SCRIBE Program

Student writers are “recruited” via a general call for interest across the college once per year (usually each fall). Generally, the program accepts up to 20 new writers per year. Preference is given to students who will be in their program for at least one additional year. At the time of application, students must provide a general writing sample that is used to ensure that selected writers meet a minimum standard in terms of general writing ability (e.g., grammar, spelling, sentence structure). Students also indicate if they would like to pursue a PCDR badge or not (this is not mandatory, but we recommend it!) Selected students are then invited to participate in the program.

Selected students engage in a two training session. The format of this training has been online or hybrid since the pandemic, but now it's back in person. The training consists of 2 two-hour workshops led by communications experts or professional science journalists. The goals of the training session are to articulate why science communication is critical to research, assimilate and apply the inverted pyramid model style of writing, facilitate an interview with a researcher, and identify and implement general tips and tricks for communicating science. New writers also have the opportunity to chat with a more senior SCRIBE writer.

Once students have completed the training, they are free to sign up to write about new articles of interest published by CBS faculty. Each week, the CRM selects and posts new journal articles (based on Web of Science alerts) on a shared site (OneDrive) that can be accessed by all writers in the program. Students can “sign up” for the articles they wish to write about. Writers may also choose to write about new or upcoming publications from their lab that is not yet available in the Web of Science database.

Once a student has signed up for an article, they then have approximately 2 weeks to interview the faculty member or graduate student lead author and submit a draft to the CRM. The CRM will review and edit the article as necessary to ensure quality and a reasonable level of consistency and provide the writer with feedback. Once there is agreement and a near final draft, the student is responsible for sending the draft to the faculty member/grad student author to review and give final approval.

Approved stories are posted on the CBS website and shared via social media. Selected stories may also be featured in the CBS Research Insights magazine.

Students will be paid once a semester for all stories that have been completed and submitted during that period. Students receive $75 per article. CRM tracks the number of articles completed per student and liaises with the College Finance Manager to arrange these payments, which will be charged to the Dean’s Office.