieces or multiple pieces that may form a cohesive series. Look at our previous posts to see what we've been publishing recently.

Copyright

The Berkeley Science Review, a non-profit publication, is granted one-time print rights, perpetual electronic publishing rights, and the right to unlimited promotional use of all material (text, photography, or art) submitted for publication. These materials will not be used in any other way, or reprinted elsewhere, without the express permission of the author.

By submitting material to the Berkeley Science Review, you affirm that you are the author, creator or copyright owner of this material, and that you have the legal authority to give the Berkeley Science Review the rights and permissions described above. The Berkeley Science Review will not be held responsible for fraudulently submitted or plagiarized material.