We welcome pitches for new stories from authors of any profession, discipline, or nationality. The primary requirement for the submissions is that of language, which must be native-level English.
Pitching process
Send your story pitch to the editor at submissions[at]philscience.org. Include a brief bio and a summary of your previous publications, with links to those published online.
Do not send complete articles, but rather, a sketch of what you intend to write as an article, revealing the aims, basic structure, and the linkage of the main arguments.
The volume of pitches received might preclude a personal response to all pitches we are not able to consider.
Once your story idea is accepted, you will stay in touch with the editor as you develop the final article. If the language is not at a native level, your proposal will be rejected with the advice of having a native proofreading of the text before the next submission.
Topics, preferences and content policy
We are publishing stories in the form of commented science news, interviews with recognized academics/scientists, reviews of new books/influential journal articles/scientific events, and scientific/philosophical essays.
The general topics are reflected in the descriptions of the categories in which we publish articles. We are open to any story subject or idea, pursuant to the following conditions:
– the material is original, not published elsewhere
– the subject and ideas are either new or addressed from a new angle
– the arguments are sound and systematically organized
– the article is backed up with citations where needed
– the article is free of unnecessary technicalities
– the article is not original research
We are not looking for particular topics, but we prefer those submissions which meet these criteria:
– presents the newest findings and scientific projects
– addresses old questions in the light of new discoveries and research
– investigates unsolved scientific issues
– addresses new applications of a science, theory or methodology
– links the old science with current science
– addresses science education issues
The style for the science-news article should be informative in both what the new finding consists of and how it links backward to previous research and forward to prospect how the finding might fill gaps and apply in that field or elsewhere, and also how it might affect society.
The style of the essays should be informative, but also narrative, according to author’s arguments and ideas.
The typical length is between 300 and 1,000 words for science news and 1,000 to 2,500 words for essays. Depending on the complexity of the subject, the upper length limit may be extended.
For all submissions, we expect writers to bear in mind from the beginning that the audience of the text is first of all the non-expert general public, and the style, language, and structure should be adapted accordingly.
Unlike other science publications, we are not seeking for our articles to be good literary pieces with “sharing” potential and “hits” as our primary goal. Instead, we are looking for them to be understandable and intelligible for the non-expert audience. This condition requires that the author is able to make the adequate logical connections between the concepts expressed, complying with the syntactic structure of the text. This requirement will ensure that the use of undefined scientific terms does not prevent a reader’s understanding of the text according to a primary logic of the whole. We want our articles first to inform, teach, and arouse interest, and second, to entertain.
Publication process and terms
Once your pitch is accepted and the article submitted, it is typical for the article to go back to the writer for two or more revisions.
The writer is also expected to suggest a few relevant images to represent the main sections of the article. The writer together with the editor will receive credit from their sources for using those images.
The authors retain the intellectual rights on the material published and give PhilScience the copyright.
At this time, we are not able to pay our magazine contributors; however, we offer a wide exposure of their articles on the PhilScience websites and the social media of the organization. Additionally, if an author collects enough articles published on a similar or identical theme, he or she may propose to PhilScience Press the publication of a book consisting of those articles. Authors of the magazine are also eligible to write for third parties on a fee basis. See the details of such paid contributions here.