Become a Contributor

One of the goals of the Genetic Literacy Project is to give scientists, journalists, activists, industry representatives, students—and anyone with a thoughtful opinion grounded in science—an opportunity to share their thoughts and reach a wide audience. The GLP offers a unique opportunity to take part in a two-way discussion and be part of a community of readers and writers that want to give these issues the thoughtful attention they deserve. We are looking for blog articles, hopefully with hyperlinks if you have the time to add them. Their length can range from a few hundred words to as long as you can sustain a thoughtful piece. We offer the additional opportunity to have your articles posted on RealClearScience and Science 2.0, which we have a relationship with. If you are interested in becoming a contributing writer, here’s how it works:

1. Register at the bottom of this page with a valid email address. We strive to keep everything as transparent and open as possible on the GLP, so make sure to put your real name in your profile. (Anonymous guest posts will only be accepted under very special circumstances, contact us for details.) In a paragraph, tell us a little about yourself. If you have a website or public profile somewhere, that will help us get to know you. Then send your request to the editor.
2. We will immediately review your registration and quickly upgrade the status of your user account to a Contributor so you can log in and write posts.
3. Once approved, you are ready to go to the Dashboard, which has your personal page. Fill out all the information, including your title, bio, and upload a picture. You can be as formal or informal as you like. Now you are ready to write!

Writing for the GLP

1. Logging in takes you to the Dashboard. Click “Add New” and start writing. Note that you can add images to your piece and place them where you want by clicking on the “Add Media” icon and uploading pictures from your files or non-copyrighted images from the web. Add hyperlinks when possible so readers can review your sources. Note that if you write the article initially in a word processing application like Microsoft Word and you have already created hyperlinks, you cut and paste that document on the GLP Dashboard and all the hyperlinks will be automatically preserved (even if you do not see them). They will show up when you post your article.
2. When you are finished writing your article and making it look the way you want, make sure that you have a bio line at the bottom. This is a good opportunity to link to your own site or profile so readers can learn more about you or get in touch with you. If you want people to follow you on Twitter, here’s a good place to let them know and link to your Twitter account.
3. It will be helpful to readers and to us (for GLP’s archiving and search system) to add tags on the post composition page. There are some commonly used tags, which will appear as you write in the tag box, but feel free to add your own. It is best to use an already existing tag rather than add a new one that may be synonymous with it.
4. Each article should be categorized as either Agriculture or Human.
5. You may edit and save your draft(s) to finish them at your leisure. Once a post is complete, just click on the submit button. If you find a mistake or just want to make a change, return to the Dashboard, hit “edit” and make your changes. It’s never too late to update your story.
6. The article will immediately be sent to our editors. We will not edit your piece. We will quickly “place” it in the proper section on the GLP site—in human or agricultural GeneTrends or in one of the GLP Innovation sections.
7. As soon as it’s posted, join in on the discussion as people read and respond.
8. If you are interested, and the article is substantive, we can help arrange for it to be considered for posting at RealClearScience or Science 2.0, and possibly on Forbes.com. Just contact us and we’ll let you know how that works.

Below is a short demo on how to post an article.