Enter for the chance to attend the Better Science through Better Data 2017 event (#scidata17) in October, work with a Nature editor, and have your writing published here on Naturejobs and on the Scientific Data blog.
After a very successful event last year, we are again looking for five budding science writers to help with news coverage of this year’s Better Science through Better Data event.
Focussed on early career researchers, the day-long conference will explore, through researchers’ real experiences, the role research data plays in getting published and helping to advance careers. This year’s conference will again be held in partnership with Wellcome Trust, at the Wellcome Collection Building, on October 25th 2017.
The event will involve a number of keynote talks and shorter “lightning” talks from researchers and students presenting case studies of research data sharing, data reuse and associated tools in action. The five winners of the writing competition will be invited to attend the conference and be an official conference reporter for one of the sessions.
Winners will work closely with Nature Research editors in developing their report from the conference, and their work will be published here on Naturejobs and on the Scientific Data blog.
The competition is open to all unpublished*, currently enrolled undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate science students and post docs. Last year’s winners included entries from Australia to Canada to Bulgaria, showing there is no need to be London-based, but please do keep in mind that we can only cover limited travel expenses.
To enter the competition and stand a chance of being a journalist with Naturejobs for the day, please send the following to scientificdatareplies@nature.com:
- A short cover letter explaining why you want to be considered and what would make you a good science journalist.
- Your CV.
- A 600 word piece on one of the following topics:
- How can funding agencies and institutions support research data management?
- What is the role of journals and publishers in enabling data sharing?
- How will open science change scientists’ careers?
- How will open data advance scientific discovery?
The prizes are:
- The five winning and three top runner-up entries will be posted on the Naturejobs blog before the event.
- The five winners will get to attend Better Science through Better Data 2017.
- The winners’ reports of the conference will be published on the Naturejobs blog and the Scientific Data blogs.
- Winners will work with, and meet, Nature Research editors.
- Winners will get a one year free subscription to a Nature magazine of their choice.
The things you need to know BEFORE entering the competition:
- We can offer limited travel expenses (up to £200).
- The competition entries and content created will be used on the Naturejobs blog.
- The deadline for sending in your competition entries is 31 August 2017 at 9pm BST/5PM EST.
- You can send your competition entries to scientificdatareplies@nature.com
* A ‘published’ writer is a professional journalist. Bloggers and student journalists are welcome to enter.
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