SciComm Resources

Science communication is a skill you build, not a talent you’re born with — and most of the ways to build it are free, open to grad students and post-docs, and closer than you’d think.

Below you will find At Michigan which covers training programs, outreach groups, and campus resources you can utilize during your time at Michigan. Beyond Michigan covers a wider landscape of associations, fellowships, guides, and publications to explore.

If you find a broken link or a mishap, email us — this page is meant to evolve and be updated as our SciComm community grows.

On this page

• SciComm training at U-M
• Outreach & engagement at U-M
• Writing support at U-M
• Publish at Michigan
• Professional associations
• Fellowships & conferences
• Guides to science writing
• Ways to get writing practice
• Inclusive science communication
• Books

At Michigan

Programs open to U-M graduate students and post-docs.

Science communication training

Structured programs that teach SciComm craft and how to communicate with lay audiences.

• RELATESpeakingSummer cohort
  Researchers Expanding Lay-audience Teaching and Engagement. A science communication training program founded here that teaches researchers to build audience-centered talks. Runs a competitive summer workshop series, hosts Science by the Cup public events, and publishes its full curriculum for free download if you want to run a session in your own department.
• U-M Museum of Natural History Science Communication FellowsSpeakingFall & winter cohorts
  Five three-hour workshops on how people learn, facilitation, and activity design, followed by at least two “Scientist Spotlight” events at the Museum or Ann Arbor District Library. Open to faculty, post-docs, and graduate students. Cohorts run in both fall and winter semesters.
• MiSciComm workshops & editorial trainingThat’s usWritingOnce per semester
  Once a semester we run workshops on editing, illustrating, and translating into Korean, Spanish, and Chinese. Writing for the blog is itself training: each piece is developed with our editorial, illustration, and translation teams.
• Rackham CASE WorkshopPolicy
  Catalyzing Advocacy for Science and Engineering. Rackham sends four graduate students each year to the AAAS workshop in Washington, D.C., covering Congress, the federal budget and appropriations process, and communicating science to policy audiences.
• U-M Library: Science Outreach & Communication guide
  The library’s curated guide to SciComm literature, campus programs, and research on public engagement.

Outreach & public engagement

Volunteer programs at the intersection of outreach and SciComm.

• SEEK — Science Education & Engagement for KidsK–12 outreachMonthly
  Graduate students and post-docs run hands-on science activities in Ypsilanti Community School District elementary classrooms, which lack a dedicated science curriculum. Contact seek@umich.edu.
• Michigan DNA DayK–12 outreachOne day + training
  Early-career scientists visit Michigan high schools each spring to teach interactive lessons on genetics, genomics, and biotechnology, and to talk about their own research and career paths. Founded at U-M and now expanding statewide. Ambassador training is provided — you don’t need to be a geneticist.
• BrainsRule!K–12 outreachOne day
  A one-day reverse science fair each spring where over 100 local middle schoolers rotate through neuroscience booths run by U-M students. Volunteer at a booth or join a planning committee (schools, volunteers, finances, or education).
• FEMMESK–12 outreachYear-round
  Females/Women+ Excelling More in Math, Engineering and the Sciences. Year-round activities and capstone events introducing young women to STEM, staffed by U-M student and trainee volunteers.
• U-MYSciK–12 outreach
  Outreach to middle school students through Science Saturday Symposium day camps.
• Developing Future BiologistsTeaching
  A trainee-run organization that builds and teaches developmental biology curricula, including intensive courses delivered at partner institutions.
• Introduction to STEM Careers — Macomb Correctional FacilityTeaching
  Post-doc-led curriculum and discussion sessions at a men’s correctional facility, expanding STEM access to communities that rarely encounter working scientists. Contact prisonsciproj@umich.edu.
• U-M Museum of Natural History & Ann Arbor District LibrarySpeaking
  The two main public venues in town for researcher-led programming. Both host Scientist Spotlights and public talks, and both take proposals from researchers with an idea.

Writing support on campus

Not SciComm-specific, but Sweetland can assist with all forms of writing — including a pitch, an essay, or lay audience materials.

• Sweetland Writing WorkshopBy appointment
  One-to-one writing consultations with Sweetland faculty, by appointment.
• Dissertation Writing GroupsSemester
  Facilitated peer groups meeting through the term.
• Dissertation Writing InstituteCohort
  An intensive structured program for candidates in the writing stage. Competitive; applications open ahead of each term.
• Rackham/Sweetland WorkshopsOne-off sessions
  Joint short workshops on academic and professional writing offered throughout the year.

Publish at Michigan

Campus outlets that accept work from graduate students and post-docs.

• Pitch the MiSciComm blogThat’s us
  The easiest first byline for a U-M graduate student — see the blog workflow and FAQs before you pitch.
• EquilibriUM MagazineThat’s us
  Our print magazine, intersecting STEM and art. About EquilibriUM.
• Michigan Journal of Medicine
  A student-run, peer-reviewed journal at Michigan Medicine that also recruits student reviewers and editors.
• Auxocardia
  A U-M student publication at the intersection of medicine and the humanities, publishing narrative, essay, and visual work.
• cataLIST
  A U-M Chemistry graduate student publication covering department research and community for a general audience.

Beyond Michigan

The wider science communication landscape — associations, fellowships, guides, and outlets that publish graduate student work.

Professional associations

Most offer discounted student memberships with access to job boards, grants, and mentoring.

