We started this blog with a desire to help young scientists by letting them share their story. Not every day in the lab is a paradise of success and desired outcomes. Over the years, we’ve realized that some of its best moments don’t come from us, they come from you.
We’ve been sharing the work of passionate science writers since the early Tipbox days. Maha’s “Vicious Cycle of a PhD”, Harry’s piece on Imposter Syndrome, and even a Halloween special from Logan. This is just a spoonful of the magic dust we’ve been thankful to host on the site. The thing is we haven’t been terribly clear on how you can get involved or why you should. Time to change that!
Why should I write for you?
Tipbox gets about 7,000 users a month and most of what we do is shared on Abcam’s social media feeds. If you’re keen to get into the world of #scicomm this is a decent place to start. Everything we are sent is also read by us! If it’s not right or could be tweaked, we’ll get back to you with advice. Failing that, we find – especially with particularly harrowing tales – it’s cathartic to get them out of your system through writing about them. It also helps others in the lab to avoid pitfalls or realize they aren’t alone with something.
Ok, sounds good. Now what?
We aren’t very restrictive with what we deem ‘Tipbox worthy’. If it’s interesting and relevant to scientists, it grabs our attention. But here are some guidelines:
- Write in your own style
- Word counts can vary, but 200 words is typically our minimum
- Images – send em’! Anything that ties into the article. We’ve also sourced 99% of the header images (the big one at the top) for contributors,, so don’t worry if you don’t have something ready.
- Our best articles have always been part-brain, part-heart; pieces that get others to feel and think are always a winner.
Now what? Share your story and send it over to us tipbox@abcam.com
