President; and co-founder and editor-in-chief of the The Open Book
The Open Book (TON), a non-profit organisation widely regarded as the leading online source of training and educational materials for journalists who cover science, is accepting entries from early-career science journalists worldwide for its part-time, paid fellowship programme.
The ten-month programme 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.
During the programme, 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.
Priority will be given to applicants who demonstrate:
- A strong intention to work primarily as a professional science journalist. (Note: This fellowship is intended for people whose main goal is to do journalism, as opposed to other forms of science communication.)
- Some training and/or experience writing about science for the general public (it does not have to be extensive)
- Some understanding of the science journalism profession, the challenges science journalists commonly face, and the ways in which they would like to grow as science journalists
- Familiarity with The Open Notebook and the types of topics it tends to cover
- An ability to generate good story ideas suitable for The Open Notebook
- Strong writing ability. If English is not an applicant’s first language, TON will take this into consideration and will not expect flawless writing. However, for a successful experience in this fellowship, an applicant must have a fairly high level of proficiency in English.
The fellowship is open to early-career science journalists with less than three years of regular professional science writing experience.
Interested applicants should note the following details:
- Internships and student work do not count toward this requirement.
- Exceptions to this requirement may be made for cases in which an applicant has more than three years of professional science writing experience but some or all of that experience is not in English.
- Some training and/or experience in writing for the general public is a requirement for this fellowship.
- International applicants are welcome. However, applications, including writing samples and letters of recommendation, must be in English. Materials translated into English from another language are acceptable.
Applications close on October 31, 2023.
For more information and to apply, visit https://www.theopennotebook.com/early-career-fellowship-program/.