Science communication

• National Association of Science Writers (NASW)
  The main professional body for U.S. science writers. Student membership gets you the job board, grants, mentoring programs, and the annual ScienceWriters meeting.
• American Medical Writers Association (AMWA)
  Medical, regulatory, and health writing.
• Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW)
  Runs New Horizons in Science, the CASW Connector opportunity board, and fellowships for early-career writers.
• Society for Technical Communication (STC)
  Technical documentation and communication roles in industry.

Journalism associations

• National Association of Black Journalists · National Association of Hispanic Journalists · Asian American Journalists Association · Indigenous Journalists Association · NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists · Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association · South Asian Journalists Association
  Each runs conferences, mentorship, scholarships, and job boards. Student memberships are inexpensive and open to non-journalism majors.

Fellowships, scholarships, workshops & conferences

National opportunities to train, present, and connect — most with student rates or free student attendance.

• AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship
  A paid summer fellowship placing STEM graduate students and post-docs in newsrooms as working reporters. Applications typically open in winter.
• ComSciConFree for students
  Workshops organized by graduate students, for graduate students — an international workshop plus regional chapters. Free to attend thanks to sponsors. A ComSciCon-Michigan chapter has run in past years.
• SCOPE — Science Communication Online ProgrammeFree
  A remote, cohort-based program from Northwestern’s CIERA pairing participants with mentors to develop a SciComm project.
• The Open Notebook fellowships & mentoring
  TON runs periodic early-career fellowship and mentorship programs for science journalists. Check their current opportunities rather than an archived call.
• AMWA conference student scholarship
  Scholarships covering student attendance at AMWA’s annual conference.
• Inclusive SciComm Symposium
  A gathering centered on equity, access, and community in science communication.
• SACNAS National Diversity in STEM Conference
  A large annual conference with a substantial SciComm and professional development track, plus travel scholarships for students.
• NASW mentoring programs
  NASW runs virtual mentoring that pairs early-career writers with established science journalists.
• BU SciCommers Network
  A network out of Boston University connecting scientists interested in public communication.

Guides to science writing & communication

Reference material for the writing itself: pitching, structuring, de-jargonizing, and keeping up with the field.

• The Open Notebook
  Interviews, annotated stories, and detailed how-tos on science journalism craft. The Pitch Database has real successful pitches alongside the stories they became.
• Steven Pinker — “Why Academic Writing Stinks”
  On the curse of knowledge: why expertise makes your writing worse, and what to do about it.
• Pitch, Publish, Prosper
  The companion site to The Science Writers’ Handbook, run by the Writers of SciLance — posts on pitching, placing, and getting paid for freelance science stories.
• The Science of Science Communication (PNAS)
  A special issue on the evidence base for public engagement.
• De-JargonizerFree
  Paste in a paragraph and it flags the words most likely to lose a general audience.
• Up-Goer Five Text EditorFree
  Write using only the thousand most common English words.
• The Problem of Metaphor in Science Communication
  On how the analogies we reach for shape — and sometimes distort — what an audience takes away.
• Science Writing News Roundup
  A newsletter tracking jobs, calls for pitches, fellowships, and deadlines.
• NIH/NIAID — Careers in Science Communication
  An overview of what SciComm careers look like from inside a federal research agency.

Ways to get writing practice

Outlets that accept work from graduate students.

The “Bites” network — new papers, explained for non-specialists

• Astrobites · Chembites · Oceanbites · ParticleBites · Softbites · Evobites · SciCommBites · CRIS Bits
  Each site recruits graduate student writers to summarize new papers in their field. Low barrier, regular cadence, and real editing feedback.

General outlets

• Massive Science Consortium
  A network of scientist-writers with editorial support, pitching guidance, and paid opportunities for members.
• JSTOR Daily
  Publishes pieces connecting current stories to scholarship, and pays for accepted work.
• Small Things Considered
  The American Society for Microbiology’s long-running blog, open to contributed pieces.
• Elsevier lay summaries
  Plain-language summaries of papers with societal impact.
• Friends of Joe’s Big Idea (FOJBIs)
  NPR’s community of early-career scientists and science communicators.
• US History Scene
  A multimedia education outlet that accepts contributed writing, including history of science.

Inclusive science communication

Practices, source databases, and reading on who gets quoted and how stories get framed.

• Diverse Sources Database
  A searchable database of underrepresented experts in science, health, and environment.
• Guidelines for Inclusive Journalism
  A working document on language, framing, and sourcing.
• Inclusive SciComm (URI Metcalf Institute)
  Frameworks, reading, and community around equity-centered science communication.
• How Implicit Bias Works in Journalism — Nieman Reports
  On how framing and source selection shape a story before a word is written.
• Project Implicit · Implicit Bias (PBS)
  Self-assessment tools and a short explainer on how implicit associations form.

Books

• The Sense of Style — Steven Pinker
  A style guide grounded in how readers actually process prose.
• The Science Writers’ Handbook — Writers of SciLance
  Everything about the working life: pitching, contracts, rates, and the freelance business.
• A Field Guide for Science Writers — NASW
  The professional handbook, with chapters by working writers on beats, formats, and craft.
• Science Blogging: The Essential Guide — Wilcox, Brookshire & Goldman
  On building and sustaining an audience for your own platform.

Want to help maintain this page?

MiSciComm members keep this list current by adding new programs and retiring broken links. Join our team or email us.