We are always looking people to become involved in {react} and the best way is to write for us! 

 

• A couple of months before each issue is due to be realeased we will put out a call for writers, providing you with details of the theme, typically this will occur in March, September and December

• We request 150 word proposal to be sent to react.mag.team@gmail.com

• If we believe your article will be suitable then we ask you to write the complete piece

 

We want {react} articles to be

• Passionate and factual science stories understandable to a non-expert

• Attractive and accessible to an audience aged 16-25 (and above!)

• A way of shouting about the great science happening at Newcastle. We would like at least half of the content per issue to be Newcastle Uni-based stories

 

Your proposal should be: 

• a short description of what you would like to cover (~150) 

• You can also include any additional information such as article type e.g. interview, research article, historical piece

 

Complete articles:

• If your proposal is accepted we will ask you to write a complete piece, which will be between 500 and 1100 depending on the type of article. 

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DOs and DONTs for crafting an article for {react}

 

There’s a scientific article you’re itching to write and you want {react} to be its new home. How do you go about getting your work published with us? Follow the below guidelines and you can’t go wrong.

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Submitting a proposal

 

Before we can accept any article, you need to write a proposal outlining what you intend to cover in your article. To stand the greatest chance of acceptance, keep the below points in mind when submitting.

• First off, do ensure you have permission to write about what you want to write about. You don’t have to have this permission in place before you submit your abstract, but you need to ensure it’s in place by the time our editors get their hands on it.

• Secondly, do stick to the proposal word limit of 150 words. Remember: if it’s worth saying, it can be said simply.

• Do think about how your article might fit the theme of our upcoming issue, if one has been announced. Themes are very flexible if you think laterally!

• …But do feel free to deviate from a theme if you can’t think of a way to reconcile it with your article. Our trusty editorial team will make it work!

• Do submit the proposal within the body of a simple email, not as a Word attachment, PDF or other type of document. This makes it very easy for us to assess new proposals on the move and search through the many we receive in a timely fashion.

• Do be open to writing for our blog if we’re unable to accommodate your article within our next issue. We always need more posts! Note that we may also hold your proposal on file for publication in future issues of the magazine.

• Do consider providing us with at least one extra email address or a phone number so we can get in touch with you quickly if and when your article is accepted for publication.

 

Writing your article

 

So your article has been accepted and we’ve sent you a brief including your maximum word count, potential title, deadlines and useful resources. What next?

• Do consult the {react} Guide for Writers, one of the resources we attach to your acceptance email, which will help you craft an engaging piece.

• Do stick to your assigned maximum word count. Unlike academic submissions, the word count should be considered a hard maximum because we are spatially constrained by our printing parameters. Whilst our sub-editors can assist you in rephrasing your article for clarity and concision, they shouldn’t need to rewrite your entire article to make it fit within the magazine. If you’re finding sticking to your word limit tricky, take a look at the great advice provided by Newcastle University’s Writing Development Centre at https://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/subject-support/wdc/.

• Do save your work regularly and create backups if possible. Short of a hike in coffee bean prices, there is nothing worse for a writer than a crash wiping out an hour’s work in one fell swoop.

• Do please take note of the writing deadlines we send you and endeavour to adhere to them. In order to justify its existence, the {react} committee, comprised almost entirely of postgraduate students, works tirelessly around its members’ studies to put out 2 to 3 issues of the magazine annually – but to do this, we have to work to strict printing deadlines, strict design and editing deadlines, and ultimately carefully planned writing deadlines for our contributors.

 

Editing your article

 

Once you have completed and emailed us the first draft of your article in a Microsoft-Word-compatible format, it will first pass to our sub-editors, each of which has expressed an interest and/or possesses specialist knowledge about the subject of your article. At this point your article will be fact-checked, proofread for impact, flow, theme and concision, and then pass back to you for revision accompanied by edits, suggestions and comments.

After this, any subsequent drafts of your article will pass back and forth between you and your sub-editor until you’re both happy, at which point it will be sent to a copy editor who will proofread it to ensure spelling and grammar are beyond reproach. Finally, the article will pass to our editor(s) in chief, who will “OK” it for typesetting by the design team and do final checks before printing.

Very obviously, the bulk of your responsibility as author lies at the very beginning of this process, during writing and sub-editing. Writing a publishable article might seem daunting, but our sub-editors aim to be friendly forces for good in honing your content. We hope the following guidance will help this process run smoothly.

• Do remember that the sub-editors are your allies in creating publishable content, and always try to work with them to implement the changes they have requested. Although we try to be as accommodating as we can, ultimately, only work that conforms to the standards of our editorial team can be published.

• Do ensure that you know what tracked changes means in Word and how to use it (for example, check out https://www.wikihow.com/Edit-a-Document-Using-Microsoft-Word%27s-Track-Changes-Feature for a beginner’s guide [unaffiliated link]). This is how your editors will communicate changes and suggestions to you.

• Do ensure that you keep tracked changes on for the duration of the editing process.

• Do be sure, when working with tracked changes on your second draft, that if you happen to prefer your original phrasing over an edit, you should add a comment, or reply to a comment made by your sub-editor, justifying your decision to disregard the edit. Remember that our sub-editors are volunteers too, and that they donate a considerable amount of time to prepare content for publication; it is not acceptable to simply rejecting an edit without justification.

• Do think about why an editorial suggestion might have been made; it is often much easier for a third party to see the wood for the trees when reading a draft, and it is almost impossible for any author to successfully write and edit their own work simultaneously.

• Do remember that, if you happen to feel strongly about the editing process, you may in fact be an ideal candidate for a sub-editorial position within our committee! We welcome new additions at any time and one of the many benefits of being a {react} committee member is the ability to influence the direction the magazine will take in future.

• Do remember to enjoy the process of crafting the perfect scientific article. Just think: by engaging the public in scientific research, you are doing a great service to society as a whole!

 

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For any queries regarding the above guidelines, please do not hesitate to contact us at react.mag.team@gmail.com