The Open Notebook isn’t the only show in town when it comes to supporting high-quality science journalism! On this page, you’ll find lots of other resources that may be useful for anyone who covers science or wants to do so. In keeping with TON’s mission, this page mainly focuses on resources that center on science journalism craft, career development, and community. That includes university degree programs and courses in science writing, workshops and other training opportunities, sources of news in the science writing world, membership organizations, major awards and honors, and other learning and professional development resources.
To let us know about a resource centered on science journalism craft, career development, or community that you think should be added to our listing, please email editor-in-chief Siri Carpenter. (Note that we do not list certain categories of resources, as described in the “What’s Not on This Page?” section below.)
If you’ve landed on this page from somewhere else and you want to see what we have to offer at The Open Notebook, we invite you to start by browsing our Where to Get Started at The Open Notebook page.
We’ve compiled a listing of more than 50 U.S. university-based programs that offer courses or specialized degree programs in science, health, or environmental writing. (To learn about university-based degree programs outside the U.S., visit the World Federation of Science Journalists’ educational resource page, which includes degree programs around the world. It’s available in map or list form.)
(Editors’ Note: Thanks to Betsy Ladyzhets and Allison Whitten for helping to assemble and fact-check this university listing. Any errors or omissions remain the responsibility of The Open Notebook. To let us know about a program that is missing from our listing, please email editor-in-chief Siri Carpenter.)
The Association of British Science Writers’ How to Become a Science Writer, by Mun-Keat Looi, is an online guide for aspiring science writers. ABSW also has a listing of science communication courses and degree programs in the U.K. and beyond.
The Association of Health Care Journalists’ Core Topics page collects tip sheets and other resources for covering essential health topics such as aging, health equity, patient safety, and more.
The Association of Science Communicators (formerly Science Talk) offers training courses for science communicators.
The Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard’s 2022 Media Boot Camp program connects health/science journalists and editors with faculty from the Broad Institute, MIT, Harvard University, and Harvard’s teaching hospitals for a two-day event exploring how the latest advances in genomics are transforming biomedicine.
The BU Scicommers, hosted by the Boston University College of Communication, is a community of scientists and engineers that includes faculty, post docs, graduate students, and undergrads dedicated to engaging the public through better science communication.
ComSciCon is a series of workshops focused on the communication of complex and technical concepts organized by graduate students, for graduate students.
The Concordia University Department of Journalism’s Projected Futures program is an intensive summer school program for graduate students in any discipline who are interested in communicating about health and medicine.
Covering Climate Now offers tip sheets, source lists, and other resources to help journalists report on climate.
The Earth Journalism Network produces online trainings, toolkits, and guides to help reporters better understand environmental issues.
The Inclusive SciComm Symposium is a biennial, cross-disciplinary meeting of science communicators and others who work to prioritize inclusion, equity, and intersectionality in science communication.
The Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources offers virtual learning opportunities and field trips for environmental and natural resource journalists in North America.
The Johns Hopkins University Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences’ Science Writers’ Boot Camp is a one-day event focused on a single research topic in health, medicine and science.
The Journalist’s Resource’s “Know Your Research” collection includes tip sheets and explainers to help journalists understand academic research methods, find and recognize high-quality research, and avoid missteps when reporting on new studies and public opinion polls.
The Knight Center at the University of Texas, Austin, offers instructor-led and self-directed online journalism courses in subjects such as covering the climate crisis, data visualization for storytelling, reporting on mental health, and more.
The Knight Science Journalism program at MIT offers nine-month fellowships for journalists with at least three years of experience, fact-checking workshops and other resources, an editing handbook, and other tools for science journalists.
The Logan Science Journalism Program, offered by the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, offers immersive workshops for journalists, in either biomedical or environmental research.
The Metcalf Institute at the University of Rhode Island offers workshops and other trainings for journalists on specific scientific and environmental issues.
The National Center For Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India, hosts an annual two-week science journalism workshop, led by science journalist and editor Anil Ananthaswamy.
The National Science-Health-Environment Reporting Fellowships, offered jointly by the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Environmental Journalists, and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, are intended to support early-career journalists pursuing careers reporting on science, health, and/or environmental issues.
The EU-funded QUEST project offers a series of toolkits to help scientists, journalists, museum facilitators and social media managers with their science communication activities.
The Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop, led by journalists George Johnson and Sandra Blakeslee, has been hosting in-person weeklong workshops for more than two decades.
The SciDev.net Script training program offers free online courses and other learning resources for science journalists
SciLine offers media trainings and briefings and matches reporters on deadline with scientific experts.
The Solutions Journalism Network offers trainings and other resources to help journalists report stories with a solutions focus.
The University of California, San Diego Health Marketing and Communications Department offers an on-site, full-time, paid, 12-month science communication fellowship program. (Note: The 2022-2023 fellowship is on hold. The fellowship will resume for 2023-24.)
