ScienceWriters magazine

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ScienceWriters, Spring 2017

Communicating science to the public under Trump; the debut of Seek magazine; why news websites should embrace https; connecting children with science via storytelling; an update on WCSJ2017; and what happens when the IRS creates a "substitute" return for you. Full text visible to NASW members only.

Veteran science journalist Erika Check Hayden, senior reporter for Nature and a longtime lecturer in the science communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, became the program’s third director in January. Check Hayden was selected by a committee of UCSC faculty and alumni after a national search. She succeeds current director Robert Irion, who is retiring from the university after leading the program for 10 years.

Congratulations, you’ve been awarded a fellowship to the tune of $10,000. Don’t lose part of the largess by needlessly overpaying your self-employment tax. While you’re liable for income taxes on the $10,000, you’re not liable for self-employment taxes on the amount. How come? Because, like other writers, you aren’t in the business of receiving fellowships.

Scientists and professionals at research institutions eager to inform the public about their work need to go where the readers or, increasingly, the viewers are. Instead of driving traffic to their websites, a panel of public information officers, editors, and journalists recommend creating science content specifically for use on Snapchat, Facebook Live, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media outlets.

ScienceWriters, Winter 2016-17

Coverage of ScienceWriters2016 in San Antonio, Texas; a new director for the University of California at Santa Cruz science communication program; the David Perlman WCSJ2017 Travel Fellowship Fund for the 10th World Conference of Science Journalists in San Francisco; communicating science in the clickbait era; and reducing taxes on your fellowship income. Full text visible to NASW members only.

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) users must be geniuses. Fee categories. Pre-determination agency actions. Multitrack processing. Administrative appeals. Glomar responses. In some ways, the FOIA is as impenetrable as it is helpful, but a new resource wants to change all that: FOIA Wiki, which launched in beta Oct. 3.

ScienceWriters, Fall 2016

Commentaries on the proposed NASW constitutional amendment; NASW Board election results for 2016-18; science writers and playwrights collaborate in Seattle; 2016 Science in Society Awards, Clark/Payne and Victor Cohn Prize winners; a rundown on self-employment taxes; the birth of FOIA Wiki; and the death of SciLogs. Full text visible to NASW members only.