The University of Colorado Ted Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Journalism program is a 12-month fellowship during which fellows audit courses at the University of Colorado and pursue an independent project.
The University of Southern California Annenberg Health Journalism Fellowships provide training for professional journalists during three all-expenses-paid journalism institutes, one for California journalists and two for journalists from across the nation.
Vermont Law School offers fellowships for members of the media to audit summer courses on environmental and animal law.
The World Federation of Science Journalists has an online course in science journalism in 10 languages, as well as a global listing of science journalism courses, workshops, and university degree programs. The listing is available in map or list form.
The Science Writing News Roundup is a weekly newsletter published by science writer Marianna Limas, who curates articles, workshops and other events, job and internship opportunities, podcasts and videos.
The National Association of Science Writers publishes a monthly newsletter and twice-annual magazine for NASW members.
The Association of Heath Care Journalists’ Covering Health blog reports on developments in health care journalism.
The Society of Environmental Journalists’ EJToday blog is a daily weekday digest of top environment/energy news and information of interest to environmental journalists.
Association of Health Care Journalists
Association of Science Communicators (formerly Science Talk)
National Association of Science Writers
Society of Environmental Journalists
Find a local/regional science writers’ group in the U.S. (also follow #SciWriCongress on Twitter)
Find a science journalism organization outside the U.S.
Organizations Outside the Science/Health/Environment Realm
Other organizations that many science journalists belong to include the Online News Association, Investigative Reporters and Editors, The Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
Many science journalists also belong to identity-based journalism organizations such as the National Assocation of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, the South Asian Journalists Association, NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, the Trans Journalists Association, and others. And many are part of informal collectives such as the DEI Coalition For Anti-Racist, Equitable, And Just Newsrooms, a Slack community hosted by Open News and Journalists of Color.
The AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards honor professional journalists for distinguished reporting on the sciences, engineering, and mathematics.
The American Association for Cancer Research’s June L. Biedler Prize for Cancer Journalism is open to print, broadcast, and online professional journalists whose stories appear in newspapers, magazines, websites, television, and auditory journalism platforms that target lay public audiences.
The American Geophysical Union David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism—News recognizes excellence in science news reporting. The AGU Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism—Features recognizes excellence in science feature reporting.
The American Institute of Physics’ Science Communication Awards honors work that improves the general public’s appreciation of the physical sciences, astronomy, math and related science fields. This award program is currently on hiatus.
The Association for Health Care Journalists Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism recognize the best health reporting in print, broadcast and online media.
The Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology accepts submissions from publishers, editors, readers, and writers for pieces about science, nature, or the environment that have been published by an American or Canadian publication.
The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing offers numerous awards, including its Sharon Begley Science Reporting Award, Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for early-career science journalists, Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting, and Taylor/Blakeslee Graduate Fellowships for students enrolled in U.S. graduate-level science writing programs.
The Knight Science Journalism program at MIT’s Victor K. McElheny Award recognizes outstanding local and regional journalism covering issues in science, public health, technology, or the environment.
The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communication, given by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in partnership with Schmidt Futures, present prizes to science journalists and research scientists who have developed creative, original work that addresses issues and advances in science, engineering, and/or medicine for the general public.
The National Association of Science Writers Science in Society Awards provide recognition for investigative or interpretive reporting about the sciences. The NASW Excellence in Institutional Writing Awards recognize high-caliber, publicly accessible science writing produced on behalf of an institution or other non-media organization.
The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation Awards recognize the tremendous contributions of researchers and journalists who brought to light new evidence that advances the health system and the health of Americans.
The PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award celebrates writing that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of physical and biological sciences.
The Society of Environmental Journalists Awards for Reporting on the Environment honor the best environmental journalism.
The National Association of Science Writers Peggy Girshman Idea Grants program provides grants ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 for projects and programs that are designed to help science writers in their professional lives and/or to benefit the field of science writing.
Media outlets that publish science stories, mostly U.S. & Canada, English-language is a public resource created by journalist Robin Lloyd.
SciComm Bites is a blog about the science of science communication.
Where do you begin as a science writer in India?, by Spoorthy Raman
Science Writing: Guidelines and Guidance, by Carl Zimmer
There are some categories of resources that we do not feature on this page, mainly because doing so in a complete or fair way is beyond our capacity. For example, the resource listings on this page do not include:
- Reporting fellowships/grants
- Internships
- Job advertisements
- Workshops and coaching services offered by individuals
- General journalism industry and craft resources that don’t especially pertain to science writing
- Degree programs in science writing outside the U.S.
- Books
- General journalism resources or awards that don’t particularly relate to science
- An exhaustive listing of training resources to help scientists be good communicators (a small number are included here and we hope this will be a useful starting place for those who wish to learn more)